STUDY: FILLING TEXAS PRISONS ACHIEVES LITTLE

In the latest election-year salvo against the Texas justice system, a
study to be made public today suggests that the Lone Star State is
putting too many people behind bars -- especially young African
American men.

While many of the statistics the study cites are well-known to Texans,
the release of the report at a time when Texas' justice system has
become an increasing political flash point promises to spur new debate
about whether more alternatives to prison, such as rehabilitation
programs, should be explored for nonviolent criminals.

In its study, the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute -- a think
tank that advocates rehabilitation programs -- found that Texas, with
the highest incarceration rate of all states, has nearly one of every
three young black men under some form of criminal justice control.

Among young African Americans in Texas, the report states, the
incarceration rate is 63 percent higher than the national average.

But Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice, said the study ignores several facts.

``Our system grew fast during the 1990s, but it did so because Texas
voters wanted it to. They wanted crime to be reduced,'' Todd said.
``Those within the Beltway can pontificate all they wish about how we
should do things in Texas, but we did what we did because it was the
wish of the people of Texas -- the people who run Texas."

Faced with a surge in crime, Texas launched the nation's largest prison
expansion effort in 1991, more than doubling the size of its prison
system in just five years -- to more than 155,000 beds. Crime has
dropped in the years since, the intended result, but the report shows
it has not dropped proportionately to crime in other states that
expanded their prison systems much less and incarcerate far fewer
people.

``If locking up people really reduced crime, Texas should have the
lowest crime rate in the country,'' said Jason Zeidenberg, a researcher
at the Justice Policy Institute and an author of the study, which says
Texas has the most punitive criminal justice system in the world.

``The cost of having one in three young black men under criminal
justice control is a steep price to pay for the state's lackluster
crime declines."

As evidence, the study compares Texas with New York, which has roughly
the same population. Since 1995, the crime rate in New York has
declined four times as fast as it has in Texas. In 1998, Texas' murder
rate was 25 percent higher than New York's, according to the study.

During the 1990s, the report states, Texas added more convicts to its
system -- 90,081 -- than New York held in all its prisons -- 73,233.

To bolster its finding that Texas has too many people behind bars, the
report cited these statistics:

o During the 1990s, Texas' prison system grew nearly twice as fast as
that of any other state -- accounting for nearly one out of every five
prisoners who entered a lockup in the United States. Only California
has a larger state prison system than Texas, and both states' systems
are bigger than those of most other countries in the world -- including
Russia.

o One of every 20 adults in Texas was in prison or jail or on
probation or parole during the past decade.

The report notes that 89,400 people are incarcerated in Texas for
nonviolent crimes -- the largest group of that type after
California's, and larger than the prison roll in the entire United
Kingdom, whose population is about three times that of Texas.

``Despite the simplistic connection drawn by some that harsher crime
policies lead to safer communities, there is little evidence that
Texas' severe correctional system is responsible for the drop in
crime,'' the report states. ``While crime has dropped in Texas in
recent years, as it has done all over the country, a state-by-state
comparison shows the Lone Star State to be lagging behind other
jurisdictions which have not increased their prison systems as
dramatically."

In fact, the report states, Texas' crime rate dropped half as much as
it did on a national level, and by the lowest amount of the five most
populous states -- including California, New York, Florida and
Illinois.

Texas' high incarceration rate among young black men has been a focus
of criticism of the system for several years. Prison officials say the
cause is a high conviction rate over which they have no control, but
critics say it shows how justice in Texas is skewed along racial lines.
``Texans are compassionate,'' said Todd, the state's justice
department spokesman. ``They're just tired of crime. And so we built
more prisons, and the crime rate dropped. What's wrong with that?"

The social cost alone of such a huge prison system should raise
questions, according to the report.

``In light of these lackluster (crime-reduction) results, the
architects of Texas' prison policies should question whether these
mediocre crime drops are worth the social cost the state is paying for
having 1 in 20 adults, and 1 in 3 young black men, under criminal
justice control,'' the report states.

``The criminal justice policy-making consensus in Texas -- a view that
spans both parties -- has directed corrections officials to plan for
the day when there will be 1 million people under criminal justice
control. Unless the costs of these policies are weighed in the balance,
this foreboding figure will undoubtedly come to pass."