78R7809 GWK-D

By:  Allen                                                        H.B. No. 1855



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to state compensation to counties based on the use of 
alternatives to revocation of community supervision.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Chapter 509, Government Code, is amended by 
adding Section 509.0111 to read as follows:
	Sec. 509.0111.  REWARDS FOR USE OF ALTERNATIVES TO 
REVOCATION.  (a)  The division, from an amount otherwise spent on 
confining in state jail felony facilities persons convicted of 
possessing less than one gram of a controlled substance listed in 
Penalty Group 1, shall make payments to a county served by a 
department in the manner provided by this section.  A payment made 
under this section does not reduce payments to be made under Section 
509.011.
	(b)  Each year, the division shall make a payment to each 
county based on the average number of felony convictions in the 
county for the four-year period preceding the calendar year in 
which the payment is made, including felony convictions in which 
the defendant was placed on community supervision.
	(c)  Money received by a county under this section may be 
used only to:
		(1)  reimburse the Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice, at a rate to be determined by the Criminal Justice Policy 
Council, for each revocation of the community supervision of an 
individual convicted of a felony, other than a revocation based on 
the commission of a new offense punishable by confinement or 
imprisonment; or
		(2)  establish and maintain a program that provides 
alternatives to imprisonment of convicted felons, or supplement any 
existing program provided by the county or a department serving the 
county that provides alternatives to imprisonment of convicted 
felons.
	(d)  A county is not required to reimburse the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice as otherwise required by Subsection 
(c)(1) during any year in which the number of convictions in the 
county of the felony for which the defendant is imprisoned in the 
institutional division or confined in a state jail felony facility 
is less than one-tenth of one percent of the number of convictions 
of that felony in the entire state.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2003.