BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 1550 |
By: Frank |
Corrections |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties contend that the detention of some inmates in county facilities at the instruction of the state places an undue financial hardship on the county because the detention period often exceeds the time it takes the county to process a transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. C.S.H.B. 1550 seeks to address this issue by entitling affected counties to reimbursement for certain costs of confinement.
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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. 1550 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to develop and implement a plan to effectively and efficiently take custody of and transport the following persons from a county jail not later than the fifth day after the date on which all processing required for transferring the person has been completed: an inmate confined in a county jail while under an order of commitment to the institutional division of TDCJ or a person who is released on parole or mandatory supervision or granted a conditional pardon and who is confined in a county jail after an ineligible release or only on a charge that the person has committed a violation of release.
C.S.H.B. 1550 entitles a county to reimbursement from TDCJ for the cost of confining such an inmate or person at a rate of $45 for each day the inmate or person remains confined beginning on the sixth day after the date on which all processing required for the inmate's transfer has been completed or beginning on the sixth day after the date on which the county's processing related to the person's transfer to TDCJ has been completed if the person is confined after an ineligible release or only on a charge that the person has committed an administrative violation of release, as applicable. This entitlement applies only to reimbursement for the cost of confinement of such an inmate that occurs on or after September 1, 2019, regardless of whether all processing required for the inmate's transfer to TDCJ is completed before, on, or after September 1, 2019, and to a person who is arrested on or after September 1, 2019, as applicable. The bill authorizes a county judge to request reimbursement by submitting to the comptroller of public accounts a statement of the amount for which the county is entitled to reimbursement and requires the comptroller on receipt of such a statement from a county to reimburse the county in the amount requested from funds appropriated to TDCJ.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2017.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1550 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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