ALTERNATIVES TO PRISON FOCUS OF CCSWT FORUM

It was standing room only at the Willie De Leon Civic Center Reading Room
Thursday night as people gathered for a forum on alternatives to sending
non-violent criminals to jail.

The panel discussion was moderated by Jorge Botello, executive director of
Community Council of Southwest Texas Inc.

Panel members included Uvalde County Judge Bill Mitchell, Uvalde County
Sheriff Terry Crawford, Crystal City Chief of Police Luis Contreras,
District Attorney Tony Hackebeil, County Commissioner Jesse Moreno, Jessica
Munoz of the National Council of La Raza, or NCLR, in San Antonio and
Ernesto Servantes, supervisor of the Community Supervision and Corrections
Department.

State Rep. Tracy O. King said the issue of alternatives to prison for
non-violent offenders is important in Texas. "We have 160,000 people
incarcerated in Texas at great expense to the taxpayers," said King.

"We need to do everything we can to have adequate treatment programs. I
applaud each and every one of you for coming here tonight," King said.
Munoz said NCLR helped get a grant to educate communities about criminal
justice issues.

"We're all here to find a common solution to this problem," she said,
adding that NCLR advocates finding alternatives to incarceration for
low-level, non-violent offenders.

"Overall, a large portion of the Texas prison population is composed of
drug offenders," she said.

One solution would be drug courts, said Munoz. "They are not as popular as
we would hope," she said. "It's actually a treatment program, a very
rigorous program where judges act as treatment counselors. It's very
cost-effective."

At the state level, she said, treatment is a mandatory alternative.
"Instead of being sent away for drug offenses, these people are getting
drug treatment. We would like to see that at the community level. This
makes sense fiscally."

"The good news in our district is the 38th District Court Residential
Treatment Center," said Servantes. "If the offender acknowledges he has a
problem and wants treatment, we use it. If he's in denial, we still use it.
Overall, to me it is good news because we do use it here as much as we
possibly can." Servantes said violent offenders and sex offenders are not
eligible for the treatment center.

"For every single person who gets incarcerated, there is a very negative
ripple effect in the community, not only in the offender's life, but in the
community," said Moreno.

"We have a small jail here in Uvalde County. A lot of times, we don't have
the room to incarcerate people locally," Moreno said. He pointed out that
the county pays an average of $42 a day to incarcerate prisoners out of county.

"If you put a non-violent person in jail, it affects his home environment,"
he said. "It's a community problem and affects each and every one of you."

Mitchell said he makes every effort to keep non-violent offenders out of
jail. "We are working to find alternative means to incarceration instead of
placing people in jail," he said. "Of the 49 people held in Uvalde County
Jail in March, only three were being held for county court. Most were in
violation of probation."

Normally, a person on probation gets at least two or three chances to
straighten up before being placed in jail for a longer term.

"In the last year, we have seen Uvalde County grand juries indict 230 to
250 people in this community, about 35 percent of the entire district,"
said Hackebeil. "I have seen a significant increase in the number of crimes
committed in each of the three counties I deal with."

He said he has to answer to crime victims as well as offenders. "Victims
believe the only answer to their satisfaction would be incarceration," he said.

"There is a lot to be said for alternatives. There is not a single crime I
deal with on the felony level that is not influenced in some way by drugs
or alcohol," Hackebeil went on.

Offenders are often unaware they have a drug or alcohol problem, he said.
Family members don't want to believe it because they want the offender to
come home.

"The answer is in community-based education," said Hackebeil. "We're very
fortunate to have a court residential treatment center right here in our
own back yard. It gives preference to our cases."

Contreras said Crystal City and Zavala County have the same problems Uvalde
County has with jail overcrowding and drug crimes. "Every time I go to one
of these meetings, everyone is saying the same thing," he said.

Manuel Ramos, municipal judge from Pearsall, was not part of the panel, but
did point out that mental problems in the penal system also need to be
addressed.

"We really need to address this issue in terms of the earliest point of
prevention by giving families the skills they need to keep kids out of the
streets and supervised," said Botello.

"There is a big system out there that supports a whole lot of careers in
criminal justice. I don't believe that incarceration of human beings is a
form of job description. That is my opinion," he said.

Crawford said the county is facing jail overcrowding. "We have been housing
inmates out of county for over a year now. At present, we have seven out of
county."

He said the state's refusal to build more prisons has created a greater
need on the county level to find alternatives.

"We can sugar-coat it by saying the state pays per diem, but we have yet to
see this money," he said.

"The larger we get, the larger the number of incarcerated persons we have,"
said Crawford.

He said Uvalde County now averages 1.44 prisoners per 1,000 population.

As an average, he said, that is not bad compared to other communities, but
the numbers will go up as the population increases.

"Many people forget that Uvalde County Jail is not used so much for
complete sentencing as for holding for court or awaiting sentence. It's not
until that point that an inmate is eligible to be moved to state jail. If
he's sentenced to six months or less, he could end his sentence in our
facility."

Crawford listed a number of alternatives to incarceration, including drug
court, mental health court, work release and restitution, electronic
monitoring, restorative justice, halfway houses and counseling programs.

Drug court provides comprehensive supervision, drug testing, treatment
services and immediate sanctions or incentives.

Mental health court links mentally ill offenders with proper treatment.

Law enforcement needs to improve its ability to identify mentally ill
offenders, Crawford said.

A work release program would have offenders participate in work around the
county and community.

"This would allow individuals to complete their sentence without taking up
jail space," said Crawford.

In a restitution program, he said monetary compensation would be awarded to
the victim in lieu of the offender being incarcerated.

The court system would have to identify offenders capable of paying
restitution and work out a payment plan.

Electronic monitoring would require more up-front costs, he said. "Vendor
selection is very important," he said.

Restorative justice would provide offenders an opportunity to understand
the ramifications of their actions.

"It's a strategic method of crime reduction and prevention which builds or
enhances partnerships within the community," said Crawford.

"Halfway houses are typically used as an intermediate step from
incarceration back to society," said Crawford. He said halfway houses serve
two purposes. They give offenders an alternative to jail time and assist
released criminals in re-entering society.

He said counseling programs help offenders to understand their own actions
and can reduce recidivism.

"Alternatives mean an opportunity to reduce jail population, help offenders
who truly need treatment and enhance appearance of the community through
work-release programs," said Crawford.

Asked what impact incarceration has on the county budget deficit, Moreno
said it's difficult to project the costs of housing prisoners out of county.

"We operate on a budget. Sometimes, we have to shift money around to cover
expenses. We don't use credit cards. We pay up front or they don't keep our
prisoners."

"Law enforcement is the biggest portion of the county budget," said
Mitchell. "Whenever we do have people exceeding our expectations in the
county jail, it does negatively affect the budget."