By: White (Senate Sponsor - Flores) H.B. No. 3689
         (In the Senate - Received from the House May 6, 2019;
  May 7, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
  Justice; May 15, 2019, reported favorably by the following vote:  
  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the office of the inspector general of the Texas
  Juvenile Justice Department.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Sections 659.303(a) and (d), Government Code,
  are amended to read as follows:
         (a)  The department may include hazardous duty pay in the
  compensation paid to an individual for services rendered during a
  month if the individual:
               (1)  has:
                     (A)  routine direct contact with youth:
                           (i) [(A)]  placed in a residential facility
  of the department; or
                           (ii) [(B)]  released under the department's
  supervision; and
                     (B) [(2)  has] completed at least 12 months of
  lifetime service credit not later than the last day of the preceding
  month; or
               (2)  is an investigator, inspector general, security
  officer, or apprehension specialist employed by the office of the
  inspector general of the department.
         (d)  Except for the inclusion of hazardous duty pay in the
  compensation paid to an individual described by Subsection (a)(2),
  the [The] department may not pay hazardous duty pay:
               (1)  from funds authorized for payment of an
  across-the-board employee salary increase; or
               (2)  to an employee who works at the department's
  central office.
         SECTION 2.  Section 242.102(a), Human Resources Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (a)  The office of inspector general is established at the
  department under the direction of the board as a law enforcement
  agency for the purpose of [investigating]:
               (1)  preventing and investigating:
                     (A)  crimes committed by department employees,
  including parole officers employed by or under a contract with the
  department; and
                     (B) [(2)]  crimes and delinquent conduct
  committed at a facility operated by the department, a residential
  facility operated by another entity under a contract with the
  department, or any facility in which a child committed to the
  custody of the department is housed or receives medical or mental
  health treatment, including:
                           (i)  unauthorized or illegal entry into a
  department facility;
                           (ii)  the introduction of contraband into a
  department facility;
                           (iii)  escape from a secure facility; and
                           (iv)  organized criminal activity; and
               (2)  investigating complaints received under Section
  203.010 involving allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of
  children in juvenile justice programs or facilities.
         SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
 
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