LEGISLATURE NEEDS TO CORRECT PRISON OVERCROWDING

Unless a last-minute compromise arises, the Texas Legislature's
special redistricting session will conclude this week without
approving a new congressional map. If it does end that way, it appears
certain we legislators will start another special session next week.
And Gov. Rick Perry says he wants legislators to devote that session
solely to creating new congressional districts.

I would urge the governor to also turn our attention to the state's
prison problems. He should especially focus on the overcrowding
problem within our prisons.

I have introduced common-sense legislation to deal with a part of this
situation. It would provide strong incentives for probationers to
comply with the terms of their probation, while focusing supervision
on those most in need of it.

House Bill 105, which the House passed overwhelmingly during the
regular session, does all of that while saving taxpayers millions and
helping to assure that the prison population does not exceed capacity
before the next biennium.

Gov. Perry is to be applauded for signing a bill into law this summer
that provides treatment instead of incarceration for first-time,
low-level offenders caught with small amounts of drugs. That bill,
which will save $115 million over the next five years, nearly wipes
out the danger that the prison population would exceed capacity by
2,100 inmates over the next two years.

Nearly, but not quite.

The Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council has estimated that, even
with the enactment of the "treatment instead of incarceration bill,"
Texas prisons will exceed capacity by 400 inmates by the end of the
2004-2005 biennium. If we don't enact more modest reforms right now,
we will certainly enter the 2005 session with a crisis on our hands.
Our prison population is right at the edge of exceeding capacity. And
with the need for new prison beds predicted to rise in the future, the
state will need more drastic emergency measures.

That's why I will introduce legislation in any special session to
provide probationers who are complying with all of the terms of their
probation - including completing mandatory counseling and drug
treatment, fulfilling community service requirements, paying
restitution and complying with the terms of their supervision -
incentive to accelerate completion of their probation.

HB 105 will allow a probationer who has successfully "worked the
program" to earn release from probation supervision after serving
one-third of the total term.

This provides a real incentive for probationers to complete their
conditions of probation in a timely fashion, instead of putting off
community service, drug treatment, counseling and other services that
could have started sooner after probation.

This is no small matter.

Because there are roughly 440,000 people on probation in Texas, this
bill will save $120 million over the first five years of its
implementation. And it will provide needed relief for prison
overcrowding so we don't have to go back to the "bad old days" of
early releases of prisoners. The bill targets compliant, low-level
felons, including state jail felons, who are not the ones we need to
waste scarce resources on.

Right now, Texas' probation officers are overwhelmed with caseloads of
150 each. As a result, this bill succeeds in punishing those who do
not successfully complete the program by reducing caseloads and making
probation more focused, tougher and more serious. That's why it
enjoyed such broad, bipartisan support during the regular session.

As a former chairman of the House Corrections Committee, I have seen
Texas prisons swell with nonviolent, low-level offenders. This bill
takes the burden off the overtaxed prison and probation system and
brings common and fiscal sense back into Texas criminal justice policies.

The Legislature needs to make HB 105 a priority in any new special
session. And Gov. Perry needs to take care of this unfinished business
by adding it to the call and signing it into law when we send it to
his desk.