BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1383

By: Rose

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

After a patient is found incompetent to stand trial, they undergo competency restoration and are sent back to jail to wait for a trial date. However, Dallas County's waitlist for competency restoration facilities or a trial date after competency restoration has significantly increased in recent years. As reported in a letter from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office addressed to the Office of Attorney General and the Health and Human Services Commission, the county's waitlist for a hospital bed or facility, as of December 31, 2022, had 382 individuals awaiting transfer to state facilities for competency restoration. As such, individuals end up waiting in jail for longer than their original offense would have had them serve. Concerns have been raised that this results in a cycle where those individuals who have gone through competency restoration are deteriorating before they even receive a trial date, putting them back in a state where they can no longer stand trial once more. This overcrowds jails and state hospitals, which fails to help the individuals and costs the counties and state money. H.B. 1383 seeks to address this issue by establishing deadlines to set trial dates for defendants who are competent to stand trial and procedures for the enforcement of requirements for counsel to timely meet and confer with such defendants.

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

H.B. 1383 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require a court, not later than the 30th day after the date that a defendant is found competent to stand trial, to set a trial date for the case. The bill authorizes a court to replace with other counsel an attorney who fails to timely meet and confer with a defendant who is found competent to stand trial as required by state law and authorizes a majority of the judges of the county courts and statutory county courts or the district courts, as appropriate, trying criminal cases in the county to remove from consideration for appointment an attorney who intentionally or repeatedly violates the requirement to timely meet and confer with such a defendant.

H.B. 1383 authorizes the judge presiding over the criminal proceedings or the director of a managed assigned counsel program, as applicable, to disapprove a payment requested for services performed for a case in which the appointed counsel fails to timely meet and confer with a defendant who is found competent to stand trial. The bill requires the presiding judge or director, as applicable, on the appointed counsel's compliance with the meet and confer requirement, to pay to the counsel the amount otherwise approved under state law and prohibits the judge or director from continuing to disapprove the requested payment based solely on the disapproval of a requested payment to counsel who fails to comply with the meet and confer requirement. The bill's provisions relating to criminal procedures after a defendant is found competent to stand trial apply to a criminal case in which the indictment or information is filed before, on, or after the bill's effective date.

H.B. 1383 amends the Government Code to make papers filed with and proceedings held before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct in connection with the investigation and resolution of the following complaints filed with the commission public information:

· a complaint alleging a judge failed to timely notify the state's attorney or the attorney for the defendant of a defendant's return as required by state law; and

· a complaint alleging a judge failed to timely set a trial date for a case as required by the bill's provisions.

This provision applies to a complaint filed on or after the bill's effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.