1-1     By:  Whitmire                                         S.B. No. 1607
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     April 19, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 19, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1607                 By:  Jackson
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the establishment of infant care and parenting programs
1-11     in the Texas Youth Commission.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 61, Human Resources Code,
1-14     is amended by adding Section 61.0762 to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 61.0762.  INFANT CARE AND PARENTING PROGRAM.  (a)  The
1-16     commission may establish infant care and parenting programs for
1-17     children who are parents.
1-18           (b)  The commission may permit a child who is the mother of
1-19     an infant younger than 36 months to have possession of her infant
1-20     in a residential program that has an infant care and parenting
1-21     program until the infant reaches the age of 36 months or the mother
1-22     is released under supervision if:
1-23                 (1)  the infant's father or another relative or
1-24     guardian of the infant agrees in advance of the infant's placement
1-25     with the infant's mother to assume possession of the infant
1-26     immediately upon notice by the commission to do so;
1-27                 (2)  the infant's parents and any other person having a
1-28     duty of support acknowledge that by permitting the mother to have
1-29     possession of the infant while the mother is confined in a
1-30     residential facility, the commission assumes no responsibility for
1-31     the infant's care beyond the responsibility of care that is
1-32     ordinarily due the infant's mother and the reasonable
1-33     accommodations that are necessary for the mother's care of the
1-34     infant;
1-35                 (3)  the infant's parents and any other person having a
1-36     duty of support agree to indemnify and hold the commission harmless
1-37     from any claims that may be made against the commission for the
1-38     infant's support, including medical support; and
1-39                 (4)  the commission determines that the placement is in
1-40     the best interest of both the mother and her infant.
1-41           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-46                                  * * * * *