Capitol Research Services of Texas > Reports

Sex Offender Registration Program (1999 Amendment)

  • Chapter 62, Code of Criminal Procedure
  • 1999 Amendment: S.B. 1124
  • Report: 125 pages
  • Fee: $295


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Abstract

This report reviews development of the sex offender registration program now contained in Chapter 62, Code of Criminal Procedure. It focuses in particular on the legislative histories of S.B. 1224 (1999).

The House committee bill analysis summarized S.B. 1224 as follows:

Background

A sexually violent predator may be defined as a person who has been convicted of or charged with a sexually violent offense and who suffers from a mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence if the person is not confined in a secure correctional facility. The dangers that criminally violent sex offenders may pose upon release from prison is a concern to many communities. Based on the probability of future harmful conduct, some states have responded by enacting legislation that allows the use of a civil commitment process to continue the confinement of sexually violent criminal offenders who are found to have a mental abnormality that causes them to pose a danger to others, even if they are not found to have a mental illness. Although the use of the civil commitment of dangerous sex offenders who do not have a mental illness is highly controversial because civil commitment is typically intended for people with mental illnesses, not for criminals labeled as likely to reoffend, the United States Supreme Court has upheld its constitutionality. See Kansas v. Hendricks, 117 S.Ct. 2072 (1997).

Current Texas law does not provide for the civil commitment of dangerous sex offenders who do not have a mental illness to psychiatric hospitals following completion of their prison sentences. In this session, several bills have been introduced to establish a process for the civil commitment of sex offenders. If one or more of those bills become law, S.B. 1224 creates three new articles in the Code of Criminal Procedure that provide for additional regulation of persons subject to registration as sex offenders who are civilly committed.

Article 62.0451 requires the Department of Public Safety (department), when it receives notice that a person subject to registration who is civilly committed as a sexually violent predator is due to be released from a penal institution or intends to move to a new residence in this state, to provide written notice within a certain period to at least each residential address within a one mile radius or a three block area, as applicable, of the place where the person intends to reside. The department’s duty to provide notice in regard to a particular person ends on the date on which a court releases the person from all requirements of the civil commitment process. Article 62.061 requires a person who is subject to registration and is civilly committed as a sexually violent predator to report to the authority with whom the person is required to register not less than once in each 30 day period following the date the person first registered to verify the information in the registration form maintained by the authority for that person. Article 62.101 creates an offense punishable as a felony of the second degree for a person who fails to comply with any requirement of Chapter 62 (Sex Offender Registration Program), Code of Criminal Procedure, after commitment as a sexually violent predator but before the person is released from all requirements of the civil commitment process.

In addition, this bill creates a new article in the Code of Criminal Procedure that applies to a person who is required to register as a sex offender in another state with which the department has entered into a reciprocal registration agreement and who is not otherwise required to register under Chapter 62. Such a person is required to comply with the annual verification requirements of Article 62.06 (Law Enforcement Verification of Registration Information), Code of Criminal Procedure. Additionally, this bill requires a person to report to the local law enforcement authority to which the person must register within seven days of a change in address the person’s new address and provide the authority with proof of identity and residence. Likewise, a person who is required to register and who is unsupervised is required to report to the authority any change in the person’s health or job status within seven days of a change..

Exhibits

1991
1. Act of June 15, 1991, 72nd Leg., R.S., ch. 572, 1991 Tex. Gen. Laws, 229

1993 – H.B. 181
2 . Act of June 18, 1993, 73rd Leg., R.S., ch. 866, 1993 Tex. Gen. Laws, 3420

1995 – S.B. 959
3 . Act of May 11, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 76, 1995 Tex. Gen. Laws, 458

1995 – S.B. 267
4 . Act of May 29, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 258, 1995 Tex. Gen. Laws, 2197.

1995 – H.B. 1379
5 . Act of June 15, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 676, 1995 Tex. Gen. Laws, 3649

6 . VERNON’S ANN. REV. CIV. STAT. Art. 6252–13c.1 (Vernon’s Supp. 1995)

1995-1996
7 . HOUSE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION, Debate continues on Texas’ sex offender notification law, Focus Report Number 74-23 (July 24, 1996)

1997 – S.B. 875
8 . Act of June 13, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 668, 1997 Tex. Gen. Laws, 2253

1997 – S.B. 381
9 . Act of June 13, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 667, 1997 Tex. Gen. Laws, 2250

1997 – H.B. 2918
10 . Act of June 20, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 1430, 1997 Tex. Gen. Laws, 5493

1997-1998
11 . SENATE INTERIM COMMITTEE ON SEX OFFENDERS, Report to the 76th Legislature (September 11, 1998)

1999 – S.B. 1224
12. Tex. S.B. 1224, 76th Leg., R.S., Master Bill History Report (1999)

13. Tex. S.B. 1224, As Introduced, 76th Leg., R.S. (1999)

14. Tex. S.B. 1224, Senate Committee Report, 76th Tex. Leg., R.S. (1999)

15. Tex. S.B. 1224, House Committee Report, 76th Leg., R.S. (1999)

16. Capitol Research Services, Hearings on S.B. 1224 Before the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, 76th Leg. R.S. (April 28, 1999)

17. Capitol Research Services, Debate on S.B. 1224 On the Floor of the Senate (Second and Third Readings), 76th Leg. R.S. (May 6, 1999)

18. Capitol Research Services, Debate on S.B. 1224 On the Floor of the House (Second Reading), 76th Leg. R.S. (May 26, 1999)

19. S.J. of Tex., 70th Leg., R.S. 1520-1523 (1999)

20. H.J. of Tex., 76th Leg., R.S. 3322, 3337 (1999)

21. Act of June 18, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 444, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws, 2824

22. Act of June 18, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 444, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws, 2824

1999 – S.B. 399
23 . Act of June 20, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 1193, 1997 Tex. Gen. Laws, 5493

1999 – H.B. 1939
24 . Act of June 19, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 1401, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws, 4727

1999 – H.B. 2145
25 . Act of June 19, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 1414, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws, 4831

1999 – S.B. 1650
26 . Act of June 19, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 1557, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws, 5354

27 . Vernon’s Ann. Code of Crim. Proc. Ch. 62 (Vernon Supp. 2001)

2001 – H.B. 121
28 . Tex. H.B. 121, Enrolled, 77th Leg., R.S., (2001) (Internet Version)

2001 – H.B. 2987
29 . Tex. H.B. 2987, Enrolled, 77th Leg., R.S., (2001) (Internet Version)

2001 – S.B. 654
30 . Tex. S.B. 654, Enrolled, 77th Leg., R.S., (2001) (Internet Version)

2001 – S.B. 1206
31 . Tex. S.B. 1206, Enrolled, 77th Leg., R.S., (2001) (Internet Version)

2001 – S.B. 1380
32 . Tex. S.B. 1380, Enrolled, 77th Leg., R.S., (2001) (Internet Version)