Roundup: Criminal justice bills to watch

Let's highlight several pieces of Texas legislation filed recently that piqued Grits' interest.

There's HOPE for probation reform
HB 1242 (Geren/Carter): This is permissive legislation modeled on Hawaii's award-winning HOPE Court that would allow judges to utilize short jail stints instead of revocation for technical violations. Really good bill. And with House Criminal Jurisprudence Vice Chair Stefani Carter as a joint author it has a decent chance of moving this session. For more background on the HOPE program see this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

Sentencing Commission proposed
Rep. Senfronia Thompson has filed  HB 990 to create a sentencing commission, which was a Legislative Budget Board recommendation. The commission would analyze sentences and recommend ways to reduce disparities among jurisdictions, compare Texas practices to other states, and "devise an approach that would allow the state to balance sentencing policies with correctional resources." Grits thinks this is a fine idea as a one-time re-evaluation of state sentencing policies, but would not want to see it become a standing entity.

Reducing barriers to ex-offender employment
HB 1188 is a good piece of bipartisan legislation by Reps Senfronia Thompson and Charles Perry that would limit the liability of businesses who employ people with criminal convictions. It would still allow suits for harms caused by negligent hiring, inadequate supervision, misuse of funds or property or other traditional torts. But under the bill, "A cause of action may not be brought against an employer, general contractor, premises owner, or other third party solely for negligently hiring or failing to adequately supervise an employee, based on evidence that the employee has been convicted of an offense."

Punishing prosecutors for witness tampering
HB 1163 by Moody would alter witness tampering statutes to include soliciting false testimony and encouraging witnesses to withhold information or elude appearing before the court. Punishments under the bill could be pretty harsh: "a felony of the second degree if the actor is a public servant acting or purporting to act in an official capacity or an attorney representing a party to the official proceeding, except that the offense is a felony of the first degree if the official proceeding is part of the prosecution of a criminal case in which the most serious offense charged is punishable as a felony of the first degree or a capital felony." There are exceptions for defense attorneys advising clients to exercise 5th Amendment and other legal rights. The problem is, who would prosecute cases against the prosecutors? Are DA's going to indict their own employees? Somehow I doubt it.

Studying Solitary
HB 1266 by Guillen would create an "Adult and Juvenile Administrative Segregation Task Force," made up of agency folks and various community stakeholders. It would review policies, make recommendations on ways to reduce the number of people in solitary confinement, improve programming and mental health services in ad seg. I actually think there are things they could do now that wouldn't require more study: E.g., requiring ad seg prisoners to be paroled one year before their full sentence is complete so they'll be under supervision during the reentry period. (If they complete their full sentence while in ad seg, they're dumped straight from solitary confinement back onto the streets - something that happened with 1,445 inmates last year.) Still, a task force study could raise the issue's profile and set the stage for changes down the line. Better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Don't lessen medical examiner qualifications
HB 1192 by Moody would lessen qualifications for Texas medical examiners, allowing any physician certified by the Texas Medical Board (or doctors licensed in other states) to do the job instead of requiring licensure through the Board of Medical Examiners. Seems like a bad idea to me. Perhaps I'm missing something, but surely we've had enough trouble with shoddy medical examiners in Texas that it seems foolhardy to reduce their specialty qualifications.

Limiting local limits on weapons
If HB 1299 by Stickland were to pass, "a municipality may not adopt or enforce an ordinance or other regulation relating to the private ownership, keeping, carrying, transportation, licensing, or registration of an electric stun gun, a knife, or a personal defense spray." Under the bill, they could still prevent folks from carrying those items past entrances to government buildings with metal detectors installed.

'Zero tolerance' for retaliation vs. inmate grievances
HB 968 by Sylvester Turner would require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to "implement and enforce a zero-tolerance policy for failure to protect inmates from retaliation for filing a grievance" and begin annual reporting of grievance data, charging the agency with "identifying patterns of commonly recurring problems and making recommendations in regard to addressing those recurring problems."

Restorative justice pilot
HB 937 by Farias would establish a restorative justice pilot for juvenile offenders in San Antonio.

Innocence bills, redux
Finally, a pair of innocence-related bills that were filed in the Senate have also been filed in the House: Rep. Terry Canales has filed HB 1096 requiring police to record custoidial interrogations related to certain serious offenses. Sen. Rodney Ellis is carrying the bill in the upper chamber. And Rep. Sylvester Turner has filed the habeas corpus reform bill that Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whtimire filed in the Senate. The bill number is HB 967. (See Texas Tribune coverage of the recording interrogations and habeas reform bills.)