By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
The Senate has approved the most sweeping overhaul of Texas' probation
system in years, rejecting critics' warnings that the changes could trigger a crime wave and fill already full state prisons
to overflowing.
After nearly an hour of debate today, senators voted unanimously to approve
the House-passed plan to shorten probation for some felons and expand community supervision and treatment programs. The measure
now heads to Gov. Rick Perry's desk.
"This represents a major correction in our probation policy in this state,
a positive step forward," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, the Senate sponsor of
the measure. "As we have changed our criminal justice system in recent years, this is an area that has been largely ignored.
Today, we began addressing that."
Added House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson,
the author of the House bill: "I'm confident these changes will give us a system that judges, prosecutors, officers and the
public will have more confidence in."
In all, more than 390,000 Texans are on probation for crimes ranging
from murder and kidnapping to attempted theft and assorted white-collar crimes — about 140,000 of them on daily or weekly
supervision, the rest on indirect or less-stringent supervision that allows them to report in occasionally. By contrast, the
prison system holds about 151,000 felons.
It costs about $40 a day to house a convict in prison, $2 a day for probation.
As approved by both chambers, House Bill 2193 would cut from 10 years
to five the probationary term to which Texans convicted of lower-level felonies could be sentenced. After five years, a judge
could keep them on probation for up to five more years — a year at a time — after reviewing their progress to
make sure they are following the rules and are being rehabilitated.
A judge also can review a probationer's records after half the sentence
is completed to determine whether the probation term should be ended early.
Aggravated violent crimes, sex crimes, and first- and second-degree felonies
are not included, Whitmire said.
In addition, the measure changes state law to allow counties to expand
and bolster their drug courts, which have had success in closely supervising and rehabilitating addicts and abusers. It also
allows for the creation of community-supervision programs to try to rehabilitate felons who are now going to prison, allows
for 500 additional community-correctional beds to hold probationers and reduces probation caseloads statewide to allow officers
to more closely supervise offenders.
Along with those changes, more than $111 million has been allocated in
the new two-year budget to bolster probation programs — more money to hire probation officers, more for community-supervision
treatment programs and more for innovative local projects that could make probation programs more successful.
"This is not an alternative to building more prisons because we don't
have the money, because if we need to do that, we will find the money in the interest of public safety," Whitmire said during
the debate in response to questions about whether the changes were intended as a safety valve to avoid a prison-crowding crisis.
Increased use of paroles in the late 1980s to alleviate prison overcrowding contributed to a crime wave and led to lawmakers'
decision in 1991 to triple the size of the prison system.
"What this is about is focusing our probation programs to make sure the
people who are out there succeed," Whitmire added, "so that they don't go to prison if they don't need to, that they are closely
supervised so they turn their lives around."
Ann del Llano, a criminal justice specialist for the American Civil Liberties
Union who has supported the changes, applauded the Senate vote.
"I'm excited for our state because this is one area of public policy
where we're going to see real improvement in real lives," she said.
Critics of the changes have insisted in recent weeks that the proposal
could free thousands of criminals on early release.
Whitmire said felons would be released only after a judge reviews their
cases and determines that they pose no threat.
"It is not soft on crime," he said. "I want the toughest policy on probation
in the country, but I want something that works. . . . The system we have now does not work."
Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, questioned whether the changes
would make that system worse. He said the six prosecutors in his district oppose the changes, and have said they will send
more people to prison rather than put them on probation — the opposite of what proponents hope to accomplish with the
changes.
"Assault on a police officer, spousal abuse, intoxication assault, kidnapping,
stalking," Williams said, listing crimes for which perpetrators, he said, would see a shorter maximum term of probation. "How
can this be a good plan?"
"You're flat wrong," Whitmire interrupted. "This is a first step to make
the system better."
"I believe the bottom line is that this bill will force the early release
of felons all over the state . . . and that is a bad policy," Williams said.
Whitmire likened the changes to golf, "where less means more. "Less probationers
will mean more concentrated supervision for those who really need it," Whitmire said. "We have thousands of probationers now
who have turned their lives around, who have complied with all the terms of their probation for years, who have proven themselves,
who should not be on probation for so long."
Whitmire noted that the plan is supported by a diverse coalition, ranging
from prosecutors and defense attorneys to conservative Republican groups and the American Civil Liberties Union. Just as important,
other senators noted, it is opposed by several big-city prosecutors and victim-advocacy groups who insist it will do little,
if anything, to improve the system.
In recent weeks, they have been lobbying hard to derail passage of the
measure in the Senate or to insert amendments that would have sent it back to the House for another vote.
Kathy Walt, Perry's press secretary, said the governor will make no decision
on the measure until he sees the final wording.
Earlier, she said he hoped for legislation that could be supported by
all parties, including prosecutors.
Whitmire and Madden said they plan to meet soon with Perry aides to press
for the governor to sign it into law.
"It's a good bill . . . a major improvement in the correctional policy
of this state," Whitmire said.
