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Report finds that blacks are sent to prison at 5 times the rate of whites
in Texas. "Our legislators should support pro-family criminal justice policies that unite families,
save taxpayers' money and improve the safety of our communities." WOAI San Antonio (2/24/05)
Criminal justice overhaul begins
. . . "judges, prosecutors and probation and prison officials gave their initial blessing to the proposals." Austin American Statesman (2/16/05)
"We're
going to have to increase the emphasis on probation. There's no question about it," said Appropriations
Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie. "We simply can't afford to build a bunch of new prisons, much less pay to operate
them." Austin American Statesman (2/3/05)
"Does it make sense to keep folks in a $40-a-day bed, with no programs and rehabilitation,
when we could keep them working and have them do probation for $2 a day?" Chairman Whitmire said. "No way."
Chairman Allen agrees. "As a state, we can't afford to do what we've been doing; that's what I draw from the numbers,"
he said. "We have to build a system with workable alternatives (to prison) on the front end, or we'll have to spend billions
of dollars to build another 30,000 or 40,000 prison beds * billions that we don't have." Austin American Statesman (1/26/05)
Parole, probation violators add to crowding Of the 77,000 offenders who entered prison in fiscal 2004, 24,490 were there because of probation
violations -- 40 percent of the revocations are for "technical violations," meaning that the person has not been accused of
a new crime. . . The prison crowding problem has not stopped lawmakers from writing bills that would increase the level of
offense for some crimes -- Whitmire said he will ask legislators who have filed such bills who they want to let out of prison
to make room for the new offenders and what taxes they want to raise to pay for new space. If they can't answer those questions,
they won't get a hearing on their bill. Houston Chronicle (1/20/05)
Prisons warn against drug treatment cuts Without the money, officials said they expect people released from prison to commit more
drug-related crimes and end up back in the state's custody. (12/29/04)
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