Analyzing legislation to reform Texas sex-offender civil commitment program

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3-5-15 Texas:

From Grits for Breakfast

When Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire filed SB 746 revamping Texas' civil commitment program aimed at sexually violent predators, Grits tried in vain to grok the ins and outs of all the changes and their import from the text and quickly found it made my head hurt. So I emailed Nancy Bunin - an attorney in Houston who works on these cases who was involved with advocating for reforming the program - asking her to explain what the bill did, how it addressed the problems reported extensively in the Houston Chronicle and elsewhere, and what remains to be done. She graciously replied today with a detailed and candid response. I'm immensely grateful for her taking the time. Find her analysis below the jump.

by Nancy Bunin:

Texas has a statute to civilly commit an arbitrary and select few of the persons convicted of more than one sexual violent offense. This commitment process is initiated after the person has completed discharged his prison sentence or has been released on parole.[1]

The process is fundamentally unfair. No one who is tried for civil commitment is ever found not to qualify for commitment and no one has ever been released from civil commitment[2]. According to the agency’s own records[3], more than one half of the men who have been civilly committed have been sent back to prison for violating rules that are created, enforced, and interpreted by the same agency in charge of “treating” the civilly commitment patients.



More than twenty other states have similar civil commitment laws. Texas was unique in that persons were ordered to participate in sex offender treatment as outpatients. Since 2004 those orders have been modified to require civilly committed men to live in state contracted halfway houses and jails in violation of the existing statute.

Texas is also unusual in that violations of the rules of civil commitment can be prosecuted as a third degree felony. Any violation of civil commitment rules made by the agency can result in a patient being charged with a felony. For example, patients are forbidden to communicate with any person without agency permission, and patients have been charged for communicating with their families. Many of the agency rules criminalize behavior that is legal and protected – in fact, many of the rules are more restrictive than those imposed upon prisoners.

Since every man in civil commitment has at least 2 felony convictions, this meant any rule violation could result in habitual felon status and a possible life sentence. Most recently Gary Vines received a life sentence. He was six minutes late returning to the halfway house after waiting to pick up his heart medication. There are over 100 rules of civil commitment. It is impossible for a reasonable adult to follow all the rules simultaneously.

Sen. John Whitmire has introduced S.B. No. 746 to change the civil commitment law, Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 841. The bill is a response to a program that is out of control in terms of costs and oversight, and which is unconstitutional. Here are the highlights of the proposed changes to the civil commitment law. ..Continued..and excellent review of the bill.. ...

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