State briefs

Funds OK'd for prisons

AUSTIN State leaders Monday approved funding for two new highsecurity
prisons to be built in Amarillo and the East Texas town of Woodville. They
also agreed to add onto 20 lessersecurity dormitories each with 107 beds
at facilities around the state.

Final approval for the building program, which would total 4,120 new beds at
a cost of $107.4 million, must come from the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice board. The panel meets in Arlington on Thursday and Friday. The
money would be allocated from $2 billion in prison construction bonds
approved by voters in 1991 and 1993.

Although Texas has almost tripled its prison capacity since 1992, the
145,000bed system is expected to reach capacity by April.