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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