Solutions for Sentencing & Incarceration | Steps to Improve the System

How to Improve Texas' Criminal Justice System

STEP 1: STOP FUTURE PRISON OVERCROWDING BY STOPPING THE FLOW OF PROBATIONERS INTO PRISON!

The time has come to fix Texas’ probation system once and for all. Revoked probationers from 2001 alone will cost the state approximately $470 million in housing costs for their projected prison length-of-stay! Probation reform must become one of our priorities.

By making probationers better able to receive treatment, hold a job, and support their families, this flow to the prisons can stop. In part, this can be accomplished by helping probation officers meet the needs of probationers. Most probationers who re-offend do so in the first two years – and the majority of those within the first eight months. If probation officers’ caseloads were reduced by half, they could keep a better eye on probationers during this critical period, while helping them secure housing and jobs, and thus better ensuring that the terms of their probation are achievable.

Another way to prevent probation revocation – and reduce probation officers’ caseloads – would be to reduce probation term lengths. Texas’ average probation sentence is 5.6 years, much longer than the national average. A reduction in lengths would mean that probation officers would not have cases on their books for as long (in turn reducing their caseloads), and they would be better able to supervise probationers during that most-important early transitional period. Again, this recommendation would improve public safety while also limiting the number people ending up in prison.

An additional solution: counties that receive grant funding should put in place drug courts, which are specialized courts designed to handle cases involving offenders who abuse addictive substances. These courts offer offenders the option of entering the drug court system in lieu of serving a jail sentence; offenders must agree to take part in treatment, regular drug screenings, and regular reporting to the drug court judge. After Fort Bend County established its own “special sanctions” court, probation revocations dropped by 12%.

STEP 2: INCREASE THE RELEASE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ELIGIBLE, LOW-RISK OFFENDERS WHO ARE IN PRISON ONLY BECAUSE OF REVOCATION, AND INSTEAD MAKE ROOM FOR MORE DANGEROUS OFFENDERS.

We must consider strategies to cut the prison length-of-stay for probationers who have never been previously incarcerated, and who have been revoked for technical violations not involving a prior or present violent or sexually-based offense.

Ultimately, the Board of Pardons and Paroles should adhere to its own established minimum guidelines and release low-risk, low-severity offenders on parole to make way for more dangerous ones. However, the Parole Board will only feel comfortable releasing these “lower risk and severity” level offenders if parole is revitalized. Currently, Texas lacks the tools and programs outside of prison to meet the treatment demands of these offenders. As a result, their release rates are minimal, causing them to remain in prison and creating the current prison capacity crisis.

Texas MUST strengthen parole supervision by equipping parole departments with resources to assist parolees, including drug and alcohol treatment, and other re-entry programs.

BOTTOM LINE: the Parole Board must only increase its parole rates of these low-risk, low-severity offenders from 27% to 31% to offset the need for new prison construction.

With the establishment of these community programs, we can address the needs of parolees that will ultimately lead to safer communities.

STEP 3: INSTEAD OF WASTING MONEY ON NEW PRISONS, INVEST IN WHAT WILL YIELD REAL RETURNS: DIVERSION PROGRAMS!

People in prison will eventually return to the very same communities they came from. To reduce the likelihood of their returning to prison, they must be given the tools to succeed. Programs and services need to be targeted to high stakes communities, and government agencies need to be given incentives to do a more effective job in these neighborhoods.

State and local agencies – as well as faith-based and private sector re-entry programs – must improve their coordination efforts.

Texas must fund proven re-entry programs designed to help ex-offenders get and keep a job, find housing, and stay out of trouble when they get out of prison, especially for the first 1 - 2 years.

Texas must improve probation and parole diversion intervention by increasing the ability of these departments to communicate and coordinate their resources.

Texas must create new programs to support the children of incarcerated parents, including mentoring, tutoring, counseling, part-time jobs, and access to social services, as well as continue to fund similar programs that already exist. These programs must also be in direct communication with Health and Human Services, child support programs, and additional state programs intended to aid families.