Pubdate: Thu, 07 Sep 2006
Source: East Texas Review (Longview, TX)
Copyright: 2006 East Texas Review Newspaper
Contact: http://www.easttexasreview.com/contact.htm
Website: http://www.easttexasreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3575
Author: Christine Deloma
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

PROBATION BILL LIKELY TO RETURN

With Texas' state prison population expected to exceed  capacity by
nearly 10,000 beds as soon as 2010, state  lawmakers face a public
policy crisis.

In its legislative appropriations request for fiscal  year 2008-2009,
the Department of Criminal Justice  (TDCJ) called for the biggest
expansion in prison  building in over two decades. Whether legislators
have  the political will to commit to spending at least $520  million
on construction is another matter.

DJC's plan envisions three new prisons and 5,080 new  beds, 500 of
them for a DWI treatment center. The plan  also recommends 850 beds
for special drug treatment  prisons, substance-abuse treatment centers
for  parole-ready inmates, halfway houses, and  community-based
treatment programs for minor offenders.

So far, legislative response has been lukewarm at best.  Texas is
already home to the largest prison system in  the country. Building
more prisons seems an unlikely  option given the state's current
fiscal situation. With  an expected tight budget next year and a
projected $20+  billion shortfall in the out years, there won't be
much  wiggle room in the budget.

Prison overcrowding is a recurring problem for the  state. In the
1990s, Texas completed a $2 billion  expansion program, tripling the
size of its prison  system. Yet the state has recently exceeded its
151,000  inmate capacity and must rent beds from county jails.  Part
of the reason is that Texas has one of the  nation's highest
incarceration rates - 694 inmates per  100,000 residents - compared to
the U.S. average per  capita of 488.

The Legislature may look to other options to relieve  prison
overcrowding, such as easing probation  requirements, changing the law
on sentencing for  nonviolent offenders and creating new
community-based  programs to keep at-risk individuals from seeing the
inside of a prison cell.

Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson) and Sen. John Whitmire  (D-Houston)
have vowed to reintroduce legislation next  year that would reform the
state's probation system.  According to TDCJ, Texas' probation term is
67 percent  longer than the national average. Madden and Whitmire
would shorten minimum probation terms for nonviolent  felons from 10
years to five while also expanding  community supervision and
treatment programs. A similar  bill the duo passed last year was
vetoed by Gov. Rick  Perry. Madden and Whitmire hope next year will be
the  charm.

According to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB),  probation
revocations are a significant driver of the  increase in the prison
population, accounting for 30  percent of prison admissions annually.
In 2004,  according to Whitmire, more prison sentences resulted  from
probation revocation than from direct sentencing  by the courts. In
fact, more than half of the 26,239  felony probationers were sent to
prison due to  technical violations such as failure to keep
appointments with probation officers or to perform  court-mandated
community service.

"We do make it, in many instances, impossible for a  probationer to
succeed," said Whitmire at a recent  public policy forum at the Texas
Public Policy Foundation.

Nearly 400,000 Texans are on probation for crimes  ranging from
kidnapping to petty theft to white-collar  offenses. Almost half of
probationers are under direct  daily or weekly supervision. The rest
are under some  form of indirect or occasional supervision.

Changing probation terms for low-risk individuals from  10 years to
five would reduce probation officers'  caseloads and allow for
increased supervision of those  who really need it, argue Madden and
Whitmire. Judges  would also have more discretion as to extending
probation terms beyond five years.

Lawmakers may also consider changing the way the law  treats substance
abusers, such as people convicted of  driving while intoxicated (DWI).
According to Whitmire,  approximately 4,000 DWI repeat offenders are
housed in  maximum security prisons that receive no drug treatment
for their addictions. The Legislature cut $94 million  in rehab
programming from the prison system two years  ago. It makes more
sense, Whitmire said, to keep these  nonviolent offenders in community
treatment centers -  where they could get help - than to imprison them.

"We're all tough on crime, but we've got to be smart  and the smart
things to do are not necessarily those  such as 'Lock them up and
throw away the key,'" said  Madden, "but are those things that provide
the programs  and provide the insight to do things differently than
what we've been doing."

Last session, Madden proposed expanding Drug Courts  throughout the
state. Currently eight counties use this  type of system for
non-violent drug-related offenders.  Drug Court programs offer
judicially led intensive  supervision, treatment sessions, and drug
testing for  up to one year to 18 months.

Proponents of the system argue that those who  successfully complete a
drug court program have much  lower recidivism rates than
non-participants. Madden's  bill would have required counties with
more than  200,000 residents to implement a drug court if a county
could secure state or federal funding for the program.  In addition,
the bill would have expanded the use of  probation for nonviolent,
repeat drug offenders,  freeing up the space in state jail for more
serious  criminals.

TDJC and LBB estimate that the state needs to find up  to 10,000 new
beds to house prisoners by 2010. The  state currently has already
exceeded its 152,000 bed  capacity which includes state jails, prisons
and  transfer facilities. TDJC now leases over 1,800 beds  from county
jails at a cost of $40 per bed a day. The  LBB projects that it will
need to lease an additional  2,000 beds by August of next year.

The agency can lease beds from privately operated  prisons; however,
state law imposes a cap of 1,000 beds  per private prison with a total
cap on the number of  private prison beds at 4,580.

Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective  Justice at the Texas
Public Policy Foundation, has  called the caps "arbitrary." Levin
advocates  eliminating the cap altogether to allow private  entities
to compete with county governments in leasing  beds to the state.
According to Levin,  privately-operated prisons can do the job
cheaper, at  an average cost of $20 to $30 a day, excluding medical
costs.

Private prison facilities typically offer more  educational programs
and treatment services to  prisoners than do county jails, which were
generally  designed as holding cells for arrestees awaiting trial  or
court arraignment.

Madden said he would introduce a bill in the next  session to increase
the number of beds by which TDJC  can lease from private facilities. 
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath