Pleasantville Strategic Planning and Revitalization Committee

1 in 22 adult Texans in corrections programs

Mar 08, 2009

1 in 22 adult Texans in corrections programs
By Mike Ward | Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 07:15 AM

Texas details from a new study released yesterday by the Pew Center on the States:

1 of every 22 adults in Texas is in prison, on parole or probation.

The national average is 1 in 33.

Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts and Ohio had the highest percentages of adults under correctional supervision. In Texas, that amounts to 797,254 people ?— slightly more folks than were estimated to live in Austin in the 2007 U.S. Census update.

In the United States, the number of people on probation or parole nearly doubled to more than 5 million from 1982 to 2007. The total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million.

Bottom line: As Texas and other states lock more offenders in prison, they spend more taxpayer dollars to do so. And while state prison costs continue to increase, in tight budget times, states will have to make tough decisions about whether to continue growing their corrections systems at the expense of education, social programs and other areas of the budget.

In Texas, amid concern about that issue, lawmakers two years ago voted to greatly expand addiction-treatment and rehabilitation programs rather than build expensive new prisons. So far, Senate and House leaders said last week, that initiative seems to be paying off ?— as the growth of the prison population in Texas has leveled off in recent months.