By: Ellis  S.B. No. 453
         (In the Senate - Filed February 5, 2007; February 21, 2007,
  read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
  April 26, 2007, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 5,
  Nays 0; April 26, 2007, sent to printer.)
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the testing of certain inmates for HIV or AIDS.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 501.054, Government Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (g) and (i) and adding Subsection (j) to read
  as follows:
         (g)  The department shall maintain the confidentiality of
  test results of an inmate indicating HIV infection at all times,
  including after the inmate's discharge, release from a state jail,
  or release on parole or mandatory supervision.  The department
  [and] may not honor the request of an agency of the state or any
  person who requests a test result as a condition of housing or
  supervising the inmate while the inmate is on community supervision
  or parole or mandatory supervision, unless honoring the request
  would improve the ability of the inmate to obtain essential health
  and social services.
         (i)  The department [institutional division] may test an
  inmate confined in a facility operated by the correctional
  institutions division for human immunodeficiency virus at any time,
  but must test:
               (1)  during the diagnostic process, an inmate for whom
  the department does not have a record of a positive test result; and
               (2)  an inmate who is eligible for release before the
  inmate is released from the division.
         (j)  If the department [institutional division] determines
  that an inmate has a positive test result, the department 
  [division] may segregate the inmate from other inmates. The
  department [institutional division] shall report the results of a
  positive test to the Department of State Health Services for the
  purposes of notification and reporting as described by Sections
  81.050-81.052, Health and Safety Code.
         SECTION 2.  Subsection (i), Section 501.054, Government
  Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to an inmate with respect
  to whom the Texas Department of Criminal Justice begins the
  diagnostic process on or after the effective date of this Act. An
  inmate with respect to whom the department begins the diagnostic
  process before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law
  in effect at the time the department began the diagnostic process,
  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
         SECTION 3.  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, 2007.
 
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