TEXAS ADDS 1 IN 5 TO PRISON SYSTEM

State's inmate population rose annually by 11.8 percent in '90s

WASHINGTON - Texas put people in prison at a faster rate than any other
state during the last decade, but its crime rate is higher than other large
states with smaller prison populations, according to a study being released
today.

The report by Justice Policy Institute, which supports alternatives to
prison, showed that the Texas prison population's annual growth rate was
11.8 percent during the 1990s, which meant it added one in every five
inmates to the nation's prisons. Meanwhile, the state's crime rate fell at
half the national average and the least of any of the nation's five largest
states.

A Texas prison official said the last decade's growth was a response to a
prison revolving door during overcrowded conditions, and the state's
incarceration rate slowed in the latter part of the decade.

The study's authors zeroed in on Texas' prison system after the Bureau of
Justice reported earlier this year that the Texas prison population of
163,190 had surpassed California's, 163,067. California's population of 32
million is almost twice that of Texas.

The Justice Policy is a think tank of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice, and the study was paid for with a grant from the Center on Crime,
Communities and Culture. The groups provide programs for families of inmates
and look for other solutions to criminal behavior beyond prisons, such as
substance abuse treatment.

The study comes as Texas prison officials are pressing for money to build
more lockups and as the inmate population is closing in on the system's
capacity.

Earlier this month, Tony Fabelo, executive director of the state Criminal
Justice Policy Council, told elected officials that without a change in
parole rates and policies for returning parole violators to prison, Texas
will likely need prisons to hold 14,600 additional inmates by August 2005.

On Friday, Fabelo said Texas' rapid incarceration occurred when the state
went on a prison-building binge.

Before that, the state intermittently released inmates to relieve
overcrowding and comply with court-mandated capacity levels.

Texas' crime rate decline has not fallen as much as in other large states.

>From 1995 to 1998, Texas' crime rate fell 5.1 percent, half the national
average drop of 10 percent.

Meanwhile California's fell 23 percent, Florida's 5.9 percent, Illinois' 9
percent and New York's 21.1 percent, the study said.