By West, et al.                                       S.B. No. 1576
         76R2680 GWK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to notifying local law enforcement of the release of
 1-3     certain gang members from the institutional division of the Texas
 1-4     Department of Criminal Justice.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter C, Chapter 499, Government Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Section 499.051 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 499.051.  NOTIFICATION OF RELEASE OF GANG MEMBER.  (a)
 1-9     On the release of an inmate determined by the department to be a
1-10     member of a security threat group, the department shall notify the
1-11     sheriff of the county to which the inmate is released and, if the
1-12     inmate is released to a municipality, the chief of police for that
1-13     municipality.  The notice must state the date on which the inmate
1-14     was released and state that the inmate has been determined by the
1-15     department to be a member of a security threat group.
1-16           (b)  If the department is required by Section 508.115 to
1-17     notify a sheriff before the release of the inmate, the department
1-18     shall include the information described by Subsection (a) with the
1-19     notice provided under Section 508.115.
1-20           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-21     to the notification of the release of an inmate who is to be
1-22     released on or after September 15, 1999.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.