BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 2688

By: Metcalf

Juvenile Justice & Family Issues

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Reports indicate the successful implementation in recent years of veterans treatment courts, which provide veterans with substance abuse issues another avenue to address their addiction outside of the prison system. H.B. 2688 seeks to extend this flexibility to address addiction in individuals that reside with a child who has been the subject of a juvenile court case.

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

H.B. 2688 amends the Government Code to authorize the commissioners court of a county to establish a juvenile family drug court program for individuals who are suspected by the Department of Family and Protective Services or the court of having a substance abuse problem and who reside in the home of a child who is the subject of a case filed under the juvenile justice code. The bill prescribes certain essential characteristics of a juvenile family drug court program and authorizes such a program to require a participant to pay the cost of all treatment and services received while participating in the program, based on the participant's ability to pay. The bill requires a county that creates a juvenile family drug court to explore the possibility of using court improvement project money to finance the county's juvenile family drug court and to explore the availability of federal and state matching money to finance the court.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.