Highlights 77th Texas Legislature - Senate

______________ C RIMINAL
Automatic Restriction of Access to Records
USTICE /Juveniles
RIMINAL JUSTICE
77 th Texas Legislature
Provides that sex offender registration records, criminal combination or criminal street gang records, and
records in determinate sentence or adult certification cases be exempt from automatic restriction of access
to records.
Requires the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to certify to the juvenile court or the juvenile probation
department the records that are subject to automatic restriction of access, to not disclose the existence of
the records or any information in them and, when information is requested, to respond that the records do
not exist. These records include all juvenile files and records of persons at least 21 years of age who were
not given deferred adjudication for or convicted of a felony or a jailable misdemeanor for an offense
committed after the person became 17.
Upon its receipt of DPS certification, requires the juvenile court to order TYC, the probation department,
court clerk, prosecutor’s office, appropriate law enforcement agency, and other agencies that provided care
or custody to allow access to the records only when it is authorized and to respond to requests for the
records that no record exists.
Authorizes access to the certified records only for the limited purpose of latent fingerprint comparison,
investigations of criminal offenses, enhancement of punishment in criminal cases, use in the penalty phase
of criminal cases, adult presentence investigation reports, criminal trial preparation in felony or jailable
misdemeanor cases, or research by the Criminal Justice Policy Council (CJPC), TYC, and the Texas
Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC).
Requires DPS to request the FBI to place the information in its files on restricted access status with access
only by a criminal justice agency for a criminal justice purpose or, if that is not feasible, to delete information
concerning the case from its database.
Does not restrict the sealing or destruction of records under other laws. Permits the youth and the youth’s
attorney to have access to the restricted records for the purpose of preparing a motion to seal or destroy
the records.
Applies to records relating to a juvenile case without regard to whether those records existed or were
maintained before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.
Destruction of Records for Housekeeping Purposes
Authorizes physical files or records to be destroyed without restriction when they are placed on microfilm or
microfiche or replaced with an electronic version that contains the same information.
Authorizes the juvenile board (in relation to probation department records), the head of a law enforcement
agency (in relation to law enforcement records), and the prosecuting attorney (in relation to prosecution
records) to destroy files and records (including computer files andmicrofilm, etc) in closed cases when:
Senate Research Center 59