86R8717 JRR-D
By: White H.B. No. 1653
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to certain criminal justice reforms, including measures
related to reentry and reintegration of state jail felony
defendants and pretrial intervention programs that provide an
alternative to incarceration.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 2, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Article 2.026 to read as follows:
Art. 2.026. REPORTING FINAL DISPOSITION OF OFFENSE
INVOLVING PLACEMENT IN PRETRIAL INTERVENTION PROGRAM. As soon as
practicable after final disposition of an offense for which the
defendant was placed in a pretrial intervention program, the
attorney representing the state in the defendant's case shall
report the disposition of the offense to the Office of Court
Administration of the Texas Judicial System.
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 507, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 507.035 to read as follows:
Sec. 507.035. REENTRY AND REINTEGRATION GRANT PROGRAM. (a)
The department shall establish a grant program to provide grants to
community-based nonprofit organizations that provide reentry and
reintegration services to defendants released from state jail
felony facilities.
(b) The department shall contract with a nonprofit
organization to administer the grant program. In administering the
grant program, the nonprofit organization shall:
(1) give priority in awarding grants to
community-based nonprofit organizations serving communities in
which the rate of state jail felony arrests significantly exceeds
the statewide average;
(2) provide technical and administrative assistance,
as appropriate, to grant recipients;
(3) establish performance and reporting standards for
grant recipients, subject to approval by the department; and
(4) regularly report to the department information
regarding the results of the grant program and any other
information required by the department.
(c) Reentry and reintegration services provided by a
recipient of a grant under this section:
(1) must include peer support services; and
(2) may include educational, vocational, housing, or
other services designed to reduce recidivism and support the
successful reentry and reintegration of defendants released from
state jail felony facilities.
(d) Not later than December 31 of each year, the department
shall submit to the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of
the house of representatives a report on the administration of the
grant program. The report must include information on the
recidivism rates of defendants released from state jail felony
facilities who received reentry and reintegration services from a
recipient of a grant under this section.
(e) The department shall adopt any rules necessary to
implement this section.
SECTION 3. Section 509.003(a), Government Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) The division shall propose and the board shall adopt
reasonable rules establishing:
(1) minimum standards for programs, community
corrections facilities and other facilities, equipment, and other
aspects of the operation of departments;
(2) a list and description of core services that
should be provided by each department;
(3) methods for measuring the success of community
supervision and corrections programs, including methods for
measuring rates of diversion, program completion, and recidivism;
(4) a format for strategic plans; [and]
(5) minimum standards for the operation of substance
abuse facilities and programs funded through the division; and
(6) minimum standards for the operation of pretrial
intervention programs funded through the division.
SECTION 4. Section 509.011, Government Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a), (e), and (f) and adding Subsections (a-1)
and (f-1) to read as follows:
(a) If the division determines that a department complies
with division standards and if the department has submitted a
strategic plan under Section 509.007 and the supporting information
required by the division and the division determines the plan and
supporting information are acceptable, the division shall prepare
and submit to the comptroller vouchers for payment to the
department as follows:
(1) for per capita funding, a per diem amount for each
[felony] defendant directly supervised by the department pursuant
to lawful authority for an offense punishable as:
(A) a felony; or
(B) a misdemeanor under Section 30.04,
31.03(e)(3), 43.02(c), 49.04, 49.05, 49.06, or 49.065, Penal Code;
(2) for per capita funding, a per diem amount for a
period not to exceed 182 days for each defendant supervised by the
department pursuant to lawful authority for a misdemeanor
offense[,] other than an offense described by Subdivision (1)(B) [a
felony defendant]; and
(3) for formula funding, an annual amount as computed
by multiplying a percentage determined by the allocation formula
established under Subsection (f) times the total amount provided in
the General Appropriations Act for payments under this subdivision.
(a-1) The division may provide to a department,
municipality, or county operating a pretrial intervention program
that meets the standards adopted under Section 509.003(a)(6) per
capita funding that is a per diem amount for each felony defendant
participating in the program.
(e) In establishing per diem payments authorized by
Subsections (a)(1), [and] (a)(2), and (a-1), the division shall
consider the amounts appropriated in the General Appropriations Act
for basic supervision as sufficient to provide basic supervision in
each year of the fiscal biennium.
(f) The division annually shall compute for each department
for community corrections program formula funding a percentage
determined by assigning equal weights to:
(1) the percentage of the state's population residing
in the counties served by the department; and
(2) the [department's] percentage of all felony
defendants in the state who are:
(A) on [under direct] community supervision and
directly supervised by the department; and
(B) participating in a pretrial intervention
program that is funded wholly or partly by the division and that is
located in a county served by the department, regardless of whether
the program is operated by the department.
(f-1) The division shall use the most recent information
available in making computations under Subsection (f) [this
subsection]. The board by rule may adopt a policy limiting for all
departments the percentage of benefit or loss that may be realized
as a result of the operation of the allocation formula established
under Subsection (f).
SECTION 5. Chapter 509, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 509.0135 to read as follows:
Sec. 509.0135. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN GRANT
PROGRAMS. (a) This section applies only to a grant awarded under a
grant program, as that term is defined by Section 509.013, for the
purpose of providing pretrial intervention programs as
alternatives to incarceration.
(b) In awarding a grant described by Subsection (a), the
division shall give priority to departments that serve counties
that:
(1) establish pretrial intervention programs for
state jail felony defendants;
(2) place eligible defendants into pretrial
intervention programs as soon as practicable after each defendant's
arrest; or
(3) reduce and minimize the average amount of time
that defendants spend confined pending trial or placement into a
pretrial intervention program.
(c) If applicable, the division shall consider a
department's performance with respect to the goals established
under Subsection (f) in determining whether to award a grant to the
department.
(d) Each grant recipient shall report to the division, in
the manner prescribed by the division, program-specific outcome
data for pretrial intervention programs administered by the
recipient or a county served by the recipient, as applicable,
including:
(1) the following information, disaggregated by race
and ethnicity:
(A) the average amount of time a defendant who is
eligible for placement into a pretrial intervention program spends
confined pending trial or placement into the program, as
applicable; and
(B) the percentage of eligible defendants who are
placed into a pretrial intervention program;
(2) the revocation rates of defendants placed on
community supervision; and
(3) the percentage of state jail felony defendants who
are confined in a state jail felony facility as a condition of
community supervision or whose sentence is executed wholly or
partly.
(e) Not later than December 31 of each year, the division
shall:
(1) submit to the governor, lieutenant governor, and
speaker of the house of representatives a report summarizing the
information received by the division under Subsection (d) for the
preceding fiscal year; and
(2) publish the report on the division's Internet
website.
(f) The division shall:
(1) establish performance goals for grant recipients
in the categories described by Subsection (d);
(2) require a grant recipient who does not achieve a
goal set by the division under Subdivision (1) to develop and submit
to the division a corrective action plan establishing the measures
the recipient will take to improve the recipient's performance with
respect to the goal; and
(3) reduce the rate of any per capita funding provided
under this chapter to a recipient that:
(A) is required to submit a corrective action
plan under Subdivision (2); and
(B) does not improve the recipient's performance
with respect to the applicable goal.
(g) The board shall provide notice and a hearing in a manner
consistent with the procedures adopted by the board under Section
509.012(b) in a case in which the division proposes to reduce the
rate of per capita funding under Subsection (f)(3).
(h) The board shall adopt any rules necessary to implement
this section.
SECTION 6. (a) As soon as practicable after the effective
date of this Act:
(1) the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shall
establish the grant program required by Section 507.035, Government
Code, as added by this Act, and the Texas Board of Criminal Justice
shall adopt any rules necessary to implement that program; and
(2) the Texas Board of Criminal Justice shall adopt:
(A) rules establishing minimum standards for the
operation of a pretrial intervention program funded by the
community justice assistance division of the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, as required by Section 509.003(a), Government
Code, as amended by this Act; and
(B) any rules necessary to implement Section
509.0135, Government Code, as added by this Act.
(b) Section 509.011(a), Government Code, as amended by this
Act, applies only to a payment to a community supervision and
corrections department based on a voucher submitted to the
comptroller on or after the effective date of this Act.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.