§ 103.052.Lump-Sum Compensation

The arithmetic of the chapter sits in one section.

Prison time pays $80,000 a year, multiplied by the years served and expressed as a fraction to reflect partial years. Nothing is left to discretion; the figure is the figure.

Time after release pays $25,000 a year. A person who served a Texas prison sentence and was then released on parole, or required to register as a sex offender under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is paid at that rate for the years spent on parole or on the registry, again in fractions for partial years.

The second rate answers a real problem. A wrongful conviction does not end at the prison gate, and years of supervision or registration are years of the same injury.

Child support is the third component. The claimant is compensated for support payments that came due during the time served and were not paid, along with the interest that accrued on the arrearages.

That money never touches the claimant’s hands. It is paid on the claimant’s behalf in a lump sum to the state disbursement unit, which distributes it to the obligee under the support order.

The design is deliberate. A person imprisoned for years leaves owing support that accrued while earning nothing, and paying the arrearage directly clears the debt instead of handing over money already spoken for.

Only two of the three components feed the annuity. Section 103.053 builds its present value on the prison and post-release figures, leaving the child support component to be paid as a lump sum.