81R19430 PEP-F By: Miller of Erath H.B. No. 3497 Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3497: By: Ortiz, Jr. C.S.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 under this subsection must include prison industry workers. The program must [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 shall 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.