BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 618 |
By: Leach |
Corrections |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties are concerned that there is insufficient communication from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to criminal justice agencies regarding certain TDCJ releasees. C.S.H.B. 618 seeks to address this issue by providing for certain notices and information regarding those releasees.
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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.H.B. 618 amends the Government Code to change from the pardons and paroles division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to the Board of Pardons and Paroles the entity required to, not later than the 11th day after the date the board recommends that the governor grant executive clemency to an individual, notify the sheriff, each chief of police, the prosecuting attorneys, and the district judges in the county in which the individual was convicted that the governor is considering clemency. The bill requires the board, if the prosecution of a case was originated in a county other than the county in which the conviction occurred, to also notify such officers who serve the originating county, subject to the same deadline. The bill includes the individual's age, sex, and race in the required notice content, specifies that the required inclusion of the individual's photograph applies if the photo is available, and requires the notices to be provided by e-mail or other electronic communication. The bill expands the required contents of the notice given by the pardons and paroles division to applicable sheriffs, chiefs of police, prosecuting attorneys, and district judges in relation to the release on parole of an inmate to include the inmate's age, sex, and race; a photograph of the inmate; and, if applicable, the address at which the inmate will reside, the name of the inmate's parole supervisor or the director of the halfway house to which the inmate is transferred, as appropriate, and the rules or conditions of the inmate's release. These provisions apply only to a recommendation by the board that the governor grant executive clemency that is made on or after, and the consideration by a parole panel of the release of an inmate or the transfer of an inmate to a halfway house that occurs on or after, January 1, 2018.
C.S.H.B. 618 requires the pardons and paroles division to establish not later than January 1, 2018, and maintain a database for the purpose of providing real time information about releasees to criminal justice agencies. The bill sets out the identifying information about a releasee the database must contain, to the extent that the information is available, and requires the database to be updated as soon as practicable after a parole officer learns of a change in any such information. The bill authorizes the division, in establishing the database, to utilize an existing database that is maintained by TDCJ.
C.S.H.B. 618 requires TDCJ to provide notice of a warrant issued on or after January 1, 2018, in a case of parole or mandatory supervision to each law enforcement agency whose jurisdiction includes the residence of the releasee, according to TDCJ records.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 618 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.
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