CONTRACTS FOR DIAGNOSTIC AND EVALUATION SERVICES

(a) The institutional division shall request proposals and may award one contract to a private vendor or community supervision and corrections department to screen and diagnose, either before or after adjudications of guilt, persons who may be transferred to the division. The term of the contract may not be for more than two years. The institutional division shall award the contract if the division determines that: (1) the person proposing to enter into the contract can provide psychiatric, psychological, or social evaluations of persons who are to be transferred to the division; (2) the services provided will reduce the chances of misdiagnosis of persons with mental illness or persons with intellectual disabilities who are to be transferred to the division, expedite the diagnostic process, and offer savings to the division; (3) the quality of services offered equals or exceeds the quality of the same services provided by the division; and (4) the state will assume no additional liability by entering into a contract for the services. (b) If the institutional division enters into the contract and during or at the end of the contract period determines that the diagnostic services performed under the contract are of a sufficient quality and are cost effective, the division shall submit requests for additional proposals for contracts and award one or more contracts in the same manner as provided by Subsection (a).