By Hightower                                          H.B. No. 1816
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the duties of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice and
    1-3  the Board of Pardons and Paroles with respect to limiting the
    1-4  number of prisoners that may be released on parole and mandatory
    1-5  supervision to a county.
    1-6        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-7        SECTION 1.  Article 42.18, Section 7(a), Code of Criminal
    1-8  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
    1-9        "Sec. 7.  (a)  The members of the board shall:
   1-10              (1)  determine under Sections 8(a)-(f) of this article
   1-11  which prisoners are to be released on parole;
   1-12              (2)  determine under Sections 8(g) and (j) of this
   1-13  article conditions of parole and mandatory supervision;
   1-14              (3)  perform the constitutional duties imposed on the
   1-15  board by Article IV, Section 11, of the Texas Constitution;
   1-16              (4)  determine which prisoners may be released from
   1-17  supervision and reporting under Section 15 of this article; <and>
   1-18              (5)  determine under Section 14 of this article the
   1-19  revocation of parole and mandatory supervision; and
   1-20              (6)  determine which county a prisoner is released to
   1-21  on parole or mandatory supervision in order to insure that for any
   1-22  given month the percentage of the total number of prisoners
   1-23  released from the institutional division to a county does not
    2-1  exceed the percentage of the total number of prisoners admitted to
    2-2  the institutional division from that county for the previous
    2-3  month."
    2-4        SECTION 2.  Section 492.013, Government Code, is amended by
    2-5  adding a new subdivision (h) to read as follows:
    2-6        "(h)  The board shall develop and implement policies for the
    2-7  Board of Pardons and Paroles and the pardons and paroles division
    2-8  to insure that for any given month the percentage of the total
    2-9  number of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision
   2-10  from the institutional division to a county does not exceed the
   2-11  percentage of the total number of prisoners received by the
   2-12  institutional division from that county for the previous month.
   2-13  The board shall prepare a monthly report showing the total number
   2-14  of prisoners released on parole or mandatory supervision to each
   2-15  county, the total number of prisoners admitted to the institutional
   2-16  division from each county for the previous month, and the
   2-17  corresponding percentages of the state-wide totals pertaining to
   2-18  each county."
   2-19        SECTION 3.  The Texas Board of Criminal Justice shall develop
   2-20  and implement the policies and procedures required by Section 2 not
   2-21  later than January 1, 1994.
   2-22        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-3  passage, and it is so enacted.