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by Paul Burka
.... These
issues and a handful of others represent the permanent agenda of the state.
This agenda exists whether the state’s leaders choose to address it or not. It can be ignored, but it can’t be
wished away.... Here
are ten things we can do to make Texas a better place....
05 — FIX THE PROBATION SYSTEM
This ought to be a no-brainer. It costs $14,600 a year to sustain a prison inmate, compared to $730 to supervise
an offender on probation. But the state’s probation system, everyone
agrees, is a mess. Many probationers escape supervision altogether, because
too few probation officers have to supervise too many cases for too long. Currently, the maximum probation period is ten years. That’s a long time for an offender not to make a misstep and violate
the conditions of his probation. Getting in a fight, drinking booze,
failing to show up at an appointment with his probation officer—any of these can cause probation to be revoked, requiring a return to prison. So frequently does this occur that the state’s
prisons are almost out of bed space.
In an attempt
to prevent an overcrowding crisis that would require building more prisons—another expensive undertaking—the Legislature passed a probation reform bill this spring that reduced the maximum
supervisory period to five years for a select group of third-degree
felons and provided for the hiring of more probation officers. The idea was that more supervision would reduce crime and make prison beds available for violent criminals. Right idea, wrong governor:
Rick Perry vetoed the bill. The Legislature should pass it again at
its first opportunity.....
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