Under authority established in Penal Code (PC) Section 5058, the Director of Corrections proposes to
         change Title 15 of the California Code of Regulations, Sections 3261.1 and 3261.1, to provide
         clarification of existing regulatory language by amending existing regulation(s) governing the
         departmental procedures regarding media access to facilities and information.

         REFEREE:
         These regulations implement, interpret, and/or make specific PC Section 5054.

         PUBLIC HEARING:
         Date and Time:

September 6, 2000, at 9:00 a.m.
              Place:          Department of Water Resources Auditorium
                                1416 Ninth Street
                                Sacramento, CA 95814

              Purpose:

         PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD:
                                To receive comments about this action.
         Any person may submit written comments about the proposed changes. To be considered by the
         Department, comments must be received at the Department of Corrections, Regulation and Policy
         Management Branch, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA 94283-0001, before the close of the comment
         period, September 6, 2000, at 5:00 p.m.

         CONTACT PERSON:

         Please direct any inquiries regarding this action to Bonnie Garibay, Chief, Regulation and Policy
         Management Branch, Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA 94283-0001 or
         telephone (916) 324-7770.

         ASSESSMENTS. MANDATES AND FISCAL IMPACT:

         The adoption of the proposed amendment to this regulation will neither create nor eliminate jobs in the
         State of California nor result in the elimination of existing businesses or create or expand businesses in
         the State of California.

         This action imposes no mandates on local agencies or school districts; or a mandate which requires
         reimbursement pursuant to Government Code Section 17561; has no fiscal impact on local government,
         State agencies, federal funding to the State, or private persons. It is also determined that this action has
         no significant adverse economic impact on businesses, including the ability of California businesses to
         compete with businesses in other states; and does not affect small businesses, because they are not
         affected by the internal management of State prisons. In addition, there are no other nondiscretionary
         costs or savings imposed on local agencies.

         DETERMINATION:

         The Department must determine that no alternative considered would be more effective in carrying out
         the purpose of this action or would be as effective and less burdensome to affected private persons than
         the proposed action.

         AVAILABILITY OF PROPOSED TEXT AND INITIAL STATEMENT OF REASONS:

         The text of the proposed regulation(s), the Initial Statement of Reasons and other information upon
         which the proposal is based (i.e., rule making file) are available upon request directed to the Department's
         contact person.

        AVAILABILITY OF CHANGES TO PROPOSED TEXT:

         If any substantial and sufficiently related changes are made to the text as a result of comments received
         during the public comment period, the Department will make the full text of the changed regulation
         available for at least 15 days before the date the regulation is permanently adopted.

         INFORMATIVE DIGEST PLAIN ENGLISH POLICY STATEMENT OVERVIEW:

         PC Section 5054 vests with the Director the supervision, management and control of the prisons, and the
         responsibility for the care, custody, treatment, training, discipline and employment of inmates.

         PC Section 5058 authorizes the Director to prescribe and amend regulations for administration of
         prisons.

         This action will:  Provide clarification of Sections 3261.1 and 3261.2 of the California Code of
         Regulations regarding media access to facilities of the California Department of (Corrections and
         authorized access to facilities and information.

        INITIAL STATEMENT OF REASONS

         This action amends Sections 3261.1 and 3261.2 of the California Code of Regulations,
         regarding media access to facilities of the California Department of Corrections and
         authorized access to facilities and information.  Most of the proposed changes are
         non substantive clarifications of existing regulatory language.

         The Department must determine that no alternative considered would be more effective
         in carrying out the purpose of this action or would be as effective and less burdensome
         to affected persons.  The 1998 OAL Determination 18, Docket No.91-016, dated
         August 20,1998, established that the language shown in subsection 3261.1(c), below,
         is regulatory.  Because of the directive that this language must be promulgated in
         regulations, no alternatives have been considered. The second underground regulation
         denoted in that Determination, regarding the definition of media representative," has
         since been included in Section 3000. No technical, theoretical, and empirical study,
         report, or similar document was relied upon in proposing these regulatory changes.
         These regulations have no direct effect upon small business, so alternatives to lessen
         their impact are not applicable. There is no economic effect resulting from these
         regulations. The regulations are drafted in plain English.

         Section 3261.1 is amended as follows:

         Subsection 3261.1(a) is amended for clarity and grammatical correctness.

         Subsection 3261.1(1) is renumbered to subsection (b) and amended for clarity and
         grammatical correctness.

         Subsection 3261.1(c) is added to delineate departmental priorities in terms of media
         access to facilities and providing news reporters higher priority access regarding
         breaking news stories than media representatives working on feature stories without
         assigned deadlines.  This change is necessary to establish access priorities when
         newsworthy stories arise, in acknowledgment of the more critical deadlines facing news
         reporters. This would not become an issue except under those unusual circumstances
         where the requests for such access exceed the available resources.

         Subsection 3261.1(b) is renumbered to subsection (d).

         Subsection 3261.1(c) is renumbered to subsection .(e) and the word ~ is
         corrected to use the noun form, "designee."

         Section 3261.2 is amended as follows:

         Subsection 3261.2(a) is unchanged.

         Subsection 3261.2(b) is changed to correct a typographical error, in which the word "of'
         was mistakenly placed into regulation instead of the word "or."

         TEXT OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS

         In the following text, underline indicates added or amended text; strikethrough indicates
         deleted text.
 

         Existing Section 3261.1 is amended to read:

         3261.1. Media Access to Facilities.

             (a)   Media representatives. as defined in section 3000. may be authorized access to a

         department facility or contract facility shall only with the prior approval of the institution

         head. Editorial researchers, free-lance writers without an outlet assignment verification, authors

         of books, film makers, or other persons may be authorized access to a facility only with approval

         of the institution head and assistant director, communications.

             (4)   (b) No facilities, on-duty staff, inmates or records under control of the department

         shall be used in conjunction with film making, radio or television programs, or the writing of

         books, magazine articles or syndicated stories without prior approval of the director.

             (c)   Reporters on news assignments. as opposed to those on feature stories without

         deadlines. shall be given preferential access in the event of a breaking news story.

             (d) Within a facility, media representatives shall be under direct supervision of the

         facility or regional public information officer or their designee.

               ~  Media representatives shall not enter security housing units, condemned units, the

         gas chamber, or any area currently affected by an emergency situation without approval of the

         director or designated designee.

         NOTE: Authority cited: Section 5058, Penal Code. Reference: Section 5054, Penal Code; and
         Sections 1798.20, 1798.30 and 1798.40-.42, Civil Code.

         3261.2. Authorized Release of Information.

         Subsection (a) is unchanged.

             (b)   No person without written authorization of the affected individual shall disclose the

         name or other identifying information of any person as having Acquired Immune Deficiency

         Syndrome (AIDS) nor shall they disclose the results of any person's blood test ~ to detect

         AIDS: related antibodies.

         NOTE: Authority cited: Section 5058, Penal Code. Reference: Section 5054, Penal Code; and
         Sections 1798.20, 1798.30 and 1798.40-.42, Civil Code.