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 A parolee who has been revoked and returned to prison and who is not convicted of an offense involving violence or drugs is eligible to be given back the time spent on parole so long as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.