State Agencies Undergo Sunset Review Process – Texas Board And Department Of Criminal Justice
Over the past month or so, I have been outlining Texas’ sunset review process. The agencies I have covered so far include the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and several others. As a reminder, in order to identify and eliminate government waste, duplication and general inefficiencies in state agencies, the Texas Legislature established the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission in 1977. The sunset review process is designed to review each of these agencies every twelve years. This review is done by taking up a certain number of the state agencies each session when the Texas Legislature convenes.
In last week’s article we examined the Texas Board of Professional Engineers which is tasked with the responsibility of regulating the practice of professional engineering in the State of Texas. In this week’s article we are going to look at the Texas Board and Department of Criminal Justice. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is overseen by the Texas Board of Criminal Justice.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice (Board) is a nine member board appointed by the Texas Governor. The members of the Board are appointed for staggered six-year terms. The Board is responsible for hiring the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and tasked with setting rules and policies which guide the agency. In addition to the Board being responsible for agency rules and policies, divisions within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are required to report directly to the Board, those divisions are the Office of Inspector General which oversees the Investigation Department, the Internal Audit Division, and the State Counsel for Offenders. Members of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice also serve as the Board of Trustees for the Windham School District within Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The board is also responsible for hiring the Windham School District’s superintendent. The Windham School district is an educational system within the state’s prison system that provides eligible offenders incarcerated within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with an academic and vocational education.
As previously mentioned, the Board is responsible for overseeing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Department of Criminal Justice is responsible for managing offenders in state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities which have contracted with the State of Texas. The Department of Criminal Justice is also responsible for providing funding and a degree of oversight of individuals who are under community supervision more commonly known as adult probation, as well as the supervision of individuals who have been released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision.
