HBA-SEB C.S.H.B. 1403 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1403 By: Puente Juvenile Justice and Family Issues 4/21/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, a child may be placed on probation for any period, except that the probation may not continue on or after the child's 18th birthday. In a determinate case (one that involves a violent or habitual offender) a judge or jury must sentence a child to commitment in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) with a possible transfer to the institutional division or the pardons and paroles division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. C.S.H.B. 1403 authorizes a court or jury to place a child on probation for a period that may continue after the child's 18th birthday, not to exceed 10 years, as an alternative to sentencing the child to commitment in TYC. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 54.04, Family Code, by amending Subsection (l) and adding Subsection (q), as follows: (l) Authorizes a court to place a child on probation under Subsection (d)(1) (regarding a disposition hearing) or to extend the probation for any period until the child reaches the age of 18, except as provided under Subsection (q). Makes conforming and nonsubstantive changes. (q) Authorizes a court or jury to place a child on probation in a place other than the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) as an alternative to making a disposition under Subsection (d)(3) (regarding the sentencing of a child to commitment in TYC and possibly transferring the child to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice) if the court or jury sentences the child to commitment in TYC for not more than 10 years. Requires the court to prescribe the period of probation for a term of not more than 10 years. Authorizes the court, before the probation sentence expires, to extend the probationary period, and prohibits the probation sentence and any extension from exceeding 10 years. Authorizes the court, before the child's 18th birthday, to discharge the child from the probation sentence. Requires the court to discharge the child from the probation sentence on the child's 18th birthday if the sentence and any extension will continue after that date, unless the court transfers the child to an appropriate district court under Section 54.051. SECTION 2. Amends Section 54.05, Family Code, by amending Subsections (f)-(h) and adding Subsection (j), as follows: (f) Provides that Subsection (j) is an exception to this subsection, which authorizes a disposition to be modified to commit a child to TYC if a court finds that the child violated a court order. Makes conforming anc nonsubstantive changes. (g) Provides that Subsection (j) is an exception to this subsection, which prohibits a disposition from being modified if the disposition is based solely on a finding that a child engaged in conduct indicating a need for supervision. Makes conforming and nonsubstantive changes. (h) Provides that Subsection (j) is an exception to this subsection, which entitles a child to a jury of 12 persons if the child is in jeopardy of a sentence for a determinate term on the issues of the violation of a court's order and the sentence. Makes conforming and nonsubstantive changes. (j) Authorizes a court to modify a disposition to commit a child to TYC for a term that does not exceed the original sentence if the court finds that the child violated a reasonable and lawful condition of probation. SECTION 3. Amends Chapter 54, Family Code, by adding Section 54.051, as follows: Sec. 54.051. TRANSFER OF DETERMINATE SENTENCE PROBATION TO APPROPRIATE DISTRICT COURT. (a) Requires a juvenile court to hold a hearing to determine whether to transfer a child to an appropriate district court or discharge the child from a probation sentence, including any extension that will continue after the child's 18th birthday, on motion of the state. (b) Provides that the hearing must be conducted before the child's 18th birthday and in the same manner as a hearing to modify a disposition. (c) Requires the court to specify a date on or before the child's 18th birthday to discharge the child from the probation sentence if the court determines to discharge the child. (d) Requires the court to transfer the child to an appropriate district court on the child's 18th birthday if the court determines to transfer the child. (e) Requires a district court that exercises jurisdiction over a transferred child to place the child on community supervision for the remainder of the child's probationary period and under conditions consistent with those ordered by the juvenile court. Requires the district court to dispose of a child's violation of community supervision or probation, as appropriate, in the same manner as if the court had originally exercised jurisdiction over the case. Provides that the time that a child serves on probation under Section 54.04(q) is the same as time served on community supervision ordered under this subsection for purposes of determining the child's eligibility for early discharge from community supervision. (f) Authorizes the juvenile court to transfer a child to an appropriate district court without a showing that the child violated a condition of probation. SECTION 4. Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 5. Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 6. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute makes a conforming change in the caption. The substitute modifies the original in SECTION 1 by adding new text for proposed Section 54.04(q), Family Code. The substitute authorizes a court or jury to place a child on probation for not more than 10 years in a place other than the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) as an alternative to sentencing the child to commitment in TYC with a possible transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice if the court or jury sentences the child to commitment in TYC for not more than 10 years. The substitute authorizes the court to extend the probationary period, and prohibits the probation sentence and any extension from exceeding 10 years. The substitute authorizes the court to discharge the child from the probation sentence before the child's 18th birthday and requires the court to discharge the child from the probation sentence on the child's 18th birthday if the sentence and any extension of probation will continue after that date, unless the court transfers the child to an appropriate district court under Section 54.051. The original stated the same requirements, authorizations, and prohibitions, but in less detail. The substitute inserts a new SECTION 2 by amending Section 54.05, Family Code, to amend Subsections (f), (g), and (h) and adding Subsection (j), to authorize a court to modify a disposition to commit a child to TYC for a term that does not exceed the original sentence if the court finds that the child violated a reasonable and lawful condition of probation. The substitute makes conforming and nonsubstantive changes. SECTION 2 of the original would have amended Subchapter E, Chapter 61, Human Resources Code, by adding proposed Section 61.0795 (Transfer of Violent And Habitual Offenders Placed on Probation). Proposed Section 61.0795, Human Resources Code, does not appear in the substitute, but SECTION 3 of the substitute amends Chapter 54, Family Code, by adding Section 54.051 (Transfer of Determinate Sentence Probation to Appropriate District Court), which maintains the theme of proposed Section 61.0795, Human Resources Code. The substitute differs from the original by requiring a juvenile court to hold a hearing to determine whether to transfer a child to an appropriate district court or to discharge the child from a probation sentence. The original would have required a juvenile court that places a child on probation to waive its exclusive jurisdiction and transfer a child to an appropriate district court between the child's 17th and 18th birthdays if the probation were to continue on or after the child's 18th birthday. For a complete analysis of SECTION 2 of the substitute, see the Section-by-Section analysis. The substitute redesignates SECTIONS 3, 4, and 5 of the original to SECTIONS 4, 5, and 6 of the substitute.