ALTERNATIVES SOUGHT TO RELIEVE PRISON OVERCROWDING

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.

"I think we need additional capacity, but it needs to be the right
kind," he said.

Taxpayers are paying huge costs to house mentally ill prisoners who
might never have been imprisoned had they received better treatment
earlier, Whitmire said.

About 25 percent of Texas' 153,000 inmates were in some type of mental
health program before ever having trouble with the law, he said.

"The criminal justice system has become the mental health center for
Texas," Whitmire said.

Madden said the state's lack of drug rehabilitation programs keeps
some in prison who could be released. Many are approved for parole on
the condition they go through rehabilitation, but they often have to
wait up to eight months before being admitted to the six-month
program. That wait only adds costs for taxpayers, he said.

Jesus Lechuga, an El Paso county probation officer, said lack of money
for drug rehab programs might also lead some on probation back to
prison. The county's probation department receives about $1.2 million
a year from the state, he said, but they could use much more.

"We don't have too many places in El Paso where we can send people
to," Lechuga said.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley in Central Texas said
he opposes letting drug dealers, burglars and thieves out of prison
just because their offenses were nonviolent. In the early 1990s, when
parole rates were about 80 percent, Bradley said, Texas crime was
higher than it is now.

"A lot of people paid for the crime from those releases," Bradley
said.

He was on a commission that made recommendations the Texas Legislature
adopted in 1993. It reduced parole rates and added 100,000 prison beds
and 12,000 drug treatment beds, he said.

Subsequent legislatures, though, failed to fund the programs, so the
state now only has about 2,000 treatment beds. Lawmakers may cut
funding for treatment programs in the future because they're expensive
to maintain, but they won't cut prisons, he said.

"Nobody's ever cut funding for prisons," he said.

(512) 479-6606.

There were 152,767 prisoners in Texas prisons, state jails, and
substance abuse felony punishment facilities, as of Valentine's Day
2007, and the facilities are at 97.5 percent of capacity, said the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The average cost of an inmate in fiscal year 2006 was $15,538, said
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The state currently has 80,000 maximum security beds but only 32,000
inmates classified as violent, said state Sen. John Whitmire,
D-Houston, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee.

About 40,000 of the 153,000 Texas inmates were in some type of
mental-health program before ever being in trouble with the law, said
Whitmire.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice recently requested $377
million for new prisons.

In 1993, the Texas Legislature added 100,000 prison beds and 12,000
drug treatment beds, said Williamson County District Attorney John
Bradley.