This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.

  80R3445 HLT-D
 
  By: Martinez Fischer H.B. No. 541
 
 
 
   
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to procedures for certain persons charged with an
administrative violation of a condition of release from the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice on parole or mandatory supervision.
       BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
       SECTION 1.  Section 508.254(c), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
       (c)(1)  Except as otherwise provided by this subsection,
pending [Pending] a hearing on a charge of parole violation,
ineligible release, or violation of a condition of mandatory
supervision, a person returned to custody shall remain confined.
             (2)  A magistrate of the county in which the person is
held in custody may release the person on bond pending the hearing
if:
                   (A)  the person is arrested only on a charge that
the person has committed an administrative violation of a condition
of release; and
                   (B)  the person has not been previously convicted
of:
                         (i)  an offense under Chapter 29, Penal
Code, or an offense under Title 5, Penal Code, punishable as a
felony; or
                         (ii)  an offense involving family violence,
as defined by Section 71.004, Family Code.
             (3)  The provisions of Chapters 17 and 22, Code of
Criminal Procedure, apply to a person released under this
subsection in the same manner as those provisions apply to a person
released pending an appearance before a court or magistrate, except
that the release under this subsection is conditioned on the
person's appearance at a hearing under this subchapter.
       SECTION 2.  Section 508.282(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
       (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), a parole panel, a
designee of the board, or the department shall dispose of the
charges against an inmate or person described by Section
508.281(a):
             (1)  before the 10th [41st] day after the date on which:
                   (A)  a warrant issued as provided by Section
508.251 is executed, if the inmate or person is arrested only on a
charge that the inmate or person has committed an administrative
violation of a condition of release, and the inmate or person is not
charged before the 10th [41st] day with the commission of an offense
described by Section 508.2811(2)(B); or
                   (B)  the sheriff having custody of an inmate or
person alleged to have committed an offense after release notifies
the department that:
                         (i)  the inmate or person has discharged the
sentence for the offense; or
                         (ii)  the prosecution of the alleged offense
has been dismissed by the attorney representing the state in the
manner provided by Article 32.02, Code of Criminal Procedure; or
             (2)  within a reasonable time after the date on which
the inmate or person is returned to the custody of the department,
if:
                   (A)  immediately before the return the inmate or
person was in custody in another state or in a federal correctional
system; or
                   (B)  the inmate or person is transferred to the
custody of the department under Section 508.284.
       SECTION 3.  Section 508.284, Government Code, is amended to
read as follows:
       Sec. 508.284.  TRANSFER PENDING REVOCATION HEARING.  The
department, as provided by Section 508.282(c), shall [may]
authorize a facility that is otherwise required to detain and house
an inmate or person to transfer the inmate or person to a
correctional facility operated by the department or under contract
with the department if[:
             [(1)  the department determines that adequate space is
available in the facility to which the inmate or person is to be
transferred; and
             [(2)]  the facility to which the inmate or person is to
be transferred is located not more than 50 [150] miles from the
facility from which the inmate or person is to be transferred.
       SECTION 4.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a person who on or after the effective date of this Act is charged
with a violation of the person's release on parole or mandatory
supervision. A person who before the effective date of this Act was
charged with a violation of release is governed by the law in effect
when the violation was charged, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
       SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.