Because I study criminal justice, these article just fascinate me at times. Tell me what you think about the article....
Kat
Lawmakers look to revamp criminal justice system
Rehab, treatment programs could expand
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Billed as the biggest shift for Texas corrections policy in years, proposals to greatly expand rehabilitation and treatment for convicts have made headlines for months as legislative leaders grapple for a way to avoid building expensive new prisons.
A month into the legislative session, the massive reform bills have yet to be filed. And they probably won't be either, say lawmakers pushing the changes.
"Most of the changes we want are already allowed in current law," explains House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, a Plano Republican. "We're going to do most of (the reforms) this time through (the) Appropriations (Committee)."
For the first time in decades, a drastic cultural change in the way Texas deals with its nonviolent lawbreakers could soon come about, not as a result of inches-thick legislation or boisterous public policy hearings, but in quiet, behind-the-scenes budget discussions.
Reform by decimal point, some lawmakers are calling it.
Madden and his Senate counterpart, Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said a few reform bills that might soon emerge will address such topics as expanded drug-court procedures, progressive punishment levels, even tweaks to the current parole rules. The more substanitive changes will be made when Appropriations Committee members start to allocate state dollars.
In recent days, the focus of legislative attention on the reforms has shifted from the House and Senate committees that oversee corrections policy to the Senate Finance Committee and House Appropriations Committee, where the budget decisions are made. Senate and House leaders agree the attention will mostly stay there throughout the legislative session that ends in May.
Whitmire said, "We need to change the way we're operating our criminal justice system . . .You don't need to write a lot of new laws to fix that."
In their reform blueprint, Whitmire and Madden want to expand:
•In-prison therapeutic drug programs by 1,500 beds;
•Transitional-treatment centers by 1,400;
•Parole counseling by 1,800;
•Specialized drug-treatment programs by 1,800; and
•halfway houses by 900.
All are existing programs, all allowed by current law. The total cost will be $149.5 million.
By contrast, prison officials in their budget request last summer asked for $440.6 million for three new prisons, $173.9 million to lease bunks in county jails and private lockups and another $284.8 million for additional operations and for construction projects. They also sought additional funding for treatmentprograms, with fewer additional beds.
Total cost for the construction and leased beds alone: An additional $889 million.
In recent weeks, as Senate and Housel leaders appeared to support the Whitmire-Madden plan, prison officials have seemed open to implementing many of the changes, sooner rather than later.
On Wednesday, they confirmed plans to double the amount of faith-based rehabilitation programs in the prison system in coming months, the latest of several signals that the prison system once known for its tough-on-criminals punishment reputation — chain gangs, no air conditioning, solitary confinement, scant programs — was beginning to soften to embrace therapy and counseling, job training, addiction treatment, even after-care programs to help convicts adjust to civilian life once they get out.
Even Gov. Rick Perry, who two years ago vetoed probation reforms that were designed to accomplish much of what the current reforms will do, seemed open to the policy shift. In his State of the State speech to the Legislature on Tuesday, Perry, sounding much kinder and gentler than before, suggested a new "approach to crime that is both tough and smart."
"There are thousands of nonviolent offenders in the system whose future we cannot ignore," Perry said. "Let's focus more resources on rehabilitating those offenders so we can ultimately spend less money locking them up again."
In his proposed budget, Perry proposed spending $125.8 million for two new medium-security lockups to add 1,000 beds, and converting a Texas Youth Commission lockup to a prison for adults to add 600 more. Whitmire and Madden earlier proposed much the same, using all those beds for treatment programs.
Perry also proposed $14 million in additional spending for rehabilitation and parole placement programs — which help ex-cons get jobs and housing — for as many as 5,000 prisoners during the next two years. Ditto from Madden and Whitmire, essentially.
For his part, Whitmire, who spearheaded an overhaul of Texas' criminal code in 1993 and has chaired the criminal justice committee for a decade, insists the reforms are not about overhauling the system as much as fine-tuning it.
"It's about how we spend our money, where we spend our money," he said. "We can't continue building new prisons and expect to ever solve the problems we're facing.
"This is about spending our money more wisely."
