America
MARCHING ORDERS Trustees move furniture out of the newly closed Central Unit Prison.
Texas Gets It ‘Right on Crime’
A new way to look at criminals and incarceration may set a gold standard for the entire nation.
A BY DAVID A. PATTEN
ug. 31, 2011, was a day like any other for Sugar Land,
Texas, occurred in in
respects. But what this
tan area 20 miles southwest of downtown Houston was historic nonetheless. On that day, the Lone Star
metropoli-
Sugar Land
State closed its 950-bed Central Unit Prison — transferring the inmates to other penitentiaries — without open- ing another to take its place.
As far as corrections offi cials could determine, it marked the fi rst time that law-and-order Texas had down-
14 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2013 most
sized its prison system — ever. Doing so saved taxpayers an estimated $16 million per year, and Texas offi cials are talking about closing two other state prisons as well.
TEXAS
So what’s behind the trend? Declining crime rates are a factor. But equally important has been a series of conser- vative reforms pushed by the state’s Right on Crime project, which is attracting growing atten-
tion nationwide. Some believe Texas could become a model for other state penal systems around the country. That could give taxpayers a major break, considering that the Justice
Policy Institute calculates the cost of operating the nation’s state, city, and federal jails at nearly $70 billion per year. In any given year, about 2.2 mil- lion Americans are locked up behind bars, and a staggering 5 million are out on probation or parole. In fact, it was the ballooning cost of operating prisons that helped inspire Texas conservatives to begin looking for a better way. In 2007, experts told the Texas legislature that due to a rapidly growing prison population the state needed to build a stagger- ing 17,332 new prison beds. The cost: nearly $2 billion. Lone Star conservatives decided
instead to invest $241 million in prison alternatives, many of which are sup- ported by the Right on Crime project that is part of the Texas Public Poli- cy Foundation’s Center for Eff ective Justice. Among the leaders who have signed on to the group’s principles for reforming criminal justice: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Americans for Tax Reform chief Grover Norquist;
PRISON/MICHAEL STRAVATO/POLARIS/NEWSCOM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92