The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice advanced a series of bills Wednesday after hours of testimony on public‑safety, court‑process and mental‑health topics, sending the measures to the full Senate with mostly unanimous committee recommendations.

The committee debated several measures at length, including a bill clarifying access to ankle‑monitor (GPS) data in criminal cases, legislation expanding circumstances under which peace officers or courts may order emergency inpatient mental‑health treatment, and a proposal to require reciprocal disclosure of certain evidence before trial. Supporters and opponents framed those measures as steps either to improve public safety and prosecutorial effectiveness or as potential threats to due process and local control.

Why it matters: The committee’s actions would alter how prosecutors, defense counsel, judges and law enforcement share evidence and supervise people on pretrial release, and would change who may be detained or ordered into treatment in mental‑health crises. Several bills passed unanimously at committee; a few drew divided votes that will likely prompt debate on the Senate floor.

Ankle‑monitor records and enforcement (Senate Bill 10 20)

The committee considered Senate Bill 10 20 after proponents described uneven local practice — most notably in Harris County — where judges and pretrial officials had treated GPS/ankle‑monitor logs as judicial work product and limited prosecutor and law‑enforcement access.

Kim Ogg, the former Harris County district attorney, told the committee the records are investigative evidence and must be accessible to law enforcement and prosecutors. "The withholding of such evidence is counterproductive to public safety," she said.

Andy Conn, director of victim services at Crime Stoppers of Houston, gave committee members a year‑by‑year count of people on GPS monitoring in Harris County, saying the number rose from about 600 in 2019 to roughly 11,000 in 2024. He argued timely access to monitoring data is essential to detecting violations and investigating new crimes.

Sponsor Senator Joan Huffman said the bill clarifies that monitoring data do not fall within judicial work‑product privilege, requires prompt reporting of suspected violations to the court and gives local supervision agencies authority to share violation records with prosecutors and law enforcement. Committee members discussed language in the bill about "tampering" with monitors; several asked whether more precise terms such as "deactivate" or "remove" should be used. Senator Huffman said she would consider that technical change.

Emergency‑detention and court‑ordered mental‑health treatment (Senate Bill 11 64)

Senate Bill 11 64, the Judiciary Commission on Mental Health’s recommendation, would revise emergency‑detention procedures and add lack of capacity to recognize symptoms of mental illness as a factor permitting emergency detention in urgent situations.

Senator Zaffirini, the bill sponsor, said the measure would "improve emergency detention procedures, clarify officer responsibilities, ensure jurisdictional consistency, and expand criteria for early intervention in severe mental‑health cases." Christy Taylor, executive director of the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health, appeared as a resource witness.

Several family members and advocates testified in support, including Walter Macias of NAMI, who described a multidecade family tragedy and said the bill could have changed the outcome for his relatives. Former judge Brent Carr, Houston public‑safety official Larry Satterwhite and others argued the change would allow earlier intervention for people who are deteriorating but do not yet meet the narrow existing standard of imminent harm.

Several witnesses urged caution and stronger safeguards. Jan Lightfoot, a licensed mental‑health provider, and Vesper Veda, who described personal experience of detention, raised concerns that broader language about capacity and symptom recognition could be applied unevenly and called for robust procedural protections, prompt counsel access and improved training for decisionmakers.

Indigent defense and other procedural bills (Senate Bill 21 11)

Senate Bill 21 11, presented as a Texas Indigent Defense Commission proposal, would expand access to counsel at magistrate proceedings, strengthen standards for managed assigned counsel (MAC) programs, create internship and fellowship programs to recruit attorneys in underserved areas, and make several administrative changes for the Commission. Scott Ehlers, executive director of the TIDC, said the bill is intended to address attorney shortages and improve oversight and training.

Reciprocal discovery (Senate Bill 27 97)

Senate Bill 27 97 would require reciprocal pretrial disclosure by defendants of witnesses and certain evidence they intend to use at trial — aligning Texas practice with rules used in other states, federal court and military courts, the sponsor said.

Supporters, including elected prosecutors and county district attorneys (Brett Ligon, Jack Brody and others), said reciprocal discovery reduces "trial by ambush," helps prosecutors investigate legitimate defenses sooner and can prevent prolonged prosecutions of the wrong person. Opponents, including the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (David Gonzalez), said defense counsel and defendants are not institutional equals with the state and warned that broader disclosure obligations could chill legitimate defense investigation and prompt additional litigation over privilege and the Fifth Amendment.

Community supervision budgets and local oversight (Senate Bill 6 63)

Senator Huffman’s bill would remove the statutory requirement that district judges approve community supervision and corrections department (CSCD) budgets, while preserving the requirement that judges receive the budgets for review. CSCD directors testified they frequently must resubmit budgets to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Community Justice Assistance Division (CJAD) and that removing the approval step — while keeping judicial review — would reduce delays and avoid fiscal interruptions. Teresa May (Harris County CSCD) and Allison Martinez (Webb County CSCD) spoke in favor.

Other committee topics

- Skimming devices (Senate Bill 2,371): Senator Nichols and Adam Colby of the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center described a proposal to expand mandatory reporting requirements for card‑skimming devices to ATMs, point‑of‑sale terminals and virtual‑currency kiosks, and to require merchants to disable affected terminals until inspected. Colby said centralized reporting has enabled rapid investigations and arrests in pump‑skimming cases and urged expanding the model.

- County jail commissary rules (Senate Bill 2,581): Senator Hancock described repealing a statutory population bracket that treated some large counties differently; the Texas Sheriffs’ Association testified in support.

- Repeat delivery of controlled substances (Senate Bill 11 52): Sponsor Senator Huffman said the bill would create a third‑degree felony for two or more qualifying deliveries of controlled substances within 12 months and clarify unanimity requirements for jurors.

Committee action and next steps

The committee voted to report most of the measures to the full Senate with favorable recommendations. Several bills were recommended for the Senate’s local, uncontested calendar. A handful of bills that drew substantial debate will proceed to the Senate with recorded favorable committee recommendations; one high‑profile measure on reciprocal discovery drew a 5–2 committee vote.

Votes at a glance (committee roll calls recorded in the hearing)

- SB 2,570 (committee substitute reported): committee reported substitute with favorable recommendation (5 ayes, 1 nay, 1 present-not‑voting noted in roll call) — reported to full Senate.
- SB 330 (adds prosecutors to voter‑approval protection for budget cuts): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 6,63 (CSCD budget process, committee substitute adopted): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 10,20 (ankle‑monitor records, committee substitute adopted): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 11,52 (repeat controlled‑substance deliveries): reported favorably (6 ayes, 1 nay).
- SB 11,64 (emergency detention/mental‑health): committee substitute reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 18,96 (magistrate data for emergency protective orders): committee substitute reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 21,11 (indigent defense, committee substitute adopted): committee substitute reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 21,96 (magistrate emergency‑protection duration): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 23,71 (expand skimming reporting, committee substitute adopted): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 23,83 (re‑hire retired DPS officers): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 25,81 (commissary statute repeal): reported favorably (7–0).
- SB 27,97 (reciprocal discovery, committee substitute adopted): reported favorably (5 ayes, 2 nays).
- SB 27,98 (financial‑fraud statute‑of‑limitations alignment): reported favorably (7–0).

What’s next: All bills reported will go to the full Senate for calendaring and floor consideration. Several measures that passed unanimously at committee are likely to move through the Senate more quickly; bills with divided committee votes, including the reciprocal‑discovery proposal, are likely to draw further floor debate and potential amendment.

Reported testimony and excerpts

Selected direct quotes from the hearing:
- Adam Colby, director, Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center: "I'm here to testify in favor of SB 2,371." (on expanding mandatory skimmer reporting to ATMs and point‑of‑sale systems)
- Kim Ogg, former Harris County district attorney: "The withholding of such evidence is counterproductive to public safety." (on ankle‑monitor records)
- Andy Conn, Crime Stoppers of Houston: "In 2019 you had roughly about 600 people on some form of an ankle monitor ... in 2024 ... 11,000." (annual counts for Harris County reported to the committee)
- Brett Ligon, prosecutor: reciprocal discovery "absolutely does that" — he described the bill as balancing truth‑seeking and defendants’ rights.

Ending: The committee recessed after reporting the bills to the Senate. Full texts of each referred bill and the committee substitute language — including amendments made during the hearing — will be available through the Legislature’s bill tracking system ahead of floor consideration.