General Appropriations Bill, Article V
With the State of Texas expecting to spend billions of dollars per year over the next two years on the mere incarceration of felons, legislators must strongly consider the allocation of funds towards public safety strategies that will yield greater returns on initial investments.
In 2007, the Texas Legislature had to choose whether to spend money on the maintenance and staffing of three additional prisons or invest in strategies that would eliminate the need for costly prison construction. Texas legislators chose to invest in diversions – including funding for drug and alcohol treatment programs and systems to return people to their communities in a healthy and productive way (including increased funding for halfway houses, additional out-patient drug treatment programs, and flexibility for judges and supervision staff).
Texas cannot afford to undo the strides made during the 80th legislative session, especially in light of current economic realities. To build upon this groundwork, policy-makers must continue their commitment to ensuring the fidelity and success of responsible crime-reduction best practices.
TCJC resources regarding appropriations for criminal justice matters:
Other resources for criminal justice:
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LBB – Adult and Juvenile Correctional Population Projections, FY 09-14
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LBB – Correctional Population Update on Recent Trends, 2.16.09
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LBB – Summary of LBB Budget & Policy Recommendations, FY 10-11
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Telicon – House Appropriations Committee Minutes Regarding SB 1, Article V; 2.24.09
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Telicon – House Appropriations Committee Minutes Regarding SB 1, Criminal Justice Issues; 2.17.09
Texas Legislators Should Support the Following Exceptional Item Requests by TDCJ:
□ Item #3: Biennialization of Substance Abuse Felony Punishment (SAFP) & Intermediate Sanction Facility (ISF) Diversion Initiatives
□ Item #7: In-Prison Therapeutic Community Program Expansion
□ Item #8: Reentry Transitional Coordinators
□ Item #11: Basic Supervision/Community Corrections Facilities Funding
□ Item #12: Probation Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment
□ Item #13: Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments (TCOOMMI) – Expand Mental Health/Criminal Justice Initiatives
Texas Legislators should support the following appropriations solutions:
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Support TDCJ’s Legislative Appropriations Request. Practices throughout TDCJ must be strengthened and monitored to increase efficiency. According to a CJAD handout made available earlier this month (titled Strengthening Community Supervision), TDCJ made a Legislative Appropriations Exceptional Items Request for the FY 2010-2011 biennium that includes the following:
□ $11.9 million due to an increase in projected probation growth (included in the initial versions of the appropriations bill);
□ $40 million in additional Basic Supervision funding;
□ $10 million in additional Diversion funding for Community Corrections Facilities; and
□ $10 million in additional Diversion funding for Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment.
Note: Among the Exceptional Items requested by TDCJ in their budget are Basic Supervision/Community Corrections Facilities Funding (item 11, for $50 million) and Probation Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment (item 12, for $10 million), which are mirrored in the last three bullets above.
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Maintain the diversions passed in 2007 that are currently saving the state millions of dollars and eliminating the need for costly prison construction. Considering the state’s anticipated budget shortfall for 2010-11, the Legislature cannot waste taxpayers’ dollars on the status quo by locking up individuals and throwing away the key. Instead, during this 81st Legislative Session the goal of policy-makers from the both sides of the aisle must be to continue to maintain the cost-effective practices put in place during our last state session in 2007 (and discussed above).
These diversions must include the following, which are also among the Exceptional Items requested by TDCJ in their budget:
□ Continued funding of the 80th Legislature’s biennialization of SAFP/ISF Diversion Initiatives. This includes an increase of 1,500 SAFP beds and 1,400 parole and probation ISF beds. Additional beds would lower waiting times and, in turn, decrease prison overcrowding.
□ Additional funding for in-prison therapeutic community program expansion. This includes 400 additional treatment slots. Many offenders are eligible for parole upon successful completion of this program but, due to backlogs, are unable to enroll in this rehabilitative community.
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Fund TDCJ’s request for Reentry Transitional Coordinators. In 2007, individuals released from TDCJ exhibited an alarming recidivism rate of 67%.[1] Reentry coordinators would assist offenders on the unit in mapping out their transition, gathering critical identification documents, family reunification, identifying residential and employment resources, and addressing other issues that offenders experience while transitioning from incarceration back to the community – a crucial time in recidivism prevention. These coordinators would be indispensable in creating a transition plan that would enable the formerly incarcerated to more successfully re-integrate into society.
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Fund specialty courts. Despite specialty courts’ significant recidivism-reduction and cost-saving benefits – as well as the 2007 legislative mandate (via H.B. 530) requiring their implementation in counties with populations over 200,000 – these courts still lack funding in many counties to realize their full potential. Specialty courts should be fully funded and institutionalized so that Texas can more effectively address addiction and mental health issues.
In TDCJ’s Exceptional Item 13, they request additional funding through TCOOMMI that would enable them to open four new mental health courts and serve 1,000 additional offenders. The documented success of current mental health courts has resulted in an increased demand for more specialized courts for the mentally ill. This request will enable TCOOMMI to expand mental health courts to four additional urban sites.
- Maintain funding for TDCJ’s Community Justice Assistance Division (CJAD). CJAD should be given the resources necessary to effectively oversee funds allocated to CSCDs, and the programs on which those funds are spent. Specifically, CJAD should be given additional staff to do the following:
□ Ensure that funds distributed to the field are properly spent and effectively utilized;
□ Conduct audits for compliance with CJAD rules and standards, and efficacy of programs and services;
□ Provide much needed technical assistance to the field to further the mission and goals of effective community supervision;
□ Provide meaningful ongoing training to probation officers so they can become certified within the period prescribed by law, as well as enhance their professional development;
□ Broaden CJAD’s current training capabilities on best practices for judges, district attorneys, and probation departments; and
□ Conduct research that will be useful to the members of the Legislature, and provide meaningful program evaluation. Research staff should also be given to CJAD so that they can identify emerging trends and best practices in the field of community corrections.
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Fund TDCJ’s request for Reentry Transitional Coordinators. Specifically, the allocations made to prison diversions (including community supervision, among other things), special needs offenders, and Reentry Transitional Coordinators are all necessary to strengthen the efforts of Probation, Parole, and TDCJ in general to slow the cycle of re-offending.
[1]According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in the fiscal year 2007 it released 72, 032 inmates. From those released, 41, 808 were released from prison confinement and 47, 904 had previous TDCJ incarcerations. These figures were obtained from the TDCJ, Overview of Reentry Programs report released in August 2008 and the Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight Committee Information Paper Number 1.