Parole Division

Warrants

The Warrants Section is responsible for a number of warrant related functions, including warrant issuance and confirmation, processing reports alleging parole violations, and warrant withdrawal tracking. As a whole, the section reviews violation reports, issues warrants, assists law enforcement in the apprehension of offenders, arranges the extradition of offenders back to Texas, and ensures that offenders receive the proper time credits when they are in custody on a pre-revocation warrant.

Warrants is comprised of several units. The first is the Command Center. The Command Center is in operation 24 hours per day, seven days a week, and is responsible for making warrant issuance decisions on alleged violations. Reports of alleged violations are received from a variety of sources. The most common is the Violation Report, which is received from the Parole Officer. Another type of report is the alert notification, which is received from the electronic monitoring or global positioning system vendor, and the final source is from a Halfway House.

The Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (TLETS) Unit is the primary interface between the Parole Division and law enforcement concerning warrant matters. TLETS is in operation 24 hours per day, seven days a week, and responsible for entering, modifying, and withdrawing warrants on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and/or the Texas Crime Information Center (TCIC) databases.

The Extradition Unit is tasked with making warrant issuance decisions on offenders who are supervised out-of-state, arranging transportation for offenders being brought back to Texas for a revocation hearing, and scheduling revocation hearings for offenders who are in a Texas prison unit on parole violation allegations.

The Time Credits Unit ensures that offenders are credited with the amount of time they are in custody pursuant to a pre-revocation warrant. The offender receives the credit upon revocation of supervision.

The Super Intensive Supervision Program (SISP) Unit. The SISP program is the highest level of supervision and offender accountability provided by TDCJ’s Parole Division. The SISP offender is monitored by Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, which allows for the tracking of the offender’s movement throughout the community on a continuous basis. The technology also allows the parole officer to verify compliance with a pre-approved curfew schedule and, in some cases, pre-approved routing. Each year, the parole officer reviews the offender’s case for possible recommendation to withdraw the special condition. In the event the Division determines the offender is suitable for withdrawal of the condition, the information is forwarded to the Board of Pardons and Paroles for consideration. The offender remains on SISP until the Board withdraws the condition or the offender discharges the sentence. On average, there are approximately 1,700 offenders on SISP and are supervised at a ratio of 14 offenders to one parole officer.

Electronic Monitoring (EM) Unit. Electronic Monitoring augments the supervision of an offender by monitoring compliance with a pre-approved curfew schedule. Offenders that have the special condition are monitored with Radio Frequency technology and have a transmitter attached to their ankle and a Home Monitoring Unit (HMU) placed in their home. Every sixty days, offenders are reviewed for recommendation to withdraw the special condition. As with the SISP and all other special conditions, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has the authority to withdraw the condition. On average, there are approximately 1,350 offenders supervised at a ratio of 25 offenders to one parole officer.

Lastly, the Warrants Section prepares performance measure reports for the Legislative Budget Board concerning specific types of warrants, and the HB 1112 Unit tracks warrants and ensures that the division remains within the guidelines mandated by law.