Bill Text: TX HB1586 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to the operation and administration of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and its facilities, to the operation of post-adjudication secure correctional facilities for juvenile offenders, and to the commitment and placement of juvenile offenders.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-14 - Placed on General State Calendar [HB1586 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB1586-Introduced.html

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By: McClendon H.B. No. 1586

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the administration of Texas Juvenile Justice Department
facilities and post-adjudication secure correctional facilities
for juvenile offenders and to the commitment of juvenile offenders.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 37.0062(c) and (d), Education Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(c) The commissioner shall adopt rules necessary to
administer this section. The rules must ensure that:
(1) a student who receives education services in a
pre-adjudication secure detention facility described by this
section is offered courses that enable the student to maintain
progress toward completing high school graduation requirements;
[and]
(2) a student who receives education services in a
post-adjudication secure correctional facility described by this
section is offered, at a minimum, the courses necessary to enable
the student to complete high school graduation requirements; and
(3) a student who receives education services in a
post-adjudication secure correctional facility is offered
vocational training classes.
(d) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department [Probation
Commission or the Tcxas Youth Commission, as applicable,] shall
coordinate with the commissioner in establishing standards for:
(1) ensuring security in the provision of education
services in the facilities; [and]
(2) providing children in the custody of the
facilities access to education services; and
(3) ensuring that the education services provided to
children in the custody of the facilities are age-appropriate and
designed to minimize disproportionality of confinement in regards
to racial or ethnic diversity.
SECTION 2. Section 54.04(d)(2), Family Code, is amended to
read as follows:
(d) If the court or jury makes the finding specified in
Subsection (c) allowing the court to make a disposition in the case:
(1) the court or jury may, in addition to any order
required or authorized under Section 54.041 or 54.042, place the
child on probation on such reasonable and lawful terms as the court
may determine:
(A) in the child's own home or in the custody of a
relative or other fit person; or
(B) subject to the finding under Subsection (c)
on the placement of the child outside the child's home, in:
(i) a suitable foster home;
(ii) a suitable public or private
residential treatment facility licensed by a state governmental
entity or exempted from licensure by state law, except a facility
operated by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department; or
(iii) a suitable public or private
post-adjudication secure correctional facility that meets the
requirements of Section 51.125, except a facility operated by the
Texas Juvenile Justice Department;
(2) if the court or jury found at the conclusion of the
adjudication hearing that the child engaged in delinquent conduct
that violates a penal law of this state or the United States of the
grade of felony and if the petition was not approved by the grand
jury under Section 53.045, the court may commit the child to the
Texas Juvenile Justice Department or a post-adjudication secure
correctional facility under Section 54.04011(c)(1) without a
determinate sentence only if the court or jury finds that
commitment is more appropriate for the child because of the
relative seriousness of the conduct or the child's needs cannot be
served in the community;
SECTION 3. Section 54.04011(e), Family Code, as added by
Chapter 1323 (S.B. 511), Acts of the 83rd Legislature, Regular
Session, 2013, is amended to read as follows:
(e) A post-adjudication secure correctional facility under
this section is not required to have a classification plan that
requires residents at sanction level five to be segregated from
residents at sanction levels six and seven [The provisions of 37
T.A.C. Scction 343.610 do not apply to this section].
SECTION 4. Subchapter B, Chapter 242, Human Resources Code,
is amended by adding Section 242.0511 to read as follows:
Sec. 242.0511. CREATION OF ADDITIONAL SECURE FACILITIES.
(a) The department may establish and operate additional facilities
to supplement the operations of department-operated facilities,
including regional facilities.
(b) Any new state-operated regional facility or
post-adjudication secure correctional facility operated under this
Act may not have a residential capacity of more than 96 children.
The facility may not have more than 12 children per residential
unit.
(c) The department shall assist juvenile probation
departments in counties that may develop and implement local
programs and services, and that may develop facilities for
juveniles under a county-based post-adjudication secure
correctional facilities system.
SECTION 5. STUDY AND PLAN. (a) Not later than March 1,
2016, the executive director of Texas Juvenile Justice Department
shall submit a report to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker
of the house, and members of the legislature containing the results
of a feasibility study to be conducted by the department, and the
recommendations developed in a plan resulting from the study. The
executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department may
consult or contract with an outside entity to conduct the study.
(b) The study conducted at the instance of executive
director on behalf of the Department shall evaluate the feasibility
of establishing state-operated regional residential facilities for
the placement of juveniles committed to the Texas Juvenile Justice
Department and create a regional residential facility plan, the
purposes of which would include efforts to locate all juvenile
offenders committed to TJJD custody for delinquent conduct, except
the most serious offenders, and place them in facilities located in
proximity to the juveniles' home communities in order to provide
community support and the appropriate rehabilitation, educational
services, and treatment for the juvenile offenders. The study shall
emphasize and consider factors affecting the ability of the
Department to complete a transition to state-operated regional
facilities by August 31, 2021, including review and analysis of the
following:
(1) a transition from state-operated residential
facilities to smaller, regional facilities in environments with
larger applicant pools and closer to treatment providers and home
communities;
(2) a needs assessment including a determination of:
(A) the proper timing of such a transition and
the optimal location and number of such facilities;
(B) the need for and optimal location of units
for assessment and orientation and/or behavioral control;
(C) the potential benefits or disadvantages of an
increased use of private, contract residential placements to
maximize the flexibility and specialization of treatment plans;
(D) the effects of closing or re-purposing of
facilities currently operated by the state;
(E) any desired, intended, and possible
unintended effects associated with any proposed plan; and
(G) any other issues deemed necessary or relevant
by the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
(c) The executive director shall develop a proposed plan
based on the feasibility study for the placement of juveniles in
state-operated regional residential treatment facilities,
including:
(1) a recommendation for the number of facilities,
location, and types of provided services;
(2) the use of contracts with appropriate private
residential facilities and Texas Juvenile Justice Department
operated halfway houses; and
(3) an assessment of whether any current
state-operated facilities should be retained, and how to achieve
orderly and safe closure of any that are not retained.
(d) The executive director for the Texas Juvenile Justice
Department shall post the proposed plan and any recommended actions
on the agency's website and provide an additional period of time for
public comment before finalizing the plan and recommendations.
(e) This section expires September 1, 2017.
SECTION 6. TRANSFER AUTHORITY. (a) The Texas Juvenile
Justice Department may transfer a closed facility to the county or
municipality in which the facility is located.
(b) The consideration for the
transfer authorized by this
section is the requirement that the county or municipality use the
property transferred only for a purpose that benefits the public
interest of the state. If the county or municipality no longer uses
the property for a public purpose, ownership of the property
automatically reverts to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
(c) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department shall transfer
the property by an appropriate instrument of transfer, executed on
the agency's behalf by the commissioner of the General Land Office.
The instrument of transfer must:
(1) provide that:
(A) the transferee shall use the property only
for a purpose that benefits the public interest of the state; and
(B) ownership of the property will automatically
revert to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department if the transferee
uses the property for any purpose other than a purpose that benefits
the public interest of the state;
(2) describe the property to be transferred by metes
and bounds; and
(3) exclude from the transfer all mineral interests in
and under the property and prohibit any exploration, drilling, or
other similar intrusion on the property related to mineral
interests.
(d) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department shall retain
custody of the instrument of transfer after the instrument of
transfer is filed in the real property records of the county in
which the property is located.
(e) The Texas Juvenile Justice Department shall sell any
facilities from the Corsicana Residential Treatment Center yet
remaining in the department's possession with the assistance of the
General Land Office, or may transfer those facilities as provided
in this section.
SECTION 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 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, the Act takes effect September 1, 2015.