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.