Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments

Legislative Directives

Determine the status of offenders with special needs in the state criminal justice system;
Identify needed services for offenders with special needs;
Develop a plan for meeting the treatment, rehabilitative, and educational needs of offenders with special needs that includes a case management system and the development of community-based alternatives to incarceration;
Cooperate in coordinating procedures of represented agencies for the orderly provision of services for offenders with special needs;
Evaluate programs in this state and outside this state for offenders with special needs and recommend to the directors of state programs methods of improving the programs;
Collect and disseminate information about available programs to judicial officers, law enforcement officers, probation and parole officers, providers of social services or treatment, and the public;
Provide technical assistance to represented agencies and organizations in the development of appropriate training programs;
Apply for and receive money made available by the federal or state government or by any other public or private source to be used by the council to perform its duties;
Distribute to political subdivisions, private organizations, or other persons money appropriated by the legislature to be used for the development, operation, or evaluation of programs for offenders with special needs.
Develop and implement programs to demonstrate a cooperative program to identify, evaluate, and manage outside of incarceration offenders with special needs.
Monitor, coordinate and implement a continuity of care system for offenders with special needs.