Pubdate: Sat,  7 Oct 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/

SINGING THE PRISON BLUES

Maybe it's the money. Texas prisons cost $2 billion a year to operate.

Maybe it's the size. Texas has seen its prison population soar to the
largest in the nation.

Maybe it's the embarrassment. It does not reflect well on the presidential
campaign of Gov. George W. Bush that one in 20 adult Texans was in prison or
jail or on probation or parole on his watch.

No matter the motivation, the time was right for the remarkable
pronouncement this week by key lawmakers.

"There will be no prisons built during the next legislative session," said
Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, chairman of the House Corrections Committee.

State Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, made clear his views as well: "I
don't think the tenor is there in either the House or the Senate to pass
additional bonds."

After a decade of jail construction, which more than tripled Texas' prison
capacity from 50,000 beds to 155,000, their comments signal a dramatic
change in direction for the state's criminal justice system.

It's about time.

Long tough on crime, it's time for Texas to get smart on crime. Maintaining
a system that locks away violent offenders with nonviolent ones is too
expensive and unduly harsh. Certainly, the state should lock up violent
criminals and keep them behind bars until they have served their sentences.
But Texas sends too many nonviolent drug offenders to prison and clogs its
jails by sending people back to prison over petty infractions that violate
their parole or probation. Fifty percent of incoming prisoners are convicts
who have violated terms of parole or probation.

Armbrister and Haggerty are only two members in a House and Senate that
number 181. What makes their comments so significant is that they represent
the more conservative voices in the Legislature. Conservatives traditionally
have staked out the "build them and fill them" approach to criminal justice.
It was good politics. Sending criminals -- both violent and nonviolent -- to
jail was an answer to the public's call to do something about rising crime.
But the prison industry offered other benefits. Just as President Hoover in
the 1920s promised a chicken in every pot, Texas lawmakers from rural or
small communities in the 1990s vowed to bring a prison to their districts to
uplift slumping economies. The state, with 254 counties, operates 116
prisons.

With crime rates down and the need for state services up, lawmakers will be
looking at less costly alternatives to deal with nonviolent offenders, said
Sens. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, and Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin.
Barrientos rightly is calling for more drug rehabilitation, education and
job training programs. Ratliff, chairman of the budget writing Senate
Finance Committee, doubts that the state can afford new prisons given other
budget priorities.

"Health issues will be the bear in the living room," Ratliff said.

Barrientos has conducted an analysis that shows the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice request for new prison expansion would eat up the entire
projected surplus, about $1.6 billion. Prison officials have asked the
Legislature to issue $544 million in bonds for 8,500 new beds. Barrientos, a
long-time advocate of steering nonviolent offenders to alternatives, said
the state would spend $1.7 billion more each year to operate those new
prisons.

The convergence of budget issues and waning public interest in prisons
presents Texas lawmakers a unique opportunity. We can and should look at
alternatives starting with nonviolent offenders and people who commit petty
parole or probation violations. One of five people is behind bars in Texas
because of a drug offense, and more than 89,000 people are incarcerated for
nonviolent crimes. Half of those going into prisons are ex-convicts who
violated parole or probation.

Texas prisons should not be clogged up with people who miss an appointment
with a parole officer, cross the county line without permission or break
curfew. Prison beds should be reserved for violent offenders -- killers,
rapists, child molesters and those who assault others. In some cases, it
might be appropriate to imprison repeat offenders, especially if their
crimes escalate.

When the Legislature convenes in 2001, it should seize this opportunity.
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