Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Winding down: Handful of reform bills still viable in waning days of Lege

The 83rd Texas Legislature is winding down and there are a handful good criminal justice bills that still have potential to pass this session.

The other day Grits had identified five good senate bills which had received unanimous committee recommendations and were eligible to be heard on the House floor. As of this morning, two have already been sent to the governor (SB 1611 on discovery reform and SB 825 making state bar sanctions for Brady violations public), one is scheduled for a vote today (SB 344 allowing habeas corpus writs in junk science cases), while another (SB 1238 expanding the jurisdiction of the Forensic Science Commission) is on tomorrow's House floor calendar. Only SB 1114 from that list (limiting Class C tickets for school misbehavior) has yet to be scheduled for a floor vote.

The Texas Tribune ran an item recently on another good senate bill that still needs a floor vote in the House: SB 1003 which would require the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee to hire a third-party reviewer to perform a comprehensive analysis of administrative segregation (solitary confinement) in Texas prisons. The bill was altered on the House side to make the review dependent on the CJLOC securing "gifts, grants and donations" which would mean it won't happen unless some outside entity ponies up the funds. That's a little lame but I bet there will be sources available.

As mentioned earlier, there were relatively few criminal justice reform bills passed out of the House but yesterday the Senate Criminal Justice Committee heard perhaps the most prominent one - HB 166 creating a "exoneration review commission." Prosecutors came out in force against this one and the hearing was made even more dramatic when late exoneree Tim Cole's brother went off on Sen. Joan Huffman for arguing that Texas has fixed all the problems with its justice system. She wasn't going to vote for it anyway so it's unclear how much that matters, but if the bill makes it out of committee there's still time for it to pass.

Finally, of the thousands of bills filed this session, including dozens involving criminal justice reforms, there's only one bill still alive that has the potential to reduce prison populations even at the margins: HB 1790 by Longoria (see Grits' earlier discussion) which passed the House and was referred to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. That committee will likely only meet one more time so let's hope the bill gets a hearing and moves quickly through the process. There's not much time left.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Prosecutors came out in force against this one" - I saw one prosecutor named on the list of witnesses that was listed as testifying against that bill. How does one prosecutor constitute "in force"?

Gritsforbreakfast said...

The witness list from the Senate hearing hasn't been posted yet. The one you're looking at was from the House back in March.

Anonymous said...

SB 1003 again is an example of advocacy groups wnating to try to run governmental agenciew when they don't have a clue what a daily routine in a correctional facility is. Just like SB 1517. Measures need to be available to administrators to keep violent offenders from doing harm to other inmates and staff. Walk a mile in my shoes and see how it feels to be punched in the face by the same inmate and you can't do a thing to prevent it because they face no consequences.

Anonymous said...

I guess hb 990 is probably dead.

Anonymous said...

04:34
And....the children of these inmates are just as disrespectful to their teachers as their biological "fathers" are to correctional staff.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe they are going to overlook HB 104. That driver surcharge is an employment killer from the git-go, and, does way more harm than good.

Anonymous said...

I agree with 11:45 p.m. As a matter of fact, my company met and expressed disbelief and are now talking about moving our operations to a new state and thus there goes more jobs in Texas (that's about 3,000). Perry can do what he wants by trying to influence companies in California and Chicago to come here but they have the same requirements as we do. No valid DL - no job. It's the Texas backward asses that keep getting re-elected that need to go. We'll have a chance to vote one more time and we all agreed that voting out a lame house member or members should send a message but these idiots don't listen. Call your house rep and raise hell.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

8:35, you're probably right about HB 990.

11:45, agreed about HB 104. It seems like the only way to do that will be to come up with an alternative funding source for the hospitals. They've got too much stroke. It's kind of crazy. MADD testified in favor of the bill in committee even though all the evidence shows the surcharge has caused DWI conviction rates to plummet. Folks see all that money and sometimes it seems like the rest of their brains shut off.

4:34, all SB 1003 does is gather information. Since your complaint is that the Lege and advocates "don't have a clue," how can you oppose a mere study bill? How else will they learn?

TEM said...

SB1003 won't be studying just prisons. Juvenile lock ups will be required to add another Agency/Group to the list "needing" information that is available from State Agencies. Federal PREA Standards were originally meant for prisons. Guess who else is now included? I had to include a "Zero Tolerance" policy, whereas before, I had a 20% Tolerance policy in the center. (that is a joke). Paperwork. Kills time spent working with inmates/detainees. IMO

Anonymous said...

Anon 04:34:00
I am an advocate and I agree with you that someone as you describe should face lots of consequences; however, I have personally witness my love being placed in Admin Seg, because I complained about an officer who threaten my love because I guess the officer was having a bad day. That was what an Ombudsman Complaint by me did. Then I got to watch a male officer push, shove her around and man handle her into a small visitation cage. This male guard did not even have a key to take the handcuffs off of her and she had to stand there with her arms stretch behind her back on her tip toes with her hands trapped in a small slot until this incompetent idiot told someone to go find a key, five minutes later a key was found. If that does not constitute torture then there is no such thing. I saw this with my own two eyes so do not call me a liar. After watching the physical pain she endured before visitation I was shocked at this male officer and it all started because I complained that another officer threaten her. Yup, you guess it; it was at the Crain Unit. In my case Ad Seg was used to get back at me because I complain of officer misconduct. There needs to be independent oversight of TDCJ. Why? Looks at all the laws, which were violated just recently with board nominations. When the people in charge of TDCJ cannot obey the laws then what kind of system do you have? A very criminal and corrupt system. TDCJ in most cases is Crime College 101, especially on these minimum security units. What I have witness is there are some officers that are just as bad and in some cases worse than any of these offenders on this one unit.
I also wonder if the correctional officer’s kids are just as bad as their parents. But since I do not know these kids, I will not just assume that they are rotten kids because of what their parents have done as the person before me does. The schools are broken just like the prison system is broken. Our elected leaders have place their crony friends with absolutely no experience in these top positions. Incompetency breeds inefficiency. That is what the leadership in the state of Texas has created.

Anonymous said...

4:34PM, liar, liar funky shoes on fire. You can fool some of the people with that crap but...

Every single time a guard is attacked, the attacker is bum rushed and has the shit beat out of him / her and you know it. There is no way that you'd show up to work knowing that you could get punched in the face and the puncher gets no consequences.
The only guards that get punched are the ones that treat humans as trash. You have to earn respect or heal from disrespecting. I've seen guards punch other guards for disrepecting them. Remember, your job is very important in the correction process and you will be remembered for how you treat others.

Your buddy said Paperwork. Kills time spent working with inmates/detainees. Now, that's a joke. I can't name one single guard that looks forward to working with inmates. They look forward to shift change with no incidents and better pay, and that's what we are fighting for.
Why would someone that's been to prison advocate on behalf of guards? Because, the guards treated me with respect which gave me a chance to see that they were not paid enough and deserved more than what they earned. Roofers were making more. The 10% that chose to be jerks got knocked the hell out. No study will prevent you from defending yourself or prevent punishment.

10:58AM said what you need to hear.

Anonymous said...

Grits, how would you grade the 83rd's performance on covering issues that are in the taxpayers' best interest so far?

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:00pm, Looks like the other post disappeared. I know you are a prison guard because that is your only defense that inmates family are liars also. No officer wants to work with inmates you say? That is one reason why you do not get pay raises right there along with many other rules you seem to break and the defense is we are all lying. Who got charged under RICO for bringing in cell phones to inmates? Not there family members. Good for you then. Go find another job then. I witness many abuses at visitation over the years. So if it makes you feel better to call me a liar, then have a nice day. Your probably the administration in charge, I have nothing to hide, do you?

Anonymous said...

I like SB 1769. Finally a study that could make a real difference.