The Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee has posted its 115-page Interim Report (pdf) online, which is a written summation of recommendations in response to “interim charges” given to the committee by the Lt. Governor to prepare for major issues where legislation is anticipated. I haven’t yet gone through the thing with a fine-tooth comb, but here’s a preliminary taste of highlights from the committee’s recommendations:
Don’t participate in new federal sex offender regimen
The committee recommended against Texas’ participation in the federal Adam Walsh Act related to additional restrictions on sex offenders. Mostly the reason is money. The feds punish noncompliant states by reducing their “Byrne” criminal justice block grants by 10%, however, “Retaining the ten percent of federal funding is not adequate incentive because the cost to implement the changes to registries would cost much more than states would lose. In Texas the loss would be $1,404,571, where as the cost is assessed at $38,771,924.”
Eliminate or scale back Driver Responsibility program; allow deferred for DWI
The committee declared the need to, “Eliminate or greatly reduce the Driver Responsibility Program surcharges as they relate to DWI convictions. The increasing number of drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured is unacceptable.” And they want to eliminate Texas’ prohibition on deferred adjudication for DWI.
Reduce causes for driver license revocations
Only maintain requirements for license revocation in Texas statutes required under federal law. Consolidate those in one statute and eliminate the rest.
Compliance enforcement on indigence defense
A potential sleeper recommendation for the Task Force on Indigent Defense suggests that the state “Enhance TFID’s ability to enforce compliance with the Fair Defense Act and track local indigent defense processes by improving data collection and transparency, including reporting on caseloads of appointed counsel and public defenders.”
Force new reporting on municipal jails
The committee suggested requiring new reporting from municipal jails to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards which would be public, but did not go so far as to advocate putting them under full-blown TCJS regulation/inspection, etc..
Make crime labs independent
Here’s a suggestion that won’t happen quickly: “All crime labs should be independent of law enforcement, investigators and prosecutors. DPS should ensure that state crime labs are free from influence from other divisions of DPS.”
Charge counties for DPS crime lab services
There’s a suggestion that DPS begin charging law enforcement for crime lab services, which would be a big economic blow to smaller agencies: “Inequities exist with state crime labs services being provided free to only half of the citizens and no consideration given to the citizens who support these programs with local funds. State crime lab services should be on a fee recovery basis and legislature mandating such is supported.” Presently, DPS provides crime lab services for free, but backlogs are large and most bigger jurisdictions have their own labs paid for by local taxpayers, creating the “inequity” described in the report. Making smaller counties pay for this service makes sense from an equity standpoint, but from their perspective it would be a big unfunded mandate.
Improve TCJS monitoring of mental illness in jails
The committee considered the issue of mentally ill people in jails, but settled on advocating additional reporting requirements through the Commission on Jail Standards. “Due to the limited authority the state has over local jails, the only possible enforcement and monitoring tool is through the TCJS standards. Requiring TCJS to incorporate compliance standards in their routine inspection practices will partially address this situation.”
Downsize TYC, merge with juvie probation
“Continue to downsize TYC and its central office to the appropriate level required for their reduced population,” and “Revisit the last session’s sunset recommendation to consolidate all Juvenile Justice Agencies into a new Department of Juvenile Justice and reduce the apparent redundancies in the current organization structure.” That latter recommendation flies in the face of the Sunset Commission recommendation to keep TYC and the Juvenile Probation Commission separate.
Reduce criminalization of school discipline
I’m a big fan of two of the changes recommended related to school discipline. First, they recommended the Lege “Amend Chapter 37 of the Education code by narrowing the definition for “Disruptive Activities”, “Disruption of Classes”, “Serious and Persistent Misbehavior” to eliminate non-criminal acts.” They also suggested to “Amend Chapter 37 of the Education Code by changing the dangerous or disruptive violation to dangerous and disruptive, In order to insure students are not being removed for simple disruptions to class.” Another notable suggestion: “Exempt 18-21 year olds from the truancy laws.”
