PURPOSED LEGISLATION IN TEXAS

HOUSE BILL 681:

This is a very frightening bill which is proposed by the present Legislature. Please understand that this bill has not come out of committee yet and it has therefore not been voted by the full Legislature, neither the Senate nor the House and it has not been signed into law by the governor. The present bill proposes an inmate shall forfeit his good-time if the Court of Criminal Appeals deems his writ application to be frivolous. The Legislature has never before sought to impair the filing of writ applications. This bill is therefore unprecedented. While the Legislature did pass a law docking inmates for filing frivolous lawsuits, it has never passed a law doing the same for writ applications. You should have your loved ones contact the Corrections Committee at 512-463-0492 and voice opposition to this bill. THIS BILL DID NOT MAKE IT OUT COMMITTEE.

HB No 448

This bill proposes setting up a geriatric community inside the prison system for those inmates who are 60 years or older. It proposes screening and setting up personnel to assist in this screening process and providing for a 800 bed facility.

HB No. 440

This bill proposes when a defendant who is obligated to pay child support - prisoner/obligor is placed in custody for a period of at least 90 consecutive days, this confinement presents material and substantial change in circumstances upon the prisoner/obligor and the court shall suspend all child support payments during the prisoner/obligor’s confinement unless the court finds the obligor has resources available to pay the child support payments.

HB No. 261

This bill proposes that the court shall order reasonable possession of or access to a grandchild by a grandparent if the grandparent requesting possession of or access to the child is a parent of a parent of the child and that parent of the child has been incarcerated in jail or prison during the three-month period preceding the filing of the petition for change of possession of the child.

78^TH LEGISLATURE:

House Bill 1649 went into effect September 1, 2001. A parolee who has been revoked and returned to prison and who is not convicted of an offense involving violence or drugs is eligible to be given back the time spent on parole so long as he/she has served more than half of the parolees remaining time on parole. The inmate is then eligible to have the time spent on parole calculated into the flat time of the sentence. My interpretation of this new law is that this is a discretionary matter not a right.

HB 1849 - Summons are authorized to notify certain parole violators of their parole revocation hearing (unless on intensive supervision, absconder, or who is a threat to public safety).

SB 880 - The parole division must resolve the revocation charges no later than the 41^st day after the date the warrant is issued unless the parolee has previously been out of custody facing a summons hearing, which would then alter the time.

SB 917 - Non-violent offenders must be reviewed annually, while violent offenders may have set-offs of one to five years. At this time the parole board has not decided how they are going to review non-violent cases every year. There is a possibility they will not have a full review, but instead they will simply read the information contained on their computers and vote based upon that information unless you have an attorney pressing for a full review. The parole board has indicated they will only apply the five-year rule to violent offenders, but the law clearly indicates it can be utilized on any case.

HB 1670 - Inmates, other than death row inmates or sex offenders, may be released on medically recommended intensive supervision on a date designated by a parole panel if the inmate can prove his family or himself will not be utilizing public funds for his medical care. This is going to be very difficult to prove to the parole board. Also, in this legislation, any non-citizen (other than death row inmates, sex-offenders or 3g offenders) may be released to immigration authorities pending deportation if the inmate will be deported to another country, does not constitute a threat to public safety, and is unlikely to reenter the country illegally. At first, all this appears to be of great assistance to non-citizen inmates, but there is going to be great difficulty proving he/she does not constitute a threat to public safety and in particular he/she will unlikely reenter the country illegally, especially since the individual is already in the United States illegally. In all likelihood it will be imperative that an inmate have the assistance of a very competent parole attorney to convince the parole board to vote for release under this particular provision.

SB 1948- On writ of habeas corpus, when there is a finding of fact and conclusion of law stipulated by both parties, the trial court may order prison inmates released on bond pending the decision from the Court of Criminal Appeals.

While these bills may give some relief to part of the inmate population, they appear to set fairly high hurdles for the inmate to jump over. As usual, the Legislature has allowed the parole board the discretion of release to parole or denial of parole based upon the information contained within the inmate’s file at the time of review.

79^th LEGISLATURE:

Special DWI Legislation:

I have attempted to locate and supply the inmate population with a brief synopsis of the legislation that will affect the inmate population and that has been proposed but died in committee, subsequently passed out of committee, may become law or is presently pending before the governor of the state of Texas. If I missed any particular legislation you have been following,,I am sorry, but as you can see by the number of the bills listed, there has been over 4,000 separate bills filed in the 79^th Legislature. With very few exceptions, if the Legislature or the governor could make life more difficult for the inmate, the law passed; and, if there was any legislation which could assist the inmate in being reintegrated back into society, most of the legislation failed to become law.

THE 80TH TEXAS LEGISLATIVE SESSION:

The following are the bills submitted in the 80^th legislative session of the Texas legislature affecting inmates. This does not include every bill filed in the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice and the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. The bills that have been passed out of committee voted on by the floor and have become law are designated as such, and those that were either vetoed or died in committee are also designated. Reviewing this information will inform you whether the bill is law, or was proposed and didn’t become law.

HB-8: This bill relates to the prosecution, punishment, and supervision of certain sex-offenders and to certain crimes involving sex-offenders. This is an all-encompassing bill with numerous changes in the law affecting many different crimes. Because of its complexity, I will set out most of the bill’s provisions. This bill became effective and is the law beginning September 1, 2007.

No statute of limitation on: Murder and Manslaughter; Sexual Assault where DNA evidence has been collected, but does not match the victim or any other person whose identity is readily ascertained; Theft of an estate by an executor, administrator, guardian or trustee with intent to defraud creditors, heirs, wards, distributees, beneficiaries of a trust interest in such an estate; Theft by public servant of government property; Forgery or passing a forged instrument; Arson.

A seven-year statute of limitation from the date of the commission of the offense: Misapplication of Fiduciary Property; Securing Execution of Document by Deception; Kidnapping or Burglary; Injury to a Child, Elderly individual, or Disabled Individual; Abandoning or Endangering a child; Insurance Fraud.

10-years from the 18^th birthday of the victim of the offense of: Indecency of a child.

HB-44: This proposed law would have allowed TDCJ to restore good- time forfeited because of a disciplinary case. It was passed by the legislature, but was vetoed by the governor of the state of Texas on June 15, 2007. This bill will not become law.

HB-46: This proposed law would have allowed the awarding of credit for time served while on parole between the time the inmate was released to parole and his subsequent revocation of parole, mandatory supervision. This proposed rule change never got out of committee. Therefore, it is not the law.

HB-47: This proposed law would have allowed, as in HB-44, the restoration of good-time credit lost while in custody. This law was passed by the legislature, but it was vetoed by the governor of the state of Texas on June 15, 2007, therefore it is not the law.

HB-431: This law would allow the release of an inmate who has been charged with a state jail felony to be released to a mental or medical facility if the judge sentencing the defendant finds that there are medical or psychological reasons for the individual to be placed in a medical care facility. This law became effective and is law as of September 1, 2007.

HB-541: This proposed law would have allowed inmates released on parole who received a technical violation (not a new criminal charge) to have a magistrate set a bond for his/her release. This law was passed by the legislature, but the governor of the state of Texas vetoed this law on June 15, 2007. This will not become law.

HB-959: This law has the basic wording of HB-8. It is in regards to the statute of limitations being expanded for certain offenses. This is the law effective September 1, 2007.

HB-1178: This law allows a waiver of an attorney by the defendant. The law contains the scariest section of any bill I have ever read. It states should the judge instruct a defendant to return to court with an attorney and the defendant does not retain an attorney or refuses to accept appointed counsel, the defendant will have to represent himself without the aid of an attorney. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

HB-1212: This law changes the penalty from a third-degree felony to a second-degree felony on an intoxicated assault or intoxicated manslaughter case in which the victim was a police officer or fireman acting in the course of his duty. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

HB-1596: This proposed bill would allow a criminal defendant to object to certain jurors in the jury panel. This bill never made it out of committee and it is not law.

HB-1610: This law would require the judge to place certain individuals who have been charged with possession of minor amounts of drugs on community supervision so long as the charge is a state jail felony and the defendant has not been convicted of a previous felony. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

HB-1988: This law would allow the victim, the guardian of the victim, or a state prosecutor acting on behalf of the victim to file a protective order against any defendant who is charged with sexual-assault or aggravated sexual-assault. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

HB-2115: This law would make certain individuals charged with intoxicated cases ineligible for probation or deferred adjudication if they have previously been convicted of certain crimes. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

HB-2611: This law would allow the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to allow a medical discharge by certain individuals who are terminally ill, in a permanent vegetative state, or have chronic illnesses. These individuals must have a supervisory plan and the parole board must determine they are not a danger to society and the parole board may place them on electronic monitoring or intensive parole supervision at the discretion of the parole board. This law does not apply to anyone convicted of 3g offenses. This is law and becomes effective September 1, 2007.

HB-2990: This was definitely a very strange bill. It would allow the placement of electronic monitoring devices on all inmates, guards, visitors, employees of the institution which must be worn at all times by these individuals while in the institution. This would only affect those units that are built after September 1, 2007. This bill was vetoed by the governor on June 15, 2007 and is not law.

HB-3654: This proposed bill would have allowed the placement of certain releasees of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in treatment centers, residential facilities, or halfway houses. This bill died in the legislature. It did not become law.

HB-3736: This law limits the number of parolees a parole officer may supervise. A parole officer may not supervise more than 60 parolees if the parolee’s are not in a specialized program, 35 if in a special needs program, 35 if in a therapeutic community program, 24 if in a sexual offender program, 20 if on electronic monitoring program, 11 if in a super intensive supervision program. This is law and goes into effect June 15, 2007.

SB-6: This law allows for the issuance of subpoenas on certain internet and telephonic companies and establishes the time in which the companies have to respond to this request. This is law and goes into effect September 1, 2007.

SB-75: This law allows the enhancement to higher degrees of punishment of individuals who have been found guilty of 3g offenses and have committed a sexual offense. This is law and becomes effective November 1, 2007.

SB-168: This law allows the granting of certain funds to be used by the Parole Division to develop aggressive sanction programs for parolees. This is law and became effective June 15, 2007.

SB-877: An inmate serving a sentence for an offense described by Article 42.12 Section 3g for the offense of Murder, Capital Murder, Indecency with a Child, Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Sexual Assault, Aggravated Robbery is not eligible for release on parole until the inmate’s actual calendar time served, without consideration of good conduct time, equals one-half of the sentence or 30-calendar years, whichever is less, but in no event is the inmate eligible for release on parole in less than two calendar years. This is law and becomes effective September 1, 2007.

An inmate may not be released to mandatory supervision if the inmate is serving a sentence for or has a prior conviction under Section 19.02, of the Penal Code (Murder); 19.03 (Capital Murder); 20.04 (Aggravated Kidnapping); 21.11 (Indecency with a Child); 22.011 (Sexual-Assault); 22.02 (Aggravated Assault); 22.021 (Aggravated Sexual-Assault); 22.04 (Injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual); 28.02 (Arson); 29.02 (Robbery); 29.03 (Aggravated Robbery); 43.25 (Sexual Performance by a Child).

BILLS PASSED AND SIGNED INTO LAW BY TEXAS LEGISLATURE 2009:

The following is a list of the bills enacted and signed into law by the Texas Legislature. All these laws were passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by the Governor of the state of Texas and will be effective September 2009, unless otherwise stated. Because of the legislative impasse that occurred between the Republican and Democratic Legislatures, most bills dealing with criminal justice matters never made it to the floor and therefore did not become law.

BILLS VETOED OR THAT FAILED TO PASS THE 2009 TEXAS LEGISLATURE:

There have been rumors circulating amongst the inmate population regarding the passage of some of these bills. These are included in this newsletter to help stop the rumors.