By: Miller of Erath H.B. No. 3497
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the career ladder for certain prison industry workers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 493.007, Government Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (e) to read as
follows:
(a) The executive director shall develop an intraagency
career ladder program. The career ladder program developed for
correctional officers under this subsection shall also include
prison industry workers. The program shall require intraagency
postings of all nonentry level positions concurrently with any
public postings.
(e) In this section, "prison industry worker" means a
department employee, other than a correctional officer, who is
assigned to work on a program or project established under Chapter
497 and whose job on a regular basis requires routine contact with
state jail defendants or inmates confined in facilities operated by
or under contract with the department. The term includes a farm
manager, livestock supervisor, maintenance foreman, shop foreman,
medical assistant, food service supervisor, steward, education
consultant, commodity specialist, truck driver, or correctional
counselor.
SECTION 2. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice must
use the career ladder program developed under Section 493.007(a),
Government Code, as amended by this Act, for any person who becomes
employed by the department as a prison industry worker or who
becomes eligible for promotion by the department as a prison
industry worker on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.