• What did Texans get from the "investment"? 
• What was Texas left with?
• Where is Texas today?
• Why is prison construction the problem instead of the solution? 

Not nearly enough.  In fact, in relation to populous, diverse, and growing states like California, New York, and Florida, the Texas crime rate has not declined nearly as drastically, particularly in relation to the massive increase in incarceration.

Many Texans have ended up in prison without drug treatment and have been released from prison without the necessary help to start a new life. 

• Texas children have been left with one or no parent to take care of them, making them 6-8 times more likely to end up in prison themselves. 

• Due to this flawed system, thousands of Texans are unable to provide for themselves and their families – especially because their criminal record automatically prevents them from access to employment, housing, health and human services.

Texas is now the state with the highest incarceration rate in the US, and current trends don’t look promising.  Why is that?

• If you commit a felony in Texas, the judge has the right to decide whether you will go to prison or be put on probation.

• Many times, judges do decide to put offenders on probation for their felony offenses.  In fact, Texas has the largest felony probation population in the country, with nearly a quarter million felons under supervision.

• These felony probationers have to keep a job, maintain a place to live, attend probation meetings on time, pay fees to the probation department, and pay for behavioral classes.  Sound easy?  It’s not. 

• With a felony record, people have difficulty finding housing or getting a job – meaning they have no money for probation fees, classes, or transportation to their meetings.  If a probationer fails to meet even one requirement of probation, the probation officer can “revoke” the terms of that probation and send the person to prison. 

• In 2004, more prison sentences in Texas resulted from probation revocation than from direct sentencing by the courts.  In fact, probation revocations represent 33% of all prison admissions. 

• Another alarming statistic: the revocation of felons for technical violations (like failing to get to a probation meeting on time or failing making the set fee payment) grew by 95% between 1994 and 2003.