Tony Fabelo
LOCAL CONTRIBUTOR
Leaders in the Texas House and Senate tentatively agreed this week to
overhaul the state's probation programs. They hope to encourage more judges and prosecutors to grant probation to people convicted
of nonviolent crimes such as theft and drug possession.
This makes sense. Texas faces a serious shortage of prison beds —
a shortage that's likely to continue. It's not happening because crime is increasing. Rather, judges are growing more skeptical
of our ineffective system, so they're placing fewer offenders on probation and revoking more of their probations.
Judges and prosecutors have used probation extensively in Texas, which
is remarkable given the system's poor performance. The state has nearly 240,000 adult felons under probation supervision.
This is more per capita that any other state, but these probationers are supervised in a system that is under-funded and ineffective.
On any given year, we cannot find more than 30,000 of these probationers.
Moreover, in a graduating class, about half the probationers flunk. Of about 53,000 who were dropped from probation last year,
46 percent were sent back to prison or jail.
The system does not prevent incarceration; it just delays it. And merely
putting more money into the system without reforming it is not going to make a dent in reducing incarcerations. Here are some
reforms to consider:
•Shorten the probation terms for nonviolent offenders. Low-risk
offenders should not be on probation more than two years.
Other states do this. Offenders doing well on probation in Texas are
not rewarded with an early discharge but instead receive the longest probation terms in the nation — more than six years,
compared to an average of two nationally.
In part, this is because we can collect fees from good probationers.
(About 40 percent of the system's funding comes from such fees). These probationers also risk revocation toward the end of
their terms for not following one of countless administrative rules.
The system should be redesigned to make it less dependant on fees. Reducing
probation terms would decrease the amount of fees the state collects, but it would also reduce the probation population and
allow for better supervision — if we maintain the number of probation officers. This can be done if we redesign funding
formulas to make up for the loss in fees.
•Texas needs more residential treatment beds. We need to fund 4,000
beds in local residential substance abuse treatment centers and add facilities in major urban counties. The state also needs
to pay for specialized officers to supervise the almost 20 percent of probationers with mental illnesses.
This might cost over $100 million a year when fully implemented —
the cost of operating the Texas prison system for about 20 days.
•As part of sentencing, the state needs to require risk assessment
policies. Such assessments are scientifically designed to help identify low-risk offenders who wouldn't have to go to prison.
Virginia, also a conservative state, is diverting a significant number of offenders from prison by widely using this approach.
•Explore strategies for helping poor communities deal with offenders
returning from prison. Most offenders return to the poor neighborhoods where they committed their crimes. We can help these
areas prevent crime by providing them with more state correctional and social services.
Using geo-mapping technology, Texas should start conducting audits of
criminal justice and social services. With better supervision and more resources, these neighborhoods could cut criminal justice
costs and enhance public safety. Money saved from locking up fewer offenders could then be reinvested to improve these same
communities.
As we have seen with earlier reforms, it is not easy to shift the direction
of the "Texas incarceration tanker." But continuing to strengthen the effectiveness of non-incarceration options is the best
way to accomplish this goal.
Fabelo is the former director of the Criminal Justice Policy Council
and now runs the Austin office of the Washington, D.C., based JFA Institute.
