Pubdate: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX) Copyright: 2000 Austin American-Statesman Contact: P. O. Box 670 Austin, Texas 78767 Fax: 512-445-3679 Website: http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/today/ Author: Mike Ward, American-Statesman Capitol Staff STUDY: FILLING TEXAS PRISONS ACHIEVES LITTLE In the latest election-year salvo against the Texas justice system, a study to be made public today suggests that the Lone Star State is putting too many people behind bars -- especially young African American men. While many of the statistics the study cites are well-known to Texans, the release of the report at a time when Texas' justice system has become an increasing political flash point promises to spur new debate about whether more alternatives to prison, such as rehabilitation programs, should be explored for nonviolent criminals. In its study, the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute -- a think tank that advocates rehabilitation programs -- found that Texas, with the highest incarceration rate of all states, has nearly one of every three young black men under some form of criminal justice control. Among young African Americans in Texas, the report states, the incarceration rate is 63 percent higher than the national average. But Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the study ignores several facts. ``Our system grew fast during the 1990s, but it did so because Texas voters wanted it to. They wanted crime to be reduced,'' Todd said. ``Those within the Beltway can pontificate all they wish about how we should do things in Texas, but we did what we did because it was the wish of the people of Texas -- the people who run Texas." Faced with a surge in crime, Texas launched the nation's largest prison expansion effort in 1991, more than doubling the size of its prison system in just five years -- to more than 155,000 beds. Crime has dropped in the years since, the intended result, but the report shows it has not dropped proportionately to crime in other states that expanded their prison systems much less and incarcerate far fewer people. ``If locking up people really reduced crime, Texas should have the lowest crime rate in the country,'' said Jason Zeidenberg, a researcher at the Justice Policy Institute and an author of the study, which says Texas has the most punitive criminal justice system in the world. ``The cost of having one in three young black men under criminal justice control is a steep price to pay for the state's lackluster crime declines." As evidence, the study compares Texas with New York, which has roughly the same population. Since 1995, the crime rate in New York has declined four times as fast as it has in Texas. In 1998, Texas' murder rate was 25 percent higher than New York's, according to the study. During the 1990s, the report states, Texas added more convicts to its system -- 90,081 -- than New York held in all its prisons -- 73,233. To bolster its finding that Texas has too many people behind bars, the report cited these statistics: o During the 1990s, Texas' prison system grew nearly twice as fast as that of any other state -- accounting for nearly one out of every five prisoners who entered a lockup in the United States. Only California has a larger state prison system than Texas, and both states' systems are bigger than those of most other countries in the world -- including Russia. o One of every 20 adults in Texas was in prison or jail or on probation or parole during the past decade. The report notes that 89,400 people are incarcerated in Texas for nonviolent crimes -- the largest group of that type after California's, and larger than the prison roll in the entire United Kingdom, whose population is about three times that of Texas. ``Despite the simplistic connection drawn by some that harsher crime policies lead to safer communities, there is little evidence that Texas' severe correctional system is responsible for the drop in crime,'' the report states. ``While crime has dropped in Texas in recent years, as it has done all over the country, a state-by-state comparison shows the Lone Star State to be lagging behind other jurisdictions which have not increased their prison systems as dramatically." In fact, the report states, Texas' crime rate dropped half as much as it did on a national level, and by the lowest amount of the five most populous states -- including California, New York, Florida and Illinois. Texas' high incarceration rate among young black men has been a focus of criticism of the system for several years. Prison officials say the cause is a high conviction rate over which they have no control, but critics say it shows how justice in Texas is skewed along racial lines. ``Texans are compassionate,'' said Todd, the state's justice department spokesman. ``They're just tired of crime. And so we built more prisons, and the crime rate dropped. What's wrong with that?" The social cost alone of such a huge prison system should raise questions, according to the report. ``In light of these lackluster (crime-reduction) results, the architects of Texas' prison policies should question whether these mediocre crime drops are worth the social cost the state is paying for having 1 in 20 adults, and 1 in 3 young black men, under criminal justice control,'' the report states. ``The criminal justice policy-making consensus in Texas -- a view that spans both parties -- has directed corrections officials to plan for the day when there will be 1 million people under criminal justice control. Unless the costs of these policies are weighed in the balance, this foreboding figure will undoubtedly come to pass." - --- MAP posted-by: John Chase