BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 663

By: Huffman

Corrections

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, a community supervision and corrections department's (CSCD) budget and strategic plan must be approved by the judges who established the department. The bill sponsor has informed the committee that this responsibility creates a significant administrative burden for judges, who must balance this duty with their core judicial responsibilities of managing large and demanding court dockets. The bill sponsor has also informed the committee that in large jurisdictions, such as Harris County, CSCD operations often involve hundreds of employees, multiple funding sources, and tens of thousands of cases, making the additional approval requirement especially cumbersome. S.B. 663 seeks to streamline the administrative process for CSCD budgets and strategic plans by removing the requirement that judges formally approve them.

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

S.B. 663 amends the Government Code to replace the requirement for the district judge or district judges trying criminal cases in each judicial district and the statutory county court judges trying criminal cases in the county or counties served by the judicial district to approve an applicable community supervision and corrections department's (CSCD) budget and strategic plan with a requirement for those judges to review an applicable CSCD's budget and strategic plan following the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) community justice assistance division's (CJAD) approval of the budget and plan. Accordingly, the bill revises provisions establishing that the responsibility of such a judge for budgetary decisions is limited to certain responsibilities by replacing the responsibility of the approval of an applicable CSCD's budget with the responsibility of the review of an applicable CSCD's budget following the TDCJ‑CJAD's approval of the budget. The bill requires the TDCJ-CJAD to require each CSCD to submit the CSCD's budget as requested by the TDCJ-CJAD.

S.B. 663 revises the requirement for the TDCJ-CJAD to require that certain actions be taken as a condition to payment of state aid to a CSCD or county by replacing the provision requiring TDCJ-CJAD to require that a strategic plan be submitted for the CSCD as that condition with a provision requiring the TDCJ-CJAD to require that the CSCD submit the CSCD's budget for the state fiscal biennium and a strategic plan to the TDCJ-CJAD and that the CSCD's budget and plan be approved by the TDCJ-CJAD as that condition. The bill removes the requirement for the CSCD to submit a strategic plan as required by applicable state law and removes the prohibition against a CSCD submitting a strategic plan unless the plan is first approved by the judges who established the department. The bill revises the authorization for a plan to be amended at any time with the approval of the TDCJ-CJAD by making the authorization applicable with respect to a CSCD's budget or strategic plan.

S.B. 663 amends the Local Government Code to revise provisions governing the budgets of certain juvenile boards and CSCDs by exempting CSCDs from the applicability of those provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.