A Day at the Capitol

            On April 26, 2011, I ventured to the Capitol to attend two Senate committee meetings:  one on health and human services and the other on criminal justice.  While the health and human services meeting did not have much relevance to our juvenile justice discussion, I enjoyed hearing the various senators discuss their respective bills.  The bills discussed in the meeting were SB 1289, SB 1084, SB 1424, SB 1360, SB 1454, SB 1448, SB 1790, SB 1745, and SB 856.  One of the most interesting bills discussed at the meeting was SB 1448, a bill authored by Senator Zaffirini relating to the consent for treatment for chemical dependency in a treatment facility and required training for the facility’s intake personnel.  The bill would not put additional financial costs on the treatment facilities and would require that each person employed complete eight hours of inservice training before being able to conduct an intake or assessment for a treatment facility.  If passed, the bill would take effect on September 1, 2011. Everyone seemed to be in support of the bill, but it was tabled until further public testimony could be heard.

After the meeting had ended, I walked around to soak in the experience. It was a nice change of scenery from the School of Social Work and Akins High School, the two places where I spend the majority of my time.  Although a person must have a great deal of patience in waiting for briefings and committee meetings, it was interesting to just observe the various senators and representatives (and other important people in business suits!) walk around looking official and doing important things.  It was also invigorating (and scary!) to know that Senate and House bills were being passed while I was in the building.

After exploring the Capitol, Margaret and I attended the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.  This meeting was quite different from the meeting I had attended in the morning; the location was quite smaller (moving from the Senate chamber to a small meeting room), the way in which bills were heard and discussed was different, and there were fewer people in attendance.  After being called to order and completing a roll call, the committee discussed the following bills:

• SB 533 (Author—Davis) Relating to the minimum standards for the certifications of sexual assault training programs and sexual assault nurse examiners and for certification renewal by those entities
• SB 972 (Author—Hinojosa) Relating to the taking of a defendant’s bail bond by county jailers
• SB 1529 (Author—Hinojosa) Relating to the date by which law enforcement agencies must report arrests to the Department of Public Safety
• SB 1636 (Author—Davis)  Relating to the collection, analysis, and preservation of sexual assault or DNA evidence
• SB 1658 (Author—Hinojosa)  Relating to the membership and duties of, and the investigations conducted by, the  Texas Forensic Science Commission, the administrative attachment of the Texas Forensic Science Commission to the Department of Public Safety, and the accreditation of criminal laboratories by the Department of Public Safety.

Although no juvenile justice bills were officially discussed, we did find out that Senate Bill 718 relating to disciplinary action taken against public school students on the basis of serious misbehavior was passed today.  This bill will affect juvenile justice because school district police officers will be prohibited from issuing citations, specifically Class C misdemeanors, for disrupting a classroom.  This is great news!

The day at the Capitol was a success!