83R9591 JSC-D
By: Turner of Harris H.B. No. 2399
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a study of the feasibility and desirability of certain
changes to the juvenile justice system.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) The executive director of the Texas Juvenile
Justice Department shall create a committee composed of employees
of the department to conduct a study on the feasibility and
desirability of certain changes to the juvenile justice system to
better provide effective services to youth.
(b) The study shall address and analyze the ability of the
department to:
(1) use a regionalized system of smaller facilities to
place children in a location as close as possible to their families;
(2) create diversified treatment and placement
options;
(3) improve existing mechanisms in place to prevent or
limit youth from being sent to the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice;
(4) collect and report the necessary data to support
performance-based standards focused on outcome measures for the
juvenile justice system;
(5) provide services to youth who are 17 years of age
or older if the law or the age of criminal responsibility were
changed;
(6) adequately serve and place youth with special
needs, including youth with severe mental illness and youth with
physical or educational disabilities;
(7) provide all youth in secure placement with
sufficient and effective oversight by the independent ombudsman;
and
(8) establish funding priorities for services that
support the mission of the department and do not provide incentives
to incarcerate youth.
(c) The executive director shall appoint the members of the
committee under this section not later than December 1, 2013.
(d) Not later than August 1, 2015, the committee established
under this section shall submit to the Sunset Advisory Commission
and to the legislature a report on the study required under this
section. The committee shall include in the report any legislative
recommendations based on the study.
(e) The department must make the report created by the
committee under this section available to the public on the
department's Internet website.
(f) The committee is abolished and this Act expires
September 1, 2015.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2013.