ISSUES IN DEPTH: Alternatives to building prisons

[Joanne98]

ISSUES IN DEPTH: Alternatives to building prisons
by Christine DeLoma / LSR


With Texas’ state prison population expected to exceed capacity by nearly 17,000 beds in only five years, Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson) and Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) Jan. 30 laid out several alternatives to building more prisons.

According to a study – commissioned by Madden and Whitmire – by the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center, the prison overcrowding problem could be solved if the state Parole Board followed its own guidelines in releasing low-risk offenders.

The study’s researcher, Dr. Tony Fabelo, told lawmakers at the joint committee hearing that if the state parole board just increased its parole approval rate from 26 percent to 29 percent for low-risk offenders, it could wipe out the projected prison overcrowding problem.

Prison overcrowding is a recurring problem in Texas. In the 1990s, the state completed a $2 billion expansion program, tripling the size of its prison system. Yet the state has recently exceeded its 151,000 inmate capacity and must rent nearly 2,000 beds from county jails.

In its legislative appropriations request (LAR) for fiscal year 2008-2009, the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) called for the biggest expansion in prison building in over two decades. It would include building three new prisons to house approximately 5,080 inmates at cost of over $440 million.

Whitmire and Madden, however, have other ideas. Instead of building more prisons, they want to address the reasons Texas has a prison overcrowding problem.

Thousands of low-risk offenders are denied parole each year because mandatory drug and alcohol treatment programs are not readily available.

“We have 1,900 individuals incarcerated this afternoon who have been approved by our board of pardon and parole to be eligible for parole if they go through a six-month alcohol and drug treatment program,” Whitmire said. Yet many offenders must wait up to one-year just to get into a program.” It’s a “horrible backlog,” Whitmire said.
http://www.easttexasreview.com/story.htm?StoryID=4221

[KenHodson]

1. this never gets enough attention

Imprisonment = poor wages for life.
Build new prisons = more and more people stuck in the lowest class.
This is basic economics, the more people with zero potential = more money elsewhere.

Sickening.
I recall Kentucky Fried Chicken got into privatized prisons a few years ago. Tell me that was just a dream.

[Joanne98]

3. I hadn't heard that..

[Missy M]

2. The drug users shouldn't be in prison in the first place....

they should be in alcohol and drug treatment programs from the start. Start more drug treatment programs instead of building more prisons.

[Joanne98]

4. I agree.