By: Duncan S.B. No. 1475
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the development and use of a jail-based restoration of
competency pilot program.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Article 46B, Code of Criminal
Procedure, is amended by adding Article 46B.090 to read as follows:
Art. 46B.090. JAIL-BASED RESTORATION OF COMPETENCY PILOT
PROGRAM. (a) The department shall develop a pilot program for
jail-based restoration of competency pursuant to a commitment order
issued under Article 46B.073(e), Code of Criminal Procedure. The
department shall develop the pilot program:
(1) in not more than two counties for which the
department determines that the operation of a jail-based
restoration of competency program will prove to be feasible,
efficient, and cost-effective; and
(2) in coordination with the affected counties.
(b) The department shall contract with a private provider of
jail-based restoration of competency services to provide those
services under the pilot program.
(c) The executive commissioner of the Health and Human
Services Commission shall propose and adopt rules necessary to
establish the pilot program. In adopting rules under this section,
the executive commissioner shall specify the types of information
the department must collect during the operation of the pilot
program for use in evaluating the outcome of the pilot program.
(d) To contract with the department under this article, a
private provider of jail-based restoration of competency services
must demonstrate to the department that:
(1) the provider has previously provided jail-based
competency restoration services for at least two years;
(2) the provider's jail-based competency restoration
program uses a multi-disciplinary treatment team that provides
clinical treatment that is:
(A) directed toward the specific objective of the
defendant attaining competency to stand trial; and
(B) similar to the clinical treatment provided at
a department facility;
(3) the provider's jail-based competency restoration
program has at least one psychiatrist, assigns staff members to
defendants participating in the program at an average ratio no
lower than 3.7 to 1, and provides weekly treatment hours
commensurate to the treatment hours provided in a state hospital
for a competency restoration program;
(4) the provider is certified by a nationwide
nonprofit organization that accredits health care organizations
and programs, such as the Joint Commission on Healthcare Staffing
Services; and
(5) the provider has a demonstrated history of
successful jail-based restoration of competency outcomes.
(e) A contract between the department and the provider
entered under this article must require the provider to collect and
submit to the department the information specified by rules adopted
under Subsection (c).
(f) The designated provider shall enter a contract with the
county in which the applicable jail included in the program is
located. The contract must require the county to:
(1) ensure the safety of defendants who are
participating in the jail-based restoration of competency program;
(2) designate a separate treatment space for the
provider to conduct individual and group sessions with the
defendants participating in the jail-based restoration of
competency program;
(3) provide the same basic care to defendants who are
participating in the jail-based restoration of competency program
as is provided to other inmates of a jail; and
(4) supply psychoactive medications to the mental
health service provider for purposes of administering
court-ordered medication to defendants in accordance with Article
46B.086 and Section 574.106, Health and Safety Code.
(g) If, in the opinion of the psychiatrist for the provider,
a defendant's competency to stand trial has been successfully
restored at any time during the defendant's participation in the
jail-based restoration of competency treatment program:
(1) the psychiatrist for the provider shall promptly
issue and send to the court a report demonstrating that fact; and
(2) the court shall consider that report as the report
of an expert stating an opinion that the defendant has been restored
to competency for purposes of Articles 46B.0755(a) and (b).
(h) If a defendant's competency to stand trial has in the
opinion of the psychiatrist for the provider been determined to be
unlikely to be restored in the foreseeable future at any time during
the defendant's participation in the jail-based restoration of
competency treatment program:
(1) the psychiatrist for the provider shall promptly
issue and send to the court a report demonstrating that fact; and
(2) the court shall proceed under Subchapter E or F or
release the defendant on bail as permitted under Chapter 17.
(i) The department shall design the jail-based restoration
of competency pilot program in such a manner that if, with respect
to a defendant charged with a felony, the defendant's competency to
stand trial has not, in the opinion of the psychiatrist for the
provider, been successfully restored by the end of 60th day after
the date the defendant begins to participate in the jail-based
pilot program and the defendant is to be transferred next to a
hospital or facility described by Article 46B.073(c) or (d), Code
of Criminal Procedure, for further restoration of competency
efforts, the defendant will without unnecessary delay, in
accordance with the previously issued order of the court, and as
applicable:
(1) enter the first available hospital or facility
described by Article 46B.073(c) for the remainder of the period
prescribed by Article 46B.073(b); or
(2) enter the first available appropriate facility
described by Article 46B.073(d) for the remainder of the period
prescribed by Article 46B.073(b).
(j) If the defendant is charged only with an offense
punishable as a misdemeanor, the effort to restore the defendant's
competency to stand trial under this article and Article
46B.073(e)may not continue after the end of the 60th day the
defendant begins to participate in the jail-based pilot program.
(k) Not later than December 1, 2016, the commissioner of the
department shall submit a report concerning the pilot program to
the presiding officers of the standing committees of the senate and
house of representatives having primary jurisdiction over health
and human services issues and over criminal justice issues. The
report must include the information collected by the department
during the pilot program and the commissioner's evaluation of the
outcome of the program as of the date the report is submitted.
(l) This section expires September 1, 2017.
SECTION 2. Article 46B.073, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
(e) Notwithstanding Subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this
article, the court in a county participating in the pilot
jail-based restoration of competency program developed under
Article 46B.090, Code of Criminal Procedure, shall order the
defendant to participate in the jail-based restoration of
competency program in accordance with that article with the
possibility of further commitment to a hospital or facility
described by Subsection (c) or (d), as applicable, if competency to
stand trial is not successfully restored under the jail-based
program. This subsection expires September 1, 2017.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.