NONVIOLENT OFFENDERS COSTING STATE BIG BUCKS

One way that Texas could reduce state spending is for legislators to reduce
the state's nonviolent prison population. Texas spends more than $2.5
billion annually on its prison system -- approximately $1 out of every $14
in the general fund.

The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing legislation that would require
the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to apply its own risk guidelines to
increase the percentage of eligible prisoners who are granted parole. It
also is supporting a bill that would reduce the penalty for delivery or
possession of less than a gram of a controlled substance to a misdemeanor
instead of a felony.

Both of these proposals make sense and would result in large savings to the
state.

The ACLU and a few Republican lawmakers have teamed up to push for cuts in
spending. For instance, House Bill 801, sponsored by Rep. Terry Keel, the
Republican chairman of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, would
disallow any more state funding for regional narcotic task forces.

These task forces are the ones that provoked the scandal in Tulia, where 46
African Americans were arrested on the word of a since-discredited
undercover narcotics officer, as well as similar scandals in other cities.

If passed -- as it should be -- legislation abolishing these task forces
would save Texas taxpayers $199 million this biennium.

In the current fiscal crisis, it is only prudent that lawmakers make these
cuts.