Solutions for Sentencing & Incarceration: Providing Proven and Cost-Effective Answers to Texas' Over-Incarceration Crisis
TCJC’s Role in Historical Bipartisan Shift to Promote “Smart on Crime” Policies through Collaboration
BY ANA YÁÑEZ-CORREA
The Texas Legislature passed a resolution in May honoring TCJC and the Center for Effective Justice (CEJ) at TPPF – a key unlikely ally – for bringing “crucial credibility ... to the legislative process [that] will favorably enhance the way this state approaches matters of public safety and criminal justice policy.”
But on that day, the Legislature was recognizing not only TCJC and the CEJ but the success of a truly collaborative and bipartisan movement that did not exist in Texas a decade ago – one which, while still growing, has already succeeded in bringing together stakeholders and opinion leaders from across the political spectrum and throughout the criminal justice system to negotiate workable solutions.
TCJC’s Solutions for Sentencing & Incarceration Campaign has witnessed an overwhelmingly large and varied array of groups, institutions, and individuals who have come forward to help achieve our goals. We have already seen a sea change in the political climate in Texas with regards to criminal justice issues based on solid research and nonpartisan advocacy. In 2007, TCJC worked with probation and parole officers and directors, family members of prisoners, attorneys, state and local judges, members of law enforcement, alcohol and drug treatment providers, formerly incarcerated individuals, researchers and policy analysts, advocates for victims or those incarcerated, faith-based advocates, Republican and Democratic policy-makers and their staffs, ideological conservatives who support smaller government, and an array of institutional interests – all of whom came together to tell the Legislature: ‘We need to do things differently.’
In October, 2006, the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission determined that Texas’ prison system was at a “crossroads” and recommended new policies to reduce incarceration and increase public safety. The Sunset Commission concluded that “building prisons without investing in treatment programs is not the most cost-effective or sustainable solution to prison population growth.” At TCJC, we couldn’t agree more. With the help of our dozens of collaborators and partners, we saw passage by both chambers of significant bipartisan solutions, including the following:
· New funding for community supervision, drug and alcohol treatment programs, intermediate sanctions, and halfway houses so that people can exit prison and re-enter their home communities [HB 1];
· Expansion of the State’s already successful drug court program [HB 530];
· Access to “medically intensive supervision” for a range of critically ill or mentally ill offenders who cannot get the medical care they need to stay alive from within the prison system [HB 431];
· Systems allowing certain incarcerated pregnant women to say with their newborn infant during the critical early months after birth [HB 199];
· More options for judges administering people on community supervision to encourage success and address technical violations [HB 1678 and SB 166];
· Measures to reduce state jail overcrowding [HB 2391]; and
· Parole Board accountability measures that will ensure the Board abides by its own guidelines [SB 909].
More to do and a path to do it
Policy-makers at the highest levels agree that Texas needs to move in a new direction, and that these first steps don’t finish the job.
· Although leaders in both chambers agreed that diversion funding and other reforms would largely eliminate the need for new prisons, it also approved bond funding for three new units.
· Texas already operates one of the largest prison systems in the world: With roughly 450,000 adults on probation, 160,000 in prison, and 130,000 parolees under supervision, 1 of every 20 adult Texans is currently in prison, on probation, or on parole. But in spite of our high incarceration rates, crime has not declined in Texas as much as in other states: our state crime rate is 24% higher than the national average. We don’t need to build those new units and can work together to show that alternatives will work far better.
That’s why TCJC will work with collaborators and partners to implement reforms, monitor prison and jail populations, ensure public safety and reduced recidivism, keep families together, and help offenders get a fresh start re-integrating into the community when they get out of prison. Without employment assistance and other re-entry support, many prisoners in TDCJ will re-offend, which costs taxpayers more in the long run.
We’re gratified that Texas has taken the first steps down the path toward lessening reliance on prisons, and excited that Texas can some day become a national model for “smart on crime” solutions that will increase public safety, save taxpayers money, and strengthen families.
There’s still a lot to be done. We will be calling on you in the next few months to explore the impact of enacted laws that will be undergoing implementation, and to get your feedback as we identify further policies and strategies that must be studied during this interim period and that will be developed into future laws.
To be part of the solution and this historic collaborative effort, contact Ana Yáñez-Correa at acorrea@criminaljusticecoalition.org.