Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0605 Page: 2 of 6
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The Honorable David Aken - Page 2
CODE ANN. 508.251 (Vernon 2004) (issuance of warrant), 508.252(2) (the grounds for issuing
a parole revocation warrant include the parolee's arrest for an offense). A warrant issued pursuant
to section 508.251 is known as a "blue warrant."2 Any officer named by the blue warrant may take
custody of the person and detain him until a parole panel orders his return to the institution from
which he was released. See id. 508.254(b). Pending a hearing on a charge of parole violation, the
person must remain confined. See id. 508.254(c). See also Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778
(1973) (circumstances when the state must provide counsel to indigent probationers or parolees in
revocation hearings); Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 485 (1972) (due process requirements for
parole revocation). The parolee is entitled to a preliminary hearing within a reasonable time. See
TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. 508.2811 (Vernon 2004). A revocation hearing to dispose of the parole
violation charges is held before the 41st day after the date on which the blue warrant was executed,
with certain exceptions. See id. 508.281 (hearing), 508.282 (deadline for providing hearing); 37
TEX. ADMIN. CODE ch. 146 (2007) (Tex. Bd. of Pardons and Paroles, Revocation of Parole or
Mandatory Supervision).
The deadline for providing a revocation hearing does not apply when a parolee arrested on
a blue warrant is charged with a new offense, "other than an offense punishable by fine only
involving the operation of a motor vehicle." TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. 508.2811 (2)(B) (Vernon
2004); see id. 508.281. Thus, before Senate Bill 909 was adopted, a prisoner arrested for both a
parole violation and a new offense allegedly committed in another county might remain in the
arresting county's jail for an indefinite time, because the Board of Pardons and Paroles typically
would not deal with the parole violation until after charges on the new offense were resolved. See
HOUSE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION, BILL ANALYSIS, Tex. S.B. 1428, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007) at 3.3
The parolee would usually remain in the arresting county's jail under the blue warrant, and the
sheriff of the county where the offense was allegedly committed could postpone sending for him,
shifting the expense of incarceration to the arresting county. See id.
Senate Bill 909 amended articles 15.19 through 15.21 to address this problem. See id. at 2.
Pursuant to the amendment, article 15.19 provides as follows:
(a) If the arrested person fails or refuses to give bail,4 as
provided in Article 15.18, the arrested person shall be committed to
2These warrants are called "blue warrants" because they are printed on blue paper. See HouSE RESEARCH
ORGANIZATION, BILL ANALYSIS, TEX. S.B. 1428, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007) at 1.
3The amendments to Code of Criminal Procedure chapter 15 were introduced by Senate Bill 1428, which was
not adopted. See Tex. S.B. 1428, 80th Leg., R.S. (2007). The substance of Senate Bill 1428 was added to Senate Bill
909 as an amendment. See S.J. ofTex., 80th Leg., R.S. 5337 (2007).
4A person arrested for violating parole conditions is not entitled to bail, because the Texas constitutional right
to bail does not apply to prisoners after conviction. See TEX. CONST. art. I, 11 (right to bail); Ex Parte Laday, 594
S.W.2d 102, 103 (Tex. Crim. App. 1980) (constitutional right to bail applies only to prisoners prior to conviction). A
state's failure to provide parolees with a bail hearing when they were arrested on new bailable criminal charges did not
violate the Eighth Amendment or the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Faheem-El v. Klincar, 841
F.2d 712, 728-29 (7th Cir. 1988).(GA-0605)
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Texas. Attorney-General's Office. Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0605, text, February 29, 2008; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth275501/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.