HB 3903, private jail accountability bill, to be heard by Texas house

Mon, 05/11/2009 - 9:36am — Bob

Representative Ortiz, Jr.HB 3903, a private jail accountability bill filed by Representative Solomon Ortiz, Jr, will be heard by full Texas House tomorrow during the Local and Consent portion of the House session. The bill takes a number of steps regarding to private jails including:

Subjecting private prison corporations to the same open records law as public facilities. Currently, private jail records are not subject to open records law,
Mandating public hearings before a county may privatize their jail facilities, and
Making it illegal for a public servant such as a Sherrif to be paid by a private prison corporation in addition to his/her salary.

We will post as soon as we know the results of the house vote tomorrow.