BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

C.S.H.B. 479

By: Hinojosa

Corrections

Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

State law provides for the commitment of a defendant for purposes of competency restoration services to certain facilities and related procedures, but there are concerns that this well‑established law may be largely unenforced. Across the state, incompetent defendants are waiting months, sometimes longer, to be transferred to a facility for restoration. According to the House Appropriations Committee hearing held on February 15, 2023, there are defendants waiting more than 900 days in Dallas County Jail for competency restoration. In that hearing, the Health and Human Services Commission reported that though the state has 2,911 funded state hospital beds, there are over 700 funded beds currently offline due to staffing issues. In sum, there are approximately 2,400 people waiting in jail to access competency restoration services. And the Houston Chronicle reported in February that the average wait time for non‑maximum security individuals was 272 days, while the average wait time for maximum security individuals is 621 days. It is unacceptable that individuals are sitting in jail waiting for services for so long. C.S.H.B. 479 seeks to address this issue by requiring the Health and Human Services Commission to take custody of defendants awaiting transfer to certain mental health facilities within a prescribed period and to provide services to the defendant and compensation to the applicable county if the agency does not do so.   

 

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. 479 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to take custody of a defendant who is awaiting transfer for competency restoration services to a mental health facility operated by or under contract with HHSC not later than the 21st day following the date the court delivered a signed order of commitment to the applicable facility.

 

C.S.H.B. 479 requires HHSC, if it does not take custody of a defendant awaiting transfer for competency restoration services within the prescribed period, to do the following:

·         evaluate the overall health of the defendant in person at least once a week until the defendant is transferred to the appropriate mental health facility; and

·         compensate the county for the cost of confinement for each day that the defendant remains confined in the county jail following the expiration of that period.

The bill requires that compensation to be equal to the amount that would have been incurred by HHSC to confine the defendant for that period.

 

C.S.H.B. 479 applies to a defendant for whom an order of commitment is issued before, on, or after the bill's effective date. The bill establishes that for a defendant who, on the bill's effective date, is confined in a county jail and awaiting transfer to a mental health facility under an order of commitment, the 21-day period for HHSC to take custody of the defendant begins on the bill's effective date.

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2023.

 

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

 

While C.S.H.B. 479 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

 

The introduced set a deadline by which a defendant who is committed to a mental health facility or residential care facility for competency services must be transported to the facility at not later than the 21st day following the date the court ordered the commitment and required the court to commit the defendant, if the facility does not have a space available, to another facility providing competency restoration services or in a jail-based competency restoration program. The substitute does not set this deadline or include this requirement.

 

Instead, the substitute requires HHSC to take custody of a defendant awaiting transfer to a mental health facility operated by or under contract with HHSC not later than the 21st day following the date the court delivered a signed order of commitment, including certain information, to the applicable facility. The substitute also includes a requirement for HHSC, if it does not take custody of the defendant within that prescribed period, to do the following:

·         evaluate the overall health of the defendant in person at least once a week until the defendant is transferred to the appropriate mental health facility; and

·         compensate the county for the cost of confinement for each day that the defendant remains confined in the county jail following the expiration of that period.

This requirement did not appear in the introduced.

 

While the introduced applied to a proceeding concerning incompetency to stand trial that commences on or after the bill's effective date, the substitute applies to a defendant for whom an order of commitment is issued before, on, or after the bill's effective date.

 

The substitute includes a provision absent from the introduced that establishes that, for a defendant who is confined in a county jail on the bill's effective date and awaiting transfer to a mental health facility under an order of commitment, the 21-day period for HHSC to take custody of the defendant, as required in the substitute, begins on the bill's effective date.