state gets 45 days to take incompetent defendants from jail

The text as introduced · 433 words

89R9519 MCF-D

By: Eckhardt
S.B. No. 1785

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the confinement in a county jail of certain defendants

who are incompetent to stand trial and to the compensation to the

county for the costs of that confinement and of the provision of

jail-based competency restoration services.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 46B, Code of Criminal

Procedure, is amended by adding Article 46B.014 to read as follows:

Art. 46B.014. TRANSFER TO COMMISSION; COMPENSATION TO

COUNTIES. (a) The commission shall take custody of a defendant

awaiting transfer under an order issued under Article 46B.073 to a

facility operated by or under contract with the commission, not

later than the 45th day following the date the order is issued.

(b) If the commission does not take custody of a defendant

within the period prescribed by Subsection (a), the commission

shall compensate the county for the cost of confinement for each day

that the defendant remains confined in the county jail following

the expiration of that period. The compensation must be equal to

the amount that would have been incurred by the commission to

confine the defendant for that period.

SECTION 2. Article 46B.091, Code of Criminal Procedure, is

amended by adding Subsection (n) to read as follows:

(n) A county is entitled to compensation from the commission

for providing jail-based competency restoration services under

this article. Not later than the 15th day of each quarter of a

county's fiscal year, the county judge shall certify to the

comptroller of public accounts the amount of the county's expenses

that were incurred during the preceding fiscal quarter for

jail-based competency restoration services. The comptroller shall

issue a warrant in that amount to the commissioners court of the

county.

SECTION 3. Article 46B.014, Code of Criminal Procedure, as

added by this Act, applies only to compensation to a county for the

cost of a defendant's confinement that occurs on or after January 1,

2026, regardless of whether the order of commitment is issued

before, on, or after that date.

SECTION 4. Article 46B.091, Code of Criminal Procedure, as

amended by this Act, applies only with respect to jail-based

competency restoration services provided to a defendant on or after

January 1, 2026.

SECTION 5. 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, this

Act takes effect September 1, 2025.