Issue 1: By not Adequately Addressing Offender Rehabilitation Needs, the State's Criminal Justice Efforts May Not Deter Recidivism, Increasing the Prison Population
Summary
Key Recommendations
· The Sunset Commission should recommend that the Legislature appropriate significant additional funds to TDCJ for offender treatment and rehabilitation programs proven to reduce recidivism.
· TDCJ should conduct routine program evaluations of all rehabilitation programs designed to reduce re-incarcerations and revocations, and report the findings to the Legislature.
Key Findings
· Several factors, including recidivism, have caused Texas’ prisoner population to exceed prison capacity.
· Treatment and prison diversion programs have been shown to reduce recidivism and result in savings for the State.
· Without adequate resources, TDCJ cannot successfully implement treatment and diversion programs to meet existing needs.
· Building prisons without investing in treatment programs is not the most cost-effective or sustainable solution to prison population growth.
Conclusion
The Texas criminal justice system is at a crossroads. The State’s prison population has been steadily increasing and is expected to exceed capacity by more than 11,000 beds in 2011. Facing the prospect of prison overcrowding, the State must either increase prison capacity or reduce the number of offenders in the system.
Offender recidivism plays a central role in fueling prison population growth. In recent years, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has developed offender rehabilitation programming to help prevent probationers from entering the prison system, and to keep former offenders out of the system once they are released. In particular, TDCJ has concentrated on developing treatment programs which are demonstrated to reduce offender recidivism. However, TDCJ does not currently have enough funding to meet programming needs.
In the near future, the Legislature will have to invest in more prisons or more programs, or some combination of the two. By targeting funding toward programming, the State can reduce the number of offenders in prison, potentially lessening the need for building more prisons. In addition, programs aimed at reducing recidivism improve public safety and help offenders become more productive members of society, which benefits all Texans.