By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Legislation that would shake up the way Texas handles lawbreakers
on probation won passage in the House on Thursday, with backers saying the state is finally meshing its tough-on-crime reputation
with its penchant for stretching tax dollars further.
House Bill 2193, which faces a final vote today, was approved 90-48.
It would lower the probationary maximum sentence for nonviolent, low-risk offenders from 10 years to five and have their sentences
come up for review periodically during their prison terms.
"Our probation system, as it exists today, is broken," said state Rep.
Ray Allen, a co-author of the bill who pointed out that each probation officer is responsible for about 150 lawbreakers. "It's
not working because no one is being watched."
Allen said the legislation would reduce the state probation rolls, now
well over 200,000, by about 75,000. It would dovetail with measures expected to be included in the 2006-07 state budget that
vastly increase the number of officers supervising those on probation.
Critics of the bill, however, warned that the state was drifting back
to the mind-set that prevailed before the $1 billion prison-building boom in the 1990s that saw criminals being shuttled back
onto the streets well before their original sentences had been served.
"Years ago, when we had prison overcrowding, we just turned everybody
loose," said state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, a former prosecutor. "This is the same situation. ... We've got too many
people on probation."
Allen, along with the bill's primary author, Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson,
said the bill would actually toughen the state's stance against crime. Because low-risk offenders would be free of the probation
system, officers would have more time for oversight of those who need supervision.
State analysts say that the state's 150,000-bed prison system, which
is triple the size of the system in 1990, is nearing capacity and it would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to add
more prison cells.
State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said it's time to use tax dollars
more efficiently by focusing on rehabilitating lawbreakers before they become hardened criminals.
The Senate is considering a similar measure, which is expected to come
up for debate within a few days.
