BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 4441

By: Neave

Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

There have been calls for detailed reporting on reductions of state jail felony punishments to misdemeanor punishments to provide the state with information on the types of offenses for which defendants receive these reductions and possible trends regarding the reductions. Further, there have been calls for detailed reporting on placements into pretrial diversion and pretrial intervention programs to measure the impact and effectiveness of these programs. C.S.H.B. 4441 seeks to provide for this reporting by requiring the Texas Judicial Council to request such information from court officials for these purposes.

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. 4441 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Judicial Council, in accordance with its authority to require court officials to comply with reasonable requirements for supplying specified statistics, to request certain statistics related to reductions by courts of state jail felony punishment to Class A misdemeanor punishment and the number of defendants placed in a pretrial diversion or pretrial intervention program.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 4441 differs from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways by conforming to certain bill drafting conventions.