By Staples                                            H.B. No. 2971
         76R1556 AJA-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the training required to be appointed as a county
 1-3     jailer.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 415.054, Government Code, is amended by
 1-6     amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as
 1-7     follows:
 1-8           (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (d), a [A] person may
 1-9     not be appointed as a county jailer, except on a temporary basis,
1-10     unless the person has satisfactorily completed a preparatory
1-11     program of training in the operation of a county jail at a school
1-12     operated or licensed by the commission.  If a county jailer
1-13     appointed on a temporary basis does not satisfactorily complete the
1-14     program, as prescribed by the commission, before one year after the
1-15     date that the person is originally appointed, the person shall be
1-16     removed from the position.  A temporary employment may not exceed
1-17     one year and may not be renewed, except that not earlier than one
1-18     year after a person is removed under this subsection the sheriff
1-19     may petition the commission for reinstatement of the person to
1-20     temporary employment.
1-21           (d)  A person trained and certified by the Texas Department
1-22     of Criminal Justice to serve as a corrections officer in that
1-23     agency's institutional or state jail division is not required to
1-24     complete the training requirements of this section and is not
 2-1     required to be licensed by the commission under Section 415.051 to
 2-2     be appointed a part-time county jailer.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-4           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.