Lone Star State Talks Prison Shut-Downs

It's amazing how quickly a $10 billion fiscal hole can sober up the mind.

Over a decade after Texas's prison system became one of the world's largest, officials are finally starting to talk about the once-unthinkable: closing state prisons. They have until Monday to make this decision on Texas's 112 state prisons: That's when state agencies are supposed to step forward and rescue the state's sagging balance sheet. They'll do so by presenting budget cuts of 5% -- which, in the case of Texas's prison, would amount to some $300 million.

Depending on what Texas decides, the state would be following some very well-trodden ground. Since 2008, at least 35 state prison closures have dominoed across the country, as strapped budgets have forced states to reevaluate their priorities. Texas appears to have held out so far, though, and -- as far as one Texas newspaper knows -- has never closed an entire prison (though parts of a few have undergone temporary shut-downs). In fact, the state is still spending nearly $3 billion a year to keep 153,000 prisoners locked up.

Not that politicians are saying they'll do anything too hastily.

"We certainly can't compromise public safety, and I'm opposed to closing prisons just to save a buck," said John Whitmire, D-Houston, who helped fuel Texas's prison spending spree in the 1990s, and currently chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Fortunately, saving a buck is only the part of an argument for closing state prisons -- as legislators like Whitmire have good cause to know.

In fact, in recent years, Texas has enacted some of the more successful policies out there to decrease recidivism and improve community supervision, by expanding treatment and diversion programs. Already, officials have reinvested $241 million that would've gone into prison construction and operations into the program -- and in so doing, saved $210 million for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. If these returns continue, and no additional prisons are built, the state will save another $233 million, too.

What's more, there are several good candidates for closure in Texas's youth prison system, whose population has shrunk over the past five years by 66%. Likewise, there are now 2,300 vacant beds inside Texas's adult system.

The Lone Star state has already blazed a trail for being among the most prison-happy governments in the U.S. But with this latest round of budget cuts, it has the chance to further reinvent itself. If everything is bigger in Texas, why not prison reform efforts, too?

Photo Credit: wblj