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Home  News Probation reform would save big bucks
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Probation reform would save big bucks |
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Analysis: Probation reform would save big bucks
Senators pleased by news that $49 million would be freed up under bill.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, May 06, 2005
Subject: Texas Probation Reform, 79th LEGISLATURE
Controversial proposals to reform Texas' probation system could save
taxpayers nearly $49 million during the next two years, far more than
previously predicted, two new state reports showed Thursday.
According to the analyses of Senate Bill 1266 by the Legislative Budget
Board, the savings would come from thousands of fewer criminals being
sent to prison - 1,700 during the next two years, more than 5,000 by
2010 - and from fewer people staying on probation as long as they do
now. That would allow closer supervision to be concentrated on those
probationers who need it most.
In all, 118,000 fewer offenders would be on probation in Texas during
the next five years, thanks to a new limit of five years on probation
terms, which could be extended by a judge.
Though a fiscal analysis of a similar House reform bill, HB 2193, has
not yet been completed, House leaders said Thursday that they expect
their bill will provide similar, perhaps even larger, savings.
"That's big, really good news," said House Corrections Committee
Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, echoing sentiments of the Senate
bill's author, Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire.
Whitmire, D-Houston, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the estimated savings.
"It shows we were right in our thinking on these changes, and that
there are a lot of people in Texas who are on supervision now for long
terms who probably don't need to be," he said. "If we focus our
resources on the probationers who need the supervision, and not keep
filling up our prisons with technical revocations, we can improve the
system and make Texas a safer place."
Last year, more than 10,000 probationers were sent to prison for
violating the rules of their probation, so-called technical revocations.
A primary goal of both the Senate and House bills is to more closely
supervise probationers in their local communities and provide alternate
means of punishing them - time in a local jail, house arrest,
additional counseling and self-help programs - without sending them to
a state prison.
It generally costs about $40 a day to house someone in a Texas prison, while the basic cost of probation is about $2 a day.
Whitmire and other legislative leaders involved in crafting the reforms
have argued for months that many offenders are kept on probation too
long.
Shorter terms of probation with more intensive supervision - and more
community-based rehabilitation programs - will be cheaper and more
effective ways to change behavior, they insist. That will leave prison
beds available for violent-crime and habitual offenders who need to be
kept off the streets for public safety.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who has supported the concept of trying to
rehabilitate more people without sending them to a prison, said he had
not seen the new analyses. But if the savings figure proves true, he
suggested that perhaps the money could be put back into enhancing
substance-abuse treatment programs for offenders.
"I think we'd like to see the money saved put back into (corrections)
and probation programs," Madden said. "Will that happen? I'm not going
to count on it."
The state spends about $2.5 billion a year on criminal justice.
Despite Thursday's elation over the favorable analyses, some
prosecutors pooh-poohed the predicted savings. They have questioned
whether the reforms will work as planned or will end up sending more
people to prison as judges pick the certainty of incarceration over
uncertainty of unproven programs.
"It's a complete invention," Williamson County District Attorney John
Bradley said. "I don't think it's a reliable fiscal (analysis)."
Echoing sentiments of other prosecutors who have been at the Capitol in
recent days lobbying against elements of both bills, Bradley said the
analyses make assumptions that may or may not prove out in coming
years. One is that fewer people will end up in prison for violating the
terms of their probation, so fewer people will be on probation
statewide.
"If you change probation (as the bills propose) prosecutors are going
to be more likely to recommend prison," he said. "That's more prison
beds we'll need."
In addition to the projected savings, one report also warns that some
of the changes proposed in the Senate bill on how repeat drunken
drivers are punished will put Texas out of compliance with federal law.
That would force the state to make up $59.8 million in federal highway
funds that could not be spent on congestion relief and mobility
projects.
Whitmire said Thursday that although he disagrees with that conclusion,
he plans to resolve that issue before the bill comes to a vote.
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