Section 174.27 - Risk Assessment(a) A risk assessment of each county shall be conducted by the policy monitoring team each fiscal year as the primary means of determining which counties will be selected for on-site policy monitoring. On-site monitoring visits to counties shall then be apportioned by administrative judicial region, county size, risk assessment scores, past visits, and other documented factors. The risk assessment shall use a variety of factors related to the provision of indigent defense services, including but not limited to the following: (1) Investigation and expert witness expenses;(2) Reimbursements for attorney fees;(3) Per capita indigent defense expenses;(4) Felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile attorney appointment rates;(6) Complaints about a county received by the Commission;(7) Receipt of a TIDC improvement grant;(8) Requests for counsel during magistrate warnings under Article RSA 15.17, Code of Criminal Procedure; and(b) Counties may receive monitoring visits as a result of factors outside of the risk assessment, including findings from a previous visit, a complaint, media reports, or a request from an elected state or local official. If Commission staff make a drop-in visit, fiscal monitoring review, or grant program review and determine that violations of the Fair Defense Act or Commission rules may be present in a county, the monitor may conduct a monitoring visit of the county's procedures.1 Tex. Admin. Code § 174.27
The provisions of this §174.27 adopted to be effective July 23, 2009, 34 TexReg 4731; Adopted by Texas Register, Volume 40, Number 38, September 18, 2015, TexReg 6350, eff. 9/23/2015; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 45, Number 15, April 10, 2020, TexReg 2409, eff. 4/13/2020