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High Costs Could Lead Texas To End Its Juvenile Prison System (Updated)

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

A new study from the Council of State Governments (CSG) may compel Texas legislators to eliminate state-run juvenile prisons. Pointing to a heavy financial burden that the prisons impose on the state, lawmakers are eager to consider alternative correctional methods. Indeed, according to the Houston Chronicle, they appear likely to move towards “downsizing the system of state-run lockups or even junking it altogether.”

According to CSG, each juvenile inmate in a state prison costs $134,000 per year. Moreover, $162 million was spent on 800 youth offenders last year alone. Legislators and experts contend that moving the inmates to local probation programs, rather than state-run prisons, would cut costs dramatically. They also acknowledge the efficacy of probation programs in reducing recidivism, or a relapse in criminal behavior that leads to rearrest or re-incarceration. In Texas, roughly 85 percent of the juvenile inmates are arrested again in the five year period after their incarceration.

Although the state’s legislative session does not begin until next week, lawmakers have already expressed the need for juvenile justice reform that could cut back on the number of Texas’ youth prisons.

Though the conservative Lone Star State may seem like an unlikely place for progressive criminal justice reforms, Texas exhibited a commitment to prison reform in previous years. In 2007, it implemented several reforms that led to the parole of 5,000 inmates and higher investment in probation and drug treatment programs. Additionally, a 2013 poll of Republicans and Democrats found that roughly 80 percent of all Texans supported probation for nonviolent drug offenders, rather than incarceration. Citing fiscal incentives, a conservative subsidiary of the Texas Public Policy Foundation called Right on Crime also supports juvenile justice reforms that reduce state spending.

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The steep costs of the nation’s prison system have also inspired a shift in conservatives’ views on criminal justice across the country. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced support for changes in mandatory sentencing laws in 2013. Specifically, the group adopted its own sample legislation to reduce mandatory sentences for low-level offenses, such as drug crimes. Conservative politicians have also voiced the need to reduce the country’s high incarceration rate.

Update:

This post previously stated that every juvenile in Texas prisons cost the state $130,000 per month. In fact, the state spent $134,000 per year on each juvenile.