By: RodrÃguez, Hinojosa S.B. No. 589
(In the Senate - Filed February 16, 2015; February 23, 2015,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
April 7, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 4,
Nays 2; April 7, 2015, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the award of diligent participation credit to
defendants confined in a state jail felony facility.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 15(h)(5) and (6), Article 42.12, Code
of Criminal Procedure, are amended to read as follows:
(5) For a defendant who has participated in an
educational, vocational, treatment, or work program while confined
in a state jail felony facility, [not later than the 30th day before
the date on which the defendant will have served 80 percent of the
defendant's sentence,] the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
shall record [report to the sentencing court] the number of days
during which the defendant diligently participated in any
educational, vocational, treatment, or work program. The
department shall [The contents of a report submitted under this
subdivision are not subject to challenge by a defendant.
[(6) A judge, based on the report received under
Subdivision (5), may] credit against a defendant's sentence [any
time a defendant is required to serve in a state jail felony
facility] additional time for each day the defendant actually
served in the facility while diligently participating in an
educational, vocational, treatment, or work program. A time credit
under this subdivision may not exceed one-fifth of the defendant's
original sentence [amount of time the defendant is originally
required to serve in the facility]. A defendant may not be awarded
a credit under this subdivision for any period during which the
defendant is subject to disciplinary status [action]. A time
credit under this subdivision is a privilege and not a right.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a person confined in a state jail felony facility for an offense
committed on or after the effective date of this Act. A person
confined in a state jail felony facility for an offense committed
before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in
effect when the offense was committed, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section,
an offense was committed before the effective date of this Act if
any element of the offense occurred before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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