HBA-JEK, AMW H.B. 598 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 598 By: Goodman Corrections 2/19/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The community justice assistance division (division) of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice allocates funds to community supervision and corrections departments that supervise or help rehabilitate the 440,000 offenders in Texas who are currently serving sentences under community supervision rather than in prison. These departments receive approximately 65 percent of their operating budgets from the Texas Legislature. They also receive funds from their local governments and by collecting court-ordered fees from offenders. The maximum fees collected from offenders have not been increased for years, which has resulted in more costs for local governments. House Bill 598 increases the state funding period for each misdemeanant defendant and raises the maximum monthly fees that local governments charge defendants during their supervision period. 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. ANALYSIS House Bill 598 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to increase from $40 to $60 the maximum amount of a monthly fee that a defendant pays to the court of record having original criminal jurisdiction during the community supervision period. The bill amends the Government Code to increase from 182 days to two years the maximum period of time that the community justice assistance division is required to pay to a community supervision and corrections department a per diem amount, for per capita funding, for each misdemeanant defendant supervised by the department pursuant to lawful authority. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.