BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.S.B. 578 |
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By: Hinojosa |
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Corrections |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties contend that there is a wide disparity between the number of Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) reentry coordinators and the number of individuals who leave TDCJ each year. This disparity, they assert, makes it nearly impossible for the coordinators to provide meaningful information, counseling, or resources to those individuals, many of whom desperately need housing and employment assistance. The parties note that individuals leaving TDCJ also need contact information for the agencies that will provide them with medical care and mental health care. These parties emphasize that many of these individuals could help themselves if they only had access to relevant, up-to-date, county-specific information about reentry services. C.S.S.B. 578 seeks to make such information more readily accessible.
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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.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.S.B. 578 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to identify organizations that provide reentry and reintegration resource guides and to collaborate with those organizations to prepare a resource guide that is to be made available to all inmates. The bill requires TDCJ, at a minimum, to collaborate with nonprofit entities that specialize in criminal justice issues, faith-based organizations, and organizations that offer pro bono legal services to inmates or that are composed of the families and friends of inmates. The bill requires TDCJ to make the resource guide available in the Windham School District libraries and in each correctional facility peer educator classroom, chapel, reintegration specialist office, and any area or classroom that TDCJ uses for the purpose of providing information about reentry to inmates. The bill requires TDCJ to make available a sufficient number of copies of the resource guide to ensure that each inmate is able to access a guide in a timely manner.
C.S.S.B. 578 requires TDCJ to identify organizations with which to collaborate that provide county-specific information and to collaborate with those organizations to compile county-specific information packets for inmates. The bill requires TDCJ, within the 180-day period preceding the date an inmate will discharge the inmate's sentence or is released on parole, mandatory supervision, or conditional pardon, to provide the inmate with a county-specific information packet for the county that the inmate designates as the inmate's intended residence. The bill requires a county-specific information packet to include for the applicable county, at the minimum, information necessary for the inmate to apply for governmental assistance or benefits and contact information of workforce offices, housing options, places of worship, support groups, peer-to-peer counseling groups, relevant agencies or organizations as determined by TDCJ and the collaborating organization, agencies and organizations that offer emergency assistance, and agencies and organizations that offer mental health counseling.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF SENATE ENGROSSED AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.S.B. 578 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 engrossed and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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