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79R385 SGA-D
By: Hopson H.B. No. 139
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the hazardous duty performed by certain custodial
officers of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter L, Chapter 659, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 659.3071 to read as follows:
Sec. 659.3071. LIFETIME SERVICE CREDIT FOR CERTAIN
CUSTODIAL OFFICERS. (a) In the computation of an individual's
lifetime service credit under Section 659.307(a), the individual is
entitled to include as months served in a hazardous duty position
any months that the individual served as an employee of the Texas
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation at the maximum
security unit of Rusk State Hospital before July 1, 1988, if the
individual:
(1) was authorized under the General Appropriations
Act for a step increase in pay for the individual's service at Rusk
State Hospital before July 1, 1988; and
(2) on September 1, 2005, is employed by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice as a custodial officer:
(A) as defined by Section 811.001; or
(B) who satisfies the definition of custodial
officer under Section 811.001, except that the individual is a
retiree.
(b) An individual entitled to additional lifetime service
credit under Subsection (a) is not entitled to retroactive pay for
that service.
SECTION 2. Section 811.001(8), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(8) "Custodial officer" means a member of the
retirement system who is employed by the Board of Pardons and
Paroles or the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a parole
officer or caseworker or who is employed by the institutional
division or the state jail division of the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice and certified by the department as having a normal
job assignment that requires frequent or infrequent regularly
planned contact with, and in close proximity to, inmates of the
institutional division or inmates or defendants confined in the
state jail division without the protection of bars, doors, security
screens, or similar devices and includes assignments normally
involving supervision or the potential for supervision of inmates
in inmate housing areas, educational or recreational facilities,
industrial shops, kitchens, laundries, medical areas, agricultural
shops or fields, or in other areas on or away from property of the
institutional division or the state jail division. The term
includes a member who transfers from the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice to the managed health care unit of The University
of Texas Medical Branch or the Texas Tech University Health
Sciences Center pursuant to Section 9.01, Chapter 238, Acts of the
73rd Legislature, 1993, elects at the time of transfer to retain
membership in the retirement system, and is certified by the
managed health care unit or the health sciences center as having a
normal job assignment described by this subdivision. The term
includes a person who received a step increase in pay under the
General Appropriations Act as an employee of the Texas Department
of Mental Health and Mental Retardation at the maximum security
unit of Rusk State Hospital before July 1, 1988, and who, on
September 1, 2005, is employed as a custodial officer by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice and is not a retiree.
SECTION 3. Section 813.506(b), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(b) Except as provided by Section 813.5061, to [To] be
creditable as custodial officer service, service performed must be
performed as a parole officer or caseworker or must meet the
requirements of the rules adopted under Subsection (a) and be
performed by persons in one of the following job categories:
(1) all persons classified as Correctional Officer I
through warden, including training officers and special operations
reaction team officers;
(2) all other employees assigned to work on a unit and
whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants
confined in the state jail division, including but not limited to
farm managers, livestock supervisors, maintenance foremen, shop
foremen, medical assistants, food service supervisors, stewards,
education consultants, commodity specialists, and correctional
counselors;
(3) employees assigned to administrative offices
whose jobs require routine contact with inmates or defendants
confined in the state jail division at least 50 percent of the time,
including but not limited to investigators, compliance monitors,
accountants routinely required to audit unit operations,
sociologists, interviewers, classification officers, and
supervising counselors; and
(4) administrative positions whose jobs require
response to emergency situations involving inmates or defendants
confined in the state jail division, including but except as
specified not limited to the director, deputy directors, assistant
directors, and not more than 25 administrative duty officers.
SECTION 4. Subchapter F, Chapter 813, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 813.5061 to read as follows:
Sec. 813.5061. CUSTODIAL OFFICER SERVICE CREDIT FOR CERTAIN
EMPLOYEES. A custodial officer entitled to additional months of
lifetime service credit under Section 659.3071 is entitled to
include those same months as months of creditable custodial officer
service under Section 813.506.
SECTION 5. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice shall
adopt not later than January 1, 2006, any rules that are necessary
to implement the changes required by Sections 659.3071 and
813.5061, Government Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.