EMERGENCY RULES An agency may adopt a new or amended section or repeal an existing section on an emergency basis if it determines that such action is necessary for the public health, safety, or welfare of this state. The section may become effective immediately upon filing with the Texas Register, or on a stated date less than 20 days after filing and remaining in effect no more than 120 days. The emergency action is renewable once for no more than 60 additional days. Symbology in amended emergency sections. New language added to an existing section is indicated by the use of bold text. [Brackets] indicate deletion of existing material within a section. TITLE 37. PUBLIC SAFETY AND CORRECTIONS Part VI. Texas Department of Criminal Justice Chapter 152. General Allocation Rules Subchapter A. Institutional Division Admissions 37 TAC sec.152.4 The Texas Department of Criminal Justice adopts on an emergency basis new sec.152.4, concerning exceptions to the strict application of the prison and transfer facility allocation formulas. Dangerously high population levels in many jails in the state have created conditions leading to both potential and actual outbreaks of disease and inmate disturbances, justifying emergency action. Further, significant new capacity controlled by the institutional division will result in extraordinary levels of admissions and concomitantly, counties that are unable to fully utilize their allocated admissions. The new section describes how and when the institutional division may distribute admissions outside of the strict numerical application of the allocation formulas. The language is simultaneously proposed for comment elsewhere in this issue of the Texas Register . The amendment is adopted on an emergency basis pursuant to Government Code, Chapter 499, Subchapter D, requiring the Board of Criminal Justice to adopt, enforce, and waive an allocation formula for prisons, by Government Code, sec.499.153, requiring the Board to adopt and enforce an admissions policy for transfer facilities, and by Government Code, sec.492.013, which gives the Board general authority to adopt rules. sec.152.4. Implementation of Allocation Formula. (a) Under the circumstances and limitations described in this section, the institutional division may deviate on a cyclical basis from the strict numerical application of the allocation formula in sec.152.3 of this title (relating to Allocation Formula). In order to track such deviations, the division shall keep a timely accounting of admissions from individual counties. The division shall explain the application of this section to affected counties as events occur. The division may develop further policies consistent with this section. Through calendar year 1994, the division shall report on the application of this section at each regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Criminal Justice. The division shall prepare a monthly report, which shall include the following information for the previous month: (1) the number of inmates admitted; (2) the number of inmates admitted by county; (3) the number of unused admissions by county; (4) the number by county of any emergency-allocated admissions; and (5) the number by county of advanced admissions that have been charged back. (b) The division may make calculated or non-calculated reallocations of unused admissions created by counties with insufficient paper-ready inmates in a given cycle. Reallocation shall be managed distinctly for high-intake counties versus non-high intake counties, and unused admissions for high-intake counties shall be distributed among high-intake counties, while unused admissions for non-high intake counties shall be distributed among non-high intake counties. In either case, a non-calculated reallocation may be applied when the number of unused admissions is too small to make a calculated reallocation practicable. A non- calculated reallocation shall be distributed to as many counties as possible in a fair and equitable manner, and the division shall maintain a record of such reallocations to insure that preference is not given to a particular county or group of counties. A calculated reallocation of admissions shall occur when there are sufficient unused admissions to make the calculated reallocation practicable, which is presumed to be the case when the number of unused admissions exceeds 25 per cycle for either the high-intake or non-high intake categories. (c) The division may allocate admissions created by the rounding effect of computerized initialization of the allocation formula, in the same manner as described in subsection (b) of this section. (d) The division may allocate admissions created by underestimates of available institutional division admissions, as defined in sec.152.2(a)(1), to counties whose allocated intake under the formula is zero. These allocations shall be made in the same manner as described in subsection (b) of this section. (e) As an exception to subsections (b)-(d) of this section, the division may advance admissions described in those subsections to counties with inmates needing transfer for medical reasons, counties with emergency situations such as inmate disturbances, or counties with other extraordinary circumstances that are appropriately documented. The division may also advance admissions to counties described in this subsection regardless of the availability of admissions described in subsections (b)-(d) of this section. Admissions advanced to a county described in this subsection shall be charged back against that county's future allocation. The charge-back period shall be three months or less, when practicable. The division shall determine which counties were given less than their number of allocated admissions due to the advance, and credit the number of admissions created by the charge back to those counties. Issued in Austin, Texas, on July 18, 1994. TRD-9445345 Carl Reynolds General Counsel Texas Department of Criminal Justice Effective date: July 20, 1994 Expiration date: November 15, 1994 For further information, please call: (512) 463-9693