EDITORIAL BOARD
Acombination of genuine outrage, concern and political expediency threatens
to undercut a legislative effort to reduce the state prison population.
A number of lawmakers, including Republicans who once believed in lock
'em up and throw away the key, have been working this legislative session to strengthen pardon and parole programs to divert
more people convicted of crimes from imprisonment. This approach especially makes sense for those convicted of petty, non-violent
crimes or possession of illegal drugs in small amounts.
But some other lawmakers want to toughen sentences to keep more people
in prison longer. As American-Statesman reporter Mike Ward informed us in Sunday's editions, Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena,
has filed House Bill 360 to set the maximum sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon at 99 years — five
times the current maximum of 20 years. Prosecutors want the tougher sentence option for cases such as one involving a Huntsville
man who beat his wife for five days, crushing her thumbs, breaking her knees and leaving her virtually incapacitated. The
jury wanted to give him a life sentence, but under state law jurors could give him only the maximum — 20 years.
Such cases prompt justified anger, but the state's criminal justice system
shouldn't be built on the most extreme examples. Twenty years in a Texas prison is no picnic.
Other bills seeking longer sentences involve lawmakers who are seeking
to satisfy a group upset by a particular type of crime, such as auto theft, or to show constituents that they are hard-nosed
on crime — without having to come up with the money to pay for more inmates serving longer sentences.
More than 100 such bills have been filed this session.
State estimates indicate that even if only a few such bills become law,
state prisons and jails could be full in just two years. As state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, put it, Texas "absolutely
cannot afford what that's going to cost. We need to put the brakes on."
As of late last week, Texas prisons alone held about 150,000 people;
its capacity is 151,500. The prison system is expected to be full in May, after which the state will have to lease space in
county jails and private prisons.
Fill those up, too, and the state could face a multi-billion dollar project
to build more prisons, as it did in the 1990s. Given legislative reluctance to raise taxes, the money probably would come
out of public and higher education, as well as other needed state services.
No one doubts Texas is tough on crime and criminals. Let's not spend
ourselves broke proving it.
