3-29-2011 Texas:
The Texas Senate this afternoon voted unanimously to create a new state agency to oversee violent sexual predators who are ordered to stay locked behind bars after they serve their prison sentences to protect the public.
Senate Bill 166 by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, will create the new Office of Violent Sex Offender Management, with its own three-member governing board appointed by the governor, to assume control over programs now performed by an office within the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The new agency will oversee the state’s civil-commitment program, which can go to court to keep violent sexual predators locked up under a court order after they leave prison, if they are found to pose a threat to society.
Shapiro said the change in law is necessary to give provide more efficient handling of the dangerous caseload, which is now handled by the Council on Sex Offender Treatment.
Questioned by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, about what the new agency will cost, Shapiro quickly reassured him that the added price tag will be zero.
The agency will operate within the current budget for the program, she said, noting that “all the money transfers from DSHS.”
Good enough, said Ogden, who then voted for the bill.
The measure now goes to the House for consideration. ..Source.. by MIke Ward
March 29, 2011
New sex-predator agency gets OK
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