Legislative & Policy Update
A public
hearing will be held by the House Corrections Committee,
chaired by Representative Jerry Madden, on Monday, February
26, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. or upon final adjournment/recess,
in Room E2.016. The committee will hear testimony
about HB198, related to the capacity of certain correctional
facilities; HB409, related to requiring
certain inmates to receive a high school equivalency certificate
before their release or as a condition of release on parole;
HB530, related to the operation of drug court programs;
HB763, related to in-prison geriatric communities; HB768,
related to providing notice regarding certain actions
proposed with respect to a community residential facility;
and HB770, related to requiring the
TDCJ to provide notice to certain persons of the right
to vote. The Committee
will also hear invited testimony.
http://www.tifa.org/legislative__policy_update.htm found
Feb. 27, 2007
Because of you, HB 2193 successfully
passed out of the House. Phone calls really can make a
difference! Now, we need you to call your state senator
today so that SB 1266, a similar bill, can pass out of
the Senate as well. The Senate is likely to vote on it
this week -- please call your state senators today and
with your help we'll be able to celebrate another successful
piece of important legislation!!
Texas is on the brink of enacting historic legislation that would
strengthen the probation system by channeling non-violent offenders
into proper rehabilitation programs instead of sending them to
expensive prisons. This legislation will protect families, save
taxpayers money, and promote healthy communities.
With overflowing prisons and a budget crisis, the Texas legislature
must support probation as an appropriate alternative to incarceration
for non- violent offenders.
* This legislation will provide significant improvements in community-based
alternatives in Texas, including early discharge incentives, more
effective lengths of probation, and more flexible probation conditions.
* This legislation will protect our families and communities by
more effectively protecting the public safety. Non-violent offenders
need positive incentives. They should be able to earn their rights
back and become responsible citizens. Clear research shows that
non-violent offenders are less likely to commit another crime
when they have to complete effective programs in the community,
and more likely to commit another crime if they are sent to prison.
* This legislation -- SB 1266 -- is an important step in improving
the Texas criminal justice system. It is critical that it passes,
and without any amendments that would remove incentives for good
behavior.
* This legislation will save
taxpayers money. It costs more than $40 a day to incarcerate
non- violent offenders, but it only costs roughly $2 a
day to supervise them on probation.
5/19/05
No Jail
for Pot, Lawmaker Urges
People caught with an ounce
or less of marijuana would be ticketed but would not face
jail time under a bill that a Houston lawmaker said Tuesday
makes sense and still sends the message that officials
don't want Texans smoking dope. The bill by Democratic
Rep. Harold Dutton would make possession of an ounce or
less of marijuana a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by
a maximum $500 fine. That's the equivalent of a traffic
ticket. Right now, possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana
is a Class B misdemeanor, which could mean a jail sentence
of up to 180 days and a $2,000 fine.
Dutton said Texas has been
tough on crime, and now it's time to be smart. The current
punishment is "clogging up our criminal justice system," said
Dutton, adding that he tried but failed to get the Legislature
to approve the idea last year.
The Combined Law Enforcement
Associations of Texas has not seen the bill or taken an
official position on it, said CLEAT political and legislative
director Charley Wilkison.
12/29/04: From statesman.com
Prison rehab
programs find new favor
Rehabilitation
costs less than incarceration, state officials
find
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, December 7, 2004
Last spring,
the Department of Criminal Justice created
the Rehabilitation and Re-entry Programs
Division to consolidate and better coordinate
existing state and local initiatives to
help the 60,000 inmates who leave Texas
prisons each year. Top prison administrators
are participating in a Travis County experiment
establishing a community network to help
ex-offenders. New programs are being offered
for convicts who are leaving solitary confinement
to return home.
In their proposed two-year budget, prison officials have requested
an additional $28 million for increased supervision of probationers,
$27 million for additional local beds for probation violators who
would otherwise end up in prison, and $10 million more for additional
drug treatment for parolees.
"These aren't just a bunch of touchy-feely programs," said state Sen.
John Whitmire, D-Houston, the longtime chairman of the Senate Criminal
Justice Committee.
"With criminals, you either pay now while they're in prison or you pay
later when they get out and keep coming back again and again," he added. "And
later is always more expensive."
For Texas prison officials, who historically have been more focused
on incarceration than rehabilitation, the shift is coming with support
from the top.
"For an agency whose primary mission is public safety, it's always been
really challenging for us to deal with both incarceration and re-entry,
but we're doing it because it's right for the State of Texas," said Brad
Livingston, interim executive director of the criminal justice agency.
By any measure, the corrections business in Texas is huge and expensive:
a $2.4 billion annual budget; 45,000 employees; 150,000 people in
112 prisons and state jails; more than 70,000 on parole; another
400,000 on probation. The prison system added roughly 100,000 beds
during the 1990s to build what, at the time, was the largest prison
system in the free world.
Demand has continued to grow. By 2007, Texas will need 7,000 additional
prison beds, Allen said, and that could cost taxpayers as much as
$500 million.
Prison
Population Increase
- Please
read the November 8, 2004 Edition
of the Austin American Statesman
for the latest on Texas Criminal
Justice System. The Justice Department
released on Sunday that there is
a continuing increase in the prison
population despite a drop or “leveling
off” in the crime rate in
the past few years. The continuing
increase is a result of laws passed
in the 1990s that led to more prison
sentences and longer terms. As of
December 31st, 2003 the Chief of
Corrections for the Bureau of Justice
Statistics reported that the total
number of Americans behind bars
was 2,212,475—44% were black,
35% were white, 19% Hispanic and
2% other races.
Texas is one in 3 states with the biggest prison system and
the number of newly admitted inmates grew last year, but the
number released either fell or remained stable.
This says to us as an organization and a community — a
nation — there is much work to be done to assist those
persons to not be a part of these statistics by reducing or
eliminating recidivism! We must work to educate parents and
the community about what and how to forge forward in work and
activism to help save and re-direct the mind set of the youth
and re-construct the parolee.
11/8/04
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