Editorial Board
On the issue of new state prisons, state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman
of the Criminal Justice Committee, has turned into "Dr. No." He has vowed to oppose every proposal for new prisons in this
session and instead plow that money into treatment programs. For once, that kind of stubbornness is welcome in a politician.
As Whitmire and even Gov. Rick Perry have noted, this debate is not
about being "tough on crime." Most lawmakers in Austin want to make Texans safer; the real question is how to do that. In
this session, the answer does not include a new round of prison construction.
For one thing, the state can't afford it. Prisons are expensive, not
only to build but also to staff. It will be a minor miracle if this Legislature can balance the budget after approving a big
cut in school taxes while increasing the state's share of public education.
More important is the effectiveness of this approach. Housing prisoners
costs $40 per day, while community supervision and probation can cost as little as $2 per day. Those options must be tried
first with some offenders instead of warehousing them.
In the last session, the cash-pressed Legislature slashed a variety of
parole and prison programs designed to help rehabilitate inmates. Not surprisingly, the number of repeat offenders increased.
Texas has 150,000 prison beds, a big number that should be sufficient
for many years. Yet it has only 2,400 spaces for drug-treatment when many inmates have become involved in crime because they
were involved in drugs.
This time, lawmakers are planning to boost treatment programs by $88
million. That's the kind of approach Texas needs, at least for non-violent early offenders. If that approach doesn't work,
then it's time to put that inmate behind bars - as a last step, not a first one.
