Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000
Source: Waco Tribune-Herald (TX)
Contact:  http://accesswaco.com/news/index.html
Forum: http://www.accesswaco.com/cgi-bin/pforum/show?ROOT7
Bookmark: additional articles on incarceration are available at 
http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm and articles on Texas are available at 
http://www.mapinc.org/states/tx.htm

EDITORIAL: LOCKDOWN QUANDARY

At the same time a Justice Department report shows that violent crimes have 
dropped 10 percent in the last year across America, Texans learn that their 
prison system may soon have to give early release to convicted felons.

The Texas prison system is larger than those used in most nations thanks to 
a multi billion-dollar prison building boom approved by Texas voters to 
prevent the early release of prisoners.

Texans cannot afford the tax bills that will come from building more and 
more prisons even as the Justice Department reports annual drops in crime.

Texas experienced a drop in crime after the state launched a huge prison 
construction program in the 1990s. But other states experienced greater 
crime decreases during the same period without undertaking a commensurate 
prison-building program.

Texas has the highest incarceration rate of all states. It has more people 
behind bars than any state, including states with much larger populations.

If Texas were still a republic, it would have an incarceration rate greater 
than any other nation on earth. One in every 20 adults in Texas was 
incarcerated during the past decade while Texas doubled the size of its 
prison system and grew twice as fast as prison systems in other states.

Texas' judicial system is disproportionately harder on young African 
Americans whose incarceration rate is 63 percent higher in Texas than the 
national average and seven times the rate of white Texans. Nearly one in 
three young black men in Texas is under the control of the criminal justice 
system.

While African Americans represent only 12 percent of Texas' population, 
they represent 44 percent of Texas prisoners. More than half of black Texas 
prisoners are locked up for nonviolent crimes.

Texas' 114 prisons now are 97.3 percent full. By law, the parole board will 
have to give early releases when the prisons reach 99 percent full.

The parole board should give early releases only to nonviolent prisoners.

Texas lawmakers should rethink the "lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key" 
approach to punishment for nonviolent crimes.

Lawmakers also should add more rehabilitation programs in Texas prisons to 
break the cycle of recidivism.

In addition, lawmakers should employ alternative sentencing for nonviolent 
crimes that will teach job skills and break dependency on drugs and alcohol 
that lead to many crimes.

Most importantly, Texas lawmakers and public officials must put more 
emphasis on education, starting as early in life as possible.

If learning standards are high and Texas children can stay on track with 
their education, communities will be strengthened, the quality of 
individual lives will be raised and crime will be reduced. That's the best 
way to reduce prison population.
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MAP posted-by: Thunder