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Every two years, the Legislature makes decisions regarding criminal justice policy. These decisions result in Texas taxpayers
funding a prison system comprised of public and private-run substance abuse facilities, prisons, state jails, and pre-parole
transitional facilities.
Texas imprisons more people today than it has at any other time in history. The number of adult and youth offenders under
the jurisdiction of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice totals 169,003. This figure includes facilities in the correctional
institutional division, pre-parole transfer facilities, substance abuse facilities, temporary releases to counties, and paper-ready
inmates in local jails. If the state sentences an offender to a term of confinement and that person is removed from the community
and they cannot leave than they are incarcerated in a prison. The Texas incarceration rate was 691 per 100,000 in 2005.
During fiscal year 2006, TDCJ spent about $2.5 billion housing or actively supervising over 600,000 people. The Texas prison
system actively controls the lives of at least 1 of every 29 adult Texans, not counting affected families, relatives, and
friends.
Stopping the Crisis
The solution to the looming crisis is not building new beds. History has proven that prison expansion will not solve the
capacity crisis. The building boom in the 1990s did not get the state very far. The answer to the capacity problem continues
to be sentencing reform. There are fixes that could be undertaken today that could reduce the number of people entering state
prisons, including strengthening community supervision.
Capacity Proposals before the Legislature
Today, Texas has 106 prison facilities, including CIDs, SAFPS, state jails, and pre parole transfer units. During the 80th
Legislative Session, elected officials will decide how to deal with the looming prison capacity crisis. The Legislative Budget
Board projects that the prison population will exceed current capacity by 11,000 in 2011.
To deal with prison population several proposals have been suggested:
•TDCJ wants to increase total prison capacity by 5,280 beds:
-200 additional In Prison Treatment beds;
-1,000 privately financed medium security facility;
-4,080 publicly financed beds; and
-This expansion would increase current capacity to 174,283.
•Other Proposals
-Chairman Madden filed HB 198 that would expand capacity by increasing privately contracted beds to 5,580 from current capacity
limitations of 4,580.
Last Updated: January 7, 2007
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