Texas Justice Reinvestment: Be More like Texas?

• Published date: 01 June 2010
• DOI: 10.3818/JRP.12.1.2010.113
• Date: 01 June 2010
• Author: Tony Fabelo
• Subject Matter: Special Issue on Sentencing and Corrections in the States

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Texas Justice Reinvestment: Be More Like Texas?

Tony Fabelo

Council of State Governments Justice Center

* Abstract

In 2007, Texas elected off‌icials faced a major dilemma: spend a half billion dollars to

build and operate new prisons to accommodate the surging number of people expected

to be incarcerated or explore options to control that growth. The Council of State Gov-

ernments Justice Center assisted state off‌icials with developing plans to address this po-

tential crisis, in partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts Center on the States—which

in 2006 launched the Public Safety Performance Project to help states advance f‌iscally

sound, data-driven sentencing and corrections policies to protect public safety and con-

trol corrections costs—and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice.

In response to this work the Texas legislature adopted, and the governor approved, a

budget that included greater treatment capacity in the prison system and the expansion

of diversion options in the probation and parole system. A total of 4,500 new diver-

sion beds and 5,200 new program slots were funded. The f‌inal budget adopted by the

legislature for the 2008–2009 biennium ref‌lected an increase of $241 million in fund-

ing for additional diversion and treatment capacity. The expansion of these programs

translated into a net savings of $443.9 million in the FY 2008–09 budget by reducing

funding for contracted bed space and canceling funding for the construction of the new

prison units originally proposed. The initiative has stabilized the growth of the Texas

prison population. The increase in treatment capacity and intermediate sanction facili-

ties funded by the initiative has helped to increase the number of people on probation

connected to services and reduce the number revoked to prison. Looking at where Texas

is today in the management of its state correctional policies in comparison to California,

“be more like Texas” may not be a bad thing. Unlike in California, the actions of Texas

policy makers has maintained the prison system operating within capacity, and, more

importantly, has led to major strengthening in the treatment and community corrections

system that should serve the state well in the future in terms of reducing correctional

costs and improving public safety outcomes.

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2010

© 2010 Justice Research and Statistics Association

Sp e c i a l iS S u e o n Se n t e n c i n g a n d co r r e c t i o n S i n t h e St a t e S

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A New York Times opinion column by Ross Douthat in August 2009 entitled

“Blue-State Blues” contrasted Texas and California on politics and economics

(Douthat, 2009). The column was reprinted in the local Austin American-States-

man newspaper under a different title, “Be More like Texas.”1 According to

this op-ed writer, Texas, with an image as “pious, lightly regulated, stingy with

public services and mad for sprawl,” kept growing well after the country dipped

into a recession, with unemployment and foreclosure rates well below the na-

tional average, and was one of only six states that didn’t have a budget def‌icit in

2009. In contrast, California, with an image as a forward-looking trend-setter

state, was in an economic and governmental f‌iscal “meltdown.” California for

FY 2009 had a total budget gap of $37.1 billion, representing 36.7% of the

General Fund budget compared to no gap in Texas (McNichol & Lav, 2009).

The author then attributes these results to different governance philosophies in

California and Texas.

Here I don’t intend to join the polemics about how governance philosophies

may explain the differences in recent trends between California and Texas. But

looking at where Texas is today in the management of its state correctional policies

in comparison to California, “be more like Texas” may not be a bad thing. As of

mid-year 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice re-

ported that Texas and California had almost a similar number of inmates under the

jurisdiction of their state correctional authorities (173,232 in Texas vs. 173,320

in California).2 Texas does have a higher incarceration rate than California, but

its incarceration rate has been declining, from 730 per 100,000 residents in 2000

to 639 in 2008, while California’s incarceration rate has stayed about the same at

467 per 100,000 residents in 2008.3 In 2008, Texas’ incarceration rate was 12%

lower than in 2000. The California rate was 1% lower than in 2000. Moreover,

California this decade has been operating its prison system at close to 200% of

operational capacity at almost four times the annual cost of Texas. Texas, since the

mid-1990s, has consistently operated its prison system at below 100% capacity,

operating in 2008 at 87% of capacity.4

California’s prison system is facing, and losing, a systemwide federal litigation

claiming unconstitutional conditions. In August 2009, a three-judge federal court pan-

el declared that the California prison system did not meet constitutional standards in

many areas and ordered immediate relief. This relief may include the “early release” of

up to 40,000 inmates (Stateman, 2009). In a major indictment of state policy makers,

1 Reprinted in Austin American-Statesman, “Be More like Texas,” August 5, 2009.

2 Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. Prisoners in 2008, at http://

bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/.

3 Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. Prisoners in 2008, at http://

bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/.

4 Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. Prisoners in U.S. reports,

tables of custody population as a percent of lowest capacity, at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/.