TEXAS MAY GIVE PAROLEES A BREAK

As Prisons Fill Up, Lawmakers Want To Be `Reasonable' With The Non-violent

Faced with a familiar problem -- too many prisoners, too few cells --
Texas lawmakers are discussing a rather unfamiliar solution: leniency
for criminals.

Texas Pardons and Parole Board Chairman Gerald Garrett said the
18-member board and its staff are researching ways to better evaluate
non-violent inmates who are not sex offenders so that a greater
percentage might be freed through parole.

At the same time, state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who
serves on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, is calling on the
parole board to stop sending parolees back to prison for violating the
conditions of their release.

On the surface, such talk might seem out of place in Texas, a state
that spent $1.7 billion on 94,000 prison beds this decade and that
operates the busiest execution chamber in the country. But Whitmire
insists the issue requires more than a superficial look.

"We've got the toughest criminal justice policies in the nation. We've
got the toughest penal code. We've got a huge penal system. What we
are not doing is having a smart criminal justice system," Whitmire
said. "A smart criminal justice system is one where you maximize your
resources to fight crime."

If Texas prisons are a resource, it is one being quickly depleted. The
prison population has nearly quadrupled since 1988, from 38,952 to
150,017. The state's 116 prisons and jails are operating at capacity,
and Texas has been renting cells from county jails to house new
prisoners. A week ago, lawmakers and prison officials said a new round
of prison-building will be necessary within five years if current
trends continue.

One trend that should not continue is the rate at which convicted
criminals are returned to prison simply for violating a rule of
parole, Whitmire said. Of the 5,482 people sent back to prison last
year for violating their parole, more than 1,000 were sent back for
breaking a rule of probation, Whitmire said.

Among them were people such as:

. Gary Sparks, 52, of Wichita Falls, who was working as an engineer
for a company while on parole for a drug offense and was sent back to
prison for leaving the state without permission, according to his
wife. Sparks thought he had permission from his parole officer to make
the trip, which was work-related, said Tammy Sparks.

. Billie Glen Martin, 49, a convicted burglar from Jefferson County,
who said he was sent back to prison because he traveled to his home
state of Alabama to testify in a child custody case involving his
grandchildren.

. Frankie Selvage, 40, of Decatur, convicted of car burglary, who said
he was sent back to prison after he was charged with, but not
convicted of, driving while intoxicated. Selvage was acquitted of one
DWI charge at trial; another DWI charge was dismissed.

"We are not talking about compromising public safety," Whitmire said.
"We want to keep our sex offenders and our violent offenders locked
up. The only way to do that is to be reasonable with our non-violent
offenders."

Not only does the pardons and parole board need to be more selective
in whom it sends back to prison, it also needs to ease the criteria it
uses to decide which prisoners should be released back to the streets,
said State Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso.

"It's really a matter of dollars and cents," said Haggerty, chairman
of the House Corrections Committee. "If we had our druthers, everybody
would be locked up forever and that would be that. But that's not feasible."

The parole board and its staff already had begun a review of
decade-old parole guidelines even before lawmakers leveled their
criticisms, Garrett said.

Among the things the board is looking at is the formula it uses to
assess the risks posed to the public by non-violent offenders up for
parole.

"We want people who, statistically, are good risks to be identified as
such. Those that are poor risks should expect to serve the majority of
their sentences in prison," Garrett said.

The board also is investigating how other states handle parolees who
violate the rules of their release.

In response to criticisms that parole officers send too many parolees
back to prison for rules violations, Garrett points out that only
about 40 percent of parolees cited for violations are returned to prison.

"In six out of 10 cases we consider some alternative to prison" he
said.

Garrett expects the review of parole policies to be completed by
summer's end.

"I don't advocate continuous building of prison beds," he said. "I do
believe prison beds are a resource and we should try to use those beds
as judiciously as possible."