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79R7969 RMB-D
By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 1129
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority to require a convicted person to perform
manual labor for certain public purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 43.10, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
Art. 43.10. MANUAL LABOR. Where the punishment assessed in
a conviction for misdemeanor is confinement in jail for more than
one day, or where in such conviction the punishment is assessed only
at a pecuniary fine and the party so convicted is unable to pay the
fine and costs adjudged against him, or where the party is sentenced
to jail for a felony or is confined in jail after conviction of a
felony, the party convicted shall be required to work in the county
jail industries program or shall be required to do manual labor in
accordance with the provisions of this article under the following
rules and regulations:
1. Each commissioners court may provide for the erection of
a workhouse and the establishment of a county farm in connection
therewith for the purpose of utilizing the labor of said parties so
convicted;
2. Such farms and workhouses shall be under the control and
management of the sheriff, and the sheriff may adopt such rules and
regulations not inconsistent with the rules and regulations of the
Commission on Jail Standards and with the laws as the sheriff deems
necessary;
3. Such overseers and guards may be employed by the sheriff
under the authority of the commissioners court as may be necessary
to prevent escapes and to enforce such labor, and they shall be paid
out of the county treasury such compensation as the commissioners
court may prescribe;
4. They shall be put to labor upon public works and
maintenance projects, including public works and maintenance
projects for a political subdivision located in whole or in part in
the county or for a nonprofit organization that provides services
to the general public that enhance the social welfare and the
general well-being of the community;
5. One who from age, disease, or other physical or mental
disability is unable to do manual labor shall not be required to
work. His inability to do manual labor may be determined by a
physician appointed for that purpose by the county judge or the
commissioners court, who shall be paid for such service such
compensation as said court may allow; and
6. For each day of manual labor, in addition to any other
credits allowed by law, a defendant is entitled to have one day
deducted from each sentence he is serving. The deduction
authorized by this article, when combined with the deduction
required by Article 42.10 of this code, may not exceed two-thirds
(2/3) of the sentence.
SECTION 2. Subchapter E, Chapter 497, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 497.0921 to read as follows:
Sec. 497.0921. WATERWAY IMPROVEMENT. (a) The board and a
county may enter into and perform an agreement or contract for the
use of inmate labor for a state waterway improvement project.
(b) The board may agree or contract under this section for
the use of labor only by inmates who are serving sentences for
nonviolent offenses.
(c) An agreement or contract entered into under this section
and payments made under the agreement or contract must conform with
Chapter 771.
SECTION 3. Article 43.10, Code of Criminal Procedure, as
amended by this Act, applies to a person who is convicted of an
offense with respect to which that article applies, regardless of
whether the conviction occurs before, on, or after the effective
date of this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2005.