Sec. 509.006. COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS FACILITIES

(a) To establish and maintain community corrections facilities, the division may:

(1) fund division-managed facilities;

(2) fund contracts for facilities that are managed by departments, counties, or vendors;

(3) provide funds to departments for the renovation of leased or donated buildings for use as facilities;

(4) accept ownership of real property pursuant to an agreement under which the division agrees to construct a facility and offer the facility for lease;

(5) allow departments, counties, or municipalities to accept and use buildings provided by units of local governments, including rural hospital districts, for use as facilities;

(6) provide funds to departments, counties, or municipalities to lease, purchase, or construct buildings or to lease or purchase land or other real property for use as facilities, lease or purchase equipment necessary for the operation of facilities, and pay other costs as necessary for the management and operation of facilities; and

(7) be a party to a contract for correctional services or approve a contract for those services if the state, on a biennial appropriations basis, commits to fund a portion of the contract.

(b) The division may require that community corrections facilities comply with state and local safety laws and may develop standards for:

(1) the physical plant and operation of community corrections facilities;

(2) programs offered by community corrections facilities;

(3) disciplinary rules for residents of community corrections facilities; and

(4) emergency furloughs for residents of community corrections facilities.

(c) Minimum standards for community corrections facilities must include requirements that a facility:

(1) provide levels of security appropriate for the population served by the facility, including as a minimum a monitored and structured environment in which a resident's interior and exterior movements and activities can be supervised by specific destination and time; and

(2) accept only those residents who are physically and mentally capable of participating in any program offered at the facility that requires strenuous physical activity, if participation in the program is required of all residents of the facility.

(d) Standards developed by the division that relate to state jail felony facilities must meet minimum requirements adopted by the board for the operation of state jail felony facilities. The board may adopt rules and procedures for the operation of more than one type of state jail felony facility.

(e) With the consent of the department operating or contracting for the operation of the facility, the board may designate any community corrections facility that is an intermediate sanction facility as a state jail felony facility and confine state jail felons in that facility.

Added by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 7.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.