This section lets the parole division transfer certain eligible people to a secure community residential facility and requires the parole division and sheriff to exchange records and thumbprint information.
Sec. 499.003. TRANSFER FROM JAIL OR OTHER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY. (a) A person is eligible for transfer under this section from a jail or correctional institution to a secure community residential facility if: (1) the person has been sentenced to a term of confinement in the institutional division; (2) the person has not been delivered to the custody of the institutional division, but rather is confined in a jail in this state, a federal correctional institution, or a jail or correctional institution in another state; and (3) a presumptive parole date or mandatory supervision release date for the person has been established. (b) The parole division may authorize the transfer of an eligible person from a jail in this state, a federal correctional institution, or a jail or correctional institution in another state to a secure community residential facility designated by the parole division not more than one year before the person's presumptive parole date or mandatory supervision release date. A person transferred under this section is considered to be in the actual physical custody of the parole division. (c) A person transferred by the parole division to a secure community residential facility is subject to the provisions of Sections 499.002(c), 499.004, and 499.005 in the same manner as if the person is a pre-parolee who had been transferred to a community residential facility under Section 499.002. (d) The parole division may request of a sheriff that the sheriff forward to the parole division copies of any records possessed by the sheriff that are relevant to the parole division in its determination as to whether to transfer a person from the county jail to a secure community residential facility, and the parole division shall request the sheriff to forward to the institutional division and to the parole division the information relating to the defendant the sheriff would be required under Section 8, Article 42.09, Code of Criminal Procedure, to deliver to the department had the defendant been transferred to the institutional division. The parole division shall determine whether the information forwarded by the sheriff contains a thumbprint taken from the person in the manner provided by Article 38.33, Code of Criminal Procedure, and, if not, the parole division shall obtain a thumbprint in the manner provided by that article, and shall forward the thumbprint to the institutional division for inclusion with the information sent by the sheriff. The sheriff shall comply with a request from the parole division made under this subsection. Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 16, Sec. 10.01(a). Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 988, Sec. 4.02, eff. Sept. 1, 1993; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 321, Sec. 1.054, eff. Sept. 1, 1995. Amended by: Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1022 (S.B. 2405), Sec. 36, eff. September 1, 2025.