BILLS COULD PACK TEXAS PRISONS

Stiffer Penalties Sought For Meth, Car Burglary Despite Crowding Fears

AUSTIN - Faced with a shortage of beds in state prisons, lawmakers
began the legislative session trying to stop a trend they set in
motion a decade ago: expanding the number of crimes for which a person
should do prison time.

But legislators say some crimes just seem to require prison time.
There are measures to increase penalties for car burglary, a
particular annoyance for big-city residents and police chiefs. A more
serious menace, rising methamphetamine use in rural areas, has
prompted proposals to increase the punishment for manufacturing the
drug.

If those bills become law, more than 8,500 inmates would be added to
the state prison system's 151,000-inmate population over the next five
years, according to the Legislative Budget Board. That growth would
make it harder for lawmakers to limit the prison population by
strengthening probation departments and reducing the number of
probationers who fall back into the criminal justice system.

The prison system is at 97.6 percent capacity, according to figures
released Friday. And critics say lawmakers are setting themselves up
to build more prisons.

"The net effect is it does create capacity issues, and it wastes
valuable resources that we could be using in other areas of criminal
justice," said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

The supporters of the measures say they are needed to fight crimes
such as car burglary, which rose 33 percent in Dallas between 1995 and
2004. Lawmakers reduced car burglary to a misdemeanor in the early
1990s, which some said was a mistake.

"Anyone who has been a victim of this crime knows how serious and
devastating it can be," said Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin. "It is a
serious dollar loss for victims."

PROJECTIONS Here's how two bills likely to pass could change Texas'
prison population, according to legislative estimates:

Current prison population: 151,057

Prisoners added over five years by increasing the penalty for car
burglary: 4,101

Prisoners added over five years by stiffening the penalty for making
methamphetamines: 4,451

Total prison population in five years, if rates of incarceration and
parole stay constant: 159,609 Upgrading car burglary from a class A
misdemeanor to a state jail felony would add 695 prisoners over the
next two years, at a cost of $9.1 million, according to the budget
board. Over five years, it would add about 4,100 prisoners in state
jails and about 5,000 new felony probationers, the board estimates.

At cross purposes Other House leaders, including Republicans
spearheading the criminal justice agenda, are concerned that the
change would overwhelm efforts to slow the growth of prisoner numbers.
That worry reflects a new consensus that has emerged in Austin - at
least while the state is strapped for cash - that prisons should be
reserved for violent offenders, not drug users and petty thieves.

To slow the growth, lawmakers are overhauling the probation system.
They hope to decrease the number of probationers going to prison by
reducing probation sentences and tightening the rules under which
probationers live.

Lawmakers also have budgeted an additional $14 million to hire more
probation officers to reduce caseloads.

"We are trying to make sure we don't have to build any more prisons
but also to make sure we keep violent offenders locked up," said Rep.
Jerry Madden, the Richardson Republican who heads the House
Corrections Committee.

To reduce its effect on the prison population, the car burglary bill
may be watered down, perhaps in the Senate, to send only second-or
third-time offenders to state jails, Mr. Madden and others said.
Applying the prison penalty to only third-time offenders would add 568
new prisoners over the next five years, the budget board estimates.

Mr. Whitmire and other Democrats oppose the increased penalty because,
they say, many judges are not using the maximum one-year jail sentence
allowed under current law.

A survey of sentences in Harris County found the average sentence was
between 90 and 180 days, according to Mr. Whitmire's office. A sample
of three months of cases in Dallas County found the average jail
sentence was 134 days, according to Sen. Royce West's office.

Critics also contend that stiffening the penalty would not improve
public safety or make offenders less willing to commit the crime.

"Do you think people read the law before they break it?" said Rep.
Terri Hodge, D-Dallas. "They don't even know the law. They just don't
think they'll get caught."

Targeting meth Lawmakers may be more willing to crack down on the
manufacture and delivery of methamphetamine than on car burglary, or
at least to restrict the sale of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals used
to make the drug. Meth addiction is blamed for destroying lives and
filling jails in rural counties throughout the country.

"This is one of the things that we have to get under control," said
Rep. Joe Driver, a Garland Republican, who has authored a bill to
raise the penalty for making meth from a state jail felony to a
third-degree felony.

The change would add 638 prisoners and 669 parolees over the next two
years, at a cost of $10 million, the budget board estimates. Over five
years, the numbers grow even more.

Mr. Whitmire argues that meth use will ebb when the state invests more
money in drug treatment and does more to enforce its current laws.

"There is an outbreak in North Texas because of increased enforcement
in Oklahoma," Mr. Whitmire said. "You see the flood from Oklahoma, so
what are we doing about it? Why don't we meet them head-on?"