Where is Texas today?
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 (and there are nearly 2,000 of them!), the judge has the right to decide whether you will go to prison or be put on probation (in which case, the judge will decide that you are not enough of a threat to society to be sent to prison).
- 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 meet certain requirements set by the judge. For instance, they 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. And if a probationer fails to meet even one requirement of probation, he or she can “revoke” the terms of that probation and be sent 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.
- This all means that our prisons are being filled with people who had difficulty succeeding in the real world with a felony record – people who could not meet the terms of their probation because of that record. This is not only a failure of these individuals (mostly drug abusers or persons with other social problems) but also the failure of our probation system. It is not providing the treatment and guidance necessary for these people to turn their lives around and succeed.