BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 484

By: Meza

County Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

While suicides inside Texas jails have reportedly plateaued in recent years, they still account for an unreasonable amount of all deaths within our jail system. These suicides are preventable and the state has a responsibility to reduce these deaths. C.S.H.B. 484 seeks to prevent these deaths by setting out requirements for municipal jails relating to suicide prevention in order to ensure proper procedures are in place to identify, document, and handle a potentially suicidal inmate.

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. 484 amends the Local Government Code to require a municipal jail to do the following:

· conduct and document mental health screenings during the intake process in accordance with the procedures adopted by the Commission on Jail Standards for county jails;

· install cameras in the hall directly outside the cell of any person who is identified as potentially suicidal;

· regularly check on each person confined in the jail who is identified as potentially suicidal; and

· report to the attorney general, in the manner prescribed by the attorney general, any incident involving the suicide or attempted suicide of a person confined in the jail not later than 48 hours after the incident.

The attorney general may use that reported information only for purposes of data collection and analysis.

C.S.H.B. 484 also requires a municipal jail to provide two hours of training to each jailer or person responsible for the supervision of a person confined in the jail on the procedures for identifying, documenting, and handling a person who is potentially suicidal or has a mental health condition. The bill exempts from this requirement a municipal jail that requires those individuals to complete a municipal jailer training or certification course as a condition of employment.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 484 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 substitute includes a specification absent in the introduced that the conducting and documenting of mental health screenings during the intake process be in accordance with the procedures adopted by the Commission on Jail Standards for county jails.

Whereas the introduced provided for the housing in a cell with cameras of any person who is identified as potentially suicidal, the substitute instead provides for the installation of cameras in the hall directly outside the cell of any person who is identified as such.

The substitute includes an exemption absent in the introduced from the bill's training requirement for a municipal jail that requires applicable individuals to complete a municipal jailer training or certification course as a condition of employment.