By Allen                                               H.B. No. 636
         76R2503 GWK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the procedure by which an inmate imprisoned in the
 1-3     Texas Department of Criminal Justice may resolve a conflict over
 1-4     time-served credits for time spent confined in county jail before
 1-5     transfer to the department.
 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-7           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 501, Government Code, is
 1-8     amended by adding Section 501.0081 to read as follows:
 1-9           Sec. 501.0081.  DISPUTE RESOLUTION:  TIME-SERVED CREDITS.
1-10     (a)  The department shall develop a system that allows resolution
1-11     of a complaint by an inmate who alleges that time credited on the
1-12     inmate's sentence under Section 2, Article 42.03, Code of Criminal
1-13     Procedure, is in error and does not accurately reflect the amount
1-14     of time-served credit to which the inmate is entitled.
1-15           (b)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), an inmate may not
1-16     in an application for a writ of habeas corpus under Article 11.07,
1-17     Code of Criminal Procedure, raise as a claim a time-served credit
1-18     error described by Subsection (a)  until:
1-19                 (1)  the inmate receives a written decision issued by
1-20     the highest authority provided for in the resolution system; or
1-21                 (2)  if the inmate has not received a written decision
1-22     described by Subdivision (1), the 180th day after the date on which
1-23     under the resolution system the inmate first alleges the
1-24     time-served credit error.
 2-1           (c)  Subsection (b) does not apply to an inmate who,
 2-2     according to the department's computations, is within  180 days of
 2-3     the inmate's presumptive parole date, date of release on mandatory
 2-4     supervision, or date of discharge.  An inmate described by this
 2-5     subsection may raise a claim of time-served credit error by filing
 2-6     a complaint under the system described by Subsection (a), or if an
 2-7     application for a writ of habeas corpus is not otherwise barred, by
 2-8     raising the claim in that application.
 2-9           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
2-10     to a claim made on or after January 1, 2000, that alleges a
2-11     time-served credit error, as described by Section 501.0081,
2-12     Government Code, as added by this Act.  A claim made before January
2-13     1, 2000, that alleges a time-served credit error, is covered by the
2-14     law in effect when the claim is made, and the former law is
2-15     continued in effect for this purpose.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.