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By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 05, 2007
Senate and House leaders are close to agreement on the details of a substantive reform plan for Texas' crowded prison
system that would spend nearly $150 million for expanded treatment and supervision programs, officials have confirmed. Those
projects would be far less costly than building new lockups, they said.
While final details are not complete, the two-year proposal would include adding at least 11,200 slots in treatment, counseling
and transition programs designed to allow more convicts to successfully re-enter society rather than coming back to prison
for new crimes.
The details were the first to emerge on the legislative plan, which could be part of the biggest justice system reform
considered by lawmakers in a decade.
While prison officials earlier proposed beefing up those programs, the new proposal would go much further. Instead of
250 additional beds in a specialized substance abuse program, 1,800 more would be added. Parole counseling programs would
be tripled in size. Halfway houses would grow from 600 beds to 1,500 beds statewide.
"This may be the most significant thing we do in a long time," said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry
Madden, an architect of the proposal with his counterpart in the Upper Chamber, Houston Democratic Sen. John Whitmire, chairman
of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
"We can do away with the waiting lists in several programs. We can relieve the pressure on the system. And we can
do it for much less than by building new prisons," said Madden, a Richardson Republican.
The price tag for a new prison has been estimated at around $80 million, not including staffing, program and other costs.
Prisons officials earlier proposed adding three prisons — two state-run, one privately run — to boost
capacity by 5,000 beds.
Madden estimated that the overall reform proposal, expected to be unveiled soon after final numbers are agreed upon, will
cost between $200 million and $250 million. That total includes proposed enhancements in probation and parole programs that
legislative leaders have insisted will be needed whether new prisons are built or not.
Legislative leaders have said the cost of building enough new prisons to keep up with the growing population of prisoners
could be nearly $1 billion.
To rely on treatment and diversion programs to free up enough beds, prison-building proponents have warned, will only
trigger a "catch and release" policy for lawbreakers because not enough prison bunks will be available.
Under the tentative legislative plan, one type of specialized drug- and alcohol-treatment centers would get $46 million
over two years to expand the number of bunks from 3,250 to 5,000. As many as 10,000 convicts would be treated in them each
year, officials have said.
Another type of prison-based treatment program would get $7.7 million to expand from 500 beds to 2,000 beds that could
treat as many as 4,000 inmates a year.
Another $40.8 million would be allocated to expand so-called transitional treatment centers from 600 beds to as many as
2,000 beds. Those privately run centers provide counseling and are designed to help prisoners successfully re-enter society
after they complete their sentence.
Special lockups to punish probation and parole violators; Intermediate Sanction Facilities, as they are officially known;
would grow from 2,200 beds to 4,000 beds. And $19.7 million would be spent to expand halfway houses from 600 beds statewide
to around 1,500.
"We're not talking about letting violent offenders out, not anyone who's a threat to society," Whitmire said.
"We have one and a half prisons full of inmates who have already been approved for parole, but they can't get out because
we don't have enough programs available. That's crazy. Wouldn't it make sense to fund the programs so we can get these people
into them and free up those beds?
"That will help Texas in the long run."
Madden echoed that sentiment.
"Our goal is fewer prisoners in the next decade . . . slowing the growth of prisoners," Madden said. "If
more inmates can successfully complete programs and successfully re-enter society, then we spend less on prisons and society
is the better for it."
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
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