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Texas Government Code - Section 495.001. Authority To Contract

Legal Research Home > Texas Laws > Government Code > Texas Government Code - Section 495.001. Authority To Contract

§ 495.001. AUTHORITY TO CONTRACT.  (a) The board may 
contract with a private vendor or with the commissioners court of a 
county for the financing, construction, operation, maintenance, or 
management of a secure correctional facility.
	(b)  A facility operated, maintained, and managed under this 
subchapter by a private vendor or county must:
		(1)  hold not more than an average daily population of 
1,000 inmates;       
		(2)  comply with federal constitutional standards and 
applicable court orders;  and
		(3)  receive and retain, as an individual facility, 
accreditation from the American Correctional Association.
	(c)  A facility authorized by this subchapter may be located 
on private land or on land owned by the state or a political 
subdivision of the state.  The board may accept land donated for 
that purpose.
	(d)  The population requirements imposed by Subsection 
(b)(1) do not apply to a facility that is under construction or 
completed before April 14, 1987.
	(e)  The board shall give priority to entering contracts 
under this subchapter that will provide the institutional division 
with secure regionally based correctional facilities designed to 
successfully reintegrate inmates into society through preparole, 
prerelease, work release, and prison industries programs.
	(f)  Notwithstanding Subsection (b)(1), a facility that 
before December 1, 1991, was operated, maintained, and managed 
under this subchapter by a private vendor or county may not hold 
more than an average daily population of 500 inmates, unless the 
commissioners court of the county in which the facility is located 
expresses in a resolution on the subject that the limit on 
population imposed by this subsection should not apply to the 
facility.

Added by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 212, § 2.01, eff. Sept. 1, 
1989.  Renumbered from V.T.C.A., Government Code § 494.001 and 
amended by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 16, § 10.01(a), eff. Aug. 
26, 1991.  Amended by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., 2nd C.S., ch. 10, § 
2.01, eff. Dec. 1, 1991.

Last modified: August 11, 2007