Alternatives sought to relieve prison overcrowding

By Mark Muecke / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 02/19/2007 12:14:02 AM MST

AUSTIN With prisons statewide nearly brim-full, lawmakers are growing weary of shelling out more money to just contain them.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice recently requested $377 million to build new prisons, but several legislators see increasing mental-health programs and drug treatment facilities, and reducing sentences for some nonviolent offenders as better ways to protect the public and save taxpayers' money.

Proponents of building more prisons say alternative treatment programs could fall by the wayside, leaving the state with the same overcapacity problem it faces now.

"It's always been politically safe to build another prison," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Whitmire, state Rep. Jerry Madden, who leads the House Committee on Corrections, and El Paso state Rep. Pat Haggerty, who has long served on that committee, are working on ways to change the way Texas deals with criminals. will basically change the entire focus of our prison system."

As of Feb. 14 there were 152,767 prisoners in Texas prisons, state jails and substance abuse felony punishment facilities, and the facilities were at 97.5 percent of capacity, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The average annual cost of an inmate in fiscal year 2006 was $15,538.

Haggerty, R-El Paso, filed several bills that would give judges more flexibility to keep first-time offenders out of jail and to give nonviolent criminals probation sentences.

"We have a tendency to view probation as somehow beating the rap or getting off, when it can often be more difficult than being in jail," Haggerty said.

Madden and Whitmire said they would work to direct more state money to rehabilitation, mental-health treatment and parole rather than long prison sentences for some nonviolent offenders.

Whitmire said the state has plenty of capacity already for violent criminals, but needs more ways to effectively handle nonviolent offenders.