BILL ANALYSIS |
|
C.S.H.B. 3726 |
|
By: Farias |
|
Defense & Veterans' Affairs |
|
Committee Report (Substituted) |
|
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note that when veterans return home they have to combat emotional and physical issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, making it difficult to return to a normal civilian life. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol are often used as coping mechanisms for those issues, and many of the veterans who enter the criminal justice system deal with prescription drug or substance abuse issues. C.S.H.B. 3726 seeks to help rehabilitate these veterans and aid in their transition out of incarceration.
|
||||||||
|
CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
|
||||||||
|
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
|
||||||||
|
ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 3726 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to establish a veterans services coordinator to coordinate responses to the needs of veterans under the supervision of TDCJ, including veterans who are released on parole or mandatory supervision. The bill requires the coordinator, with the cooperation of the community justice assistance division of TDCJ, to provide information to community supervision and corrections departments to help those departments coordinate responses to the needs of veterans placed on community supervision. The bill requires the coordinator to coordinate veterans' services for all of TDCJ's divisions and, in collaboration with the attorney general's office, to provide each incarcerated veteran a child support modification application.
C.S.H.B. 3726 requires TDCJ to establish a voluntary rehabilitation and transition program for defendants confined in state jail felony facilities who are veterans of the U.S. armed forces and who suffer from a brain injury, a mental illness, a mental disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance abuse that occurred during or resulted from the veteran's military service and may have contributed to their criminal activity. The bill requires the program to house defendants participating in the program in housing designed to mimic the squadron structure familiar to veterans; to provide rehabilitation programming in developing healthy relationships, anger management techniques, and substance abuse treatment; and, to the extent feasible and not later than the 30th day before the date a defendant participating in the program is released or discharged from TDCJ, to match the defendant with a veteran peer coordinator who is certified as a peer services provider through the Military Veteran Peer Network for assisting the defendant in transitioning into the community and to transfer the defendant to a state jail facility located near the defendant's home community or the community in which the defendant intends to reside after the defendant's release or discharge to begin establishing transition relationships with the veteran peer coordinator and family members.
|
||||||||
|
EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2015.
|
||||||||
|
COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 3726 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
|
||||||||
|