Prison board hopes to boost pay for rookie guards; 3/31/2008
TEXARKANA GAZETTE: AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas prison board is hoping higher pay can help fill a guard shortage. The board is meeting Thursday in Austin, expected to vote for higher salaries for new corrections officers by 10 percent and to accelerate their move up the pay scale ladder. The board’s hoping to counter a significant defection of rookie officers during their first year. In the most recent year, statistics show 43 percent of officers quit in their first year. That’s compared with the overall turnover rate of 24 percent in the prison system. As of the end of February, there were 3,594 officer vacancies, about a 14 percent deficit. Some 20 state prisons were considered understaffed.
TDCJ officers get pay increase; 3/29/2008
HUNTSVILLE ITEM: A 10 percent salary increase for newly-hired Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional officers was approved Thursday during a regular meeting of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The salary increase, which will raise correctional officers’ starting salaries by over $2,000 and will also guarantee future raises, will go into effect beginning May 1. “Essentially, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved a salary increase for newly-hired correctional officers which takes their old starting salary of $23,046 up to a figure of $25,416,” said Jason Clark, TDCJ public information officer. “What this does is increase all incoming correctional officers’ salaries by 10 percent.
Texas leads U.S. in rates of prison rape, survey finds; 3/28/2008
AMERICAN-STATESMAN: In a national survey of imprisoned criminals, Texas has gained a dubious new distinction: Five of the 10 prisons with the highest reported rates of rape are in Texas. They are the Estelle Unit outside Huntsville, Clements in Amarillo, Allred near Wichita Falls, Coffield near Tennessee Colony and Mountain View outside Gatesville. All are men's prisons except the one at Gatesville. Nationwide, more than 60,500 convicts reported being sexually victimized in prison — either by another prisoner or by staff — during 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics' December survey of more than 1.3 million of the 2.4 million total U.S. prisoners.
A focus on savings attained prison reforms; 3/11/2008
STAR-TELEGRAM: Last week, a national study on prisons reported that 1 in 100 adults is now behind bars, and the cost of housing so many inmates is blowing a hole in state budgets. Texas is mentioned prominently, as you'd expect, but not for the usual reasons. Sure, we have more inmates than any state and one of the highest incarceration rates anywhere. But Texas was featured in the report by the Pew Center on the States for what it's doing right, not wrong. Our new path: Get smart on crime, rather than just tough, and reap the ultimate benefit -- saving money. This represents a sea change for law-and-order Texas, and lawmakers deserve credit for pursuing progress regardless of the political risks.
As Ky. studies prison fixes, other states act; 3/9/2008
LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER: Texas and Kansas are cutting prison populations as their legislatures experiment with sentencing, addiction treatment, probation and parole, and social services targeted at high-crime neighborhoods. The new attitude didn't come easy in a state like Texas, better known for executing prisoners than trying to rehabilitate them. But Texans balked when prisons needed 14,000 new beds at an estimated cost of more than half a billion dollars. The state already incarcerates 171,000 people. "We had an understanding from everybody on all sides that our current model was not working, and it was time to try something new. How often does that happen?" asked Ana Yanez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.
Editorial: Prison reform needed; 3/6/2008
LARIAT: With such diverse candidates in the upcoming election, America could be on course to cross some significant cultural boundaries, but another milestone was recently reached in our country that is not so positive. A Pew report released last week revealed that for the first time in U.S. history, 1 in 100 of American adults is in prison. The United States now bears the title of the nation that imprisons more people than any other country in the world. It's safe to say that's not a title the U.S. was gunning for, and definitely not one its citizens will be boasting about. It is time for all of us to take a long and hard look at our prisons and what we can do to change things.