SRC-BWC H.B. 598 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research CenterH.B. 598 By: Goodman (Harris) Criminal Justice 5/10/2001 Committee Report (Amended) DIGEST AND PURPOSE The community justice assistance division (division) of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice allocates funds to community supervision and corrections departments that supervise or help rehabilitate the more than 440,000 offenders in Texas who are currently serving sentences under community supervision rather than in prison. These departments receive approximately 65 percent of their operating budgets from the Texas Legislature. They also receive funds from their local governments and by collecting court-ordered fees from offenders. The maximum fees collected from offenders have not been increased for years, which has resulted in more costs for local governments. H.B. 598 raises the maximum monthly fees that local governments may charge defendants during their supervision period. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 19(a), Article 42.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, to require a judge granting community supervision, except as otherwise provided by this section, to fix a fee of not less than $25 and not more than $60, rather than $40, per month to be paid to the court by the defendant during the community supervision period. SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2001.