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TDCJ: Paroling older offenders could save Texas $49 million per year

Thanks to the addition of billions in federal stimulus funds and a now-vanished revenue infusion from high oil prices last year, Texas was able to stave off the kind of serious state budget crunch in 2009 that's crippled California and put the pinch on dozens of other states. The effects on criminal justice in California have been extreme, from the Los Angeles Sheriff choosing not to pay DNA testing in rape cases to slashing prison guard salaries by ten percent, the Golden State is taking radical steps to stay within its budget.By comparison, Texas prison guards got 3.5% raises this year in an effort to reduce understaffing and the state financed modest increases to diversion and treatment programs to keep from building more prisons. Looking forward, though, by 2011 most official estimates see Texas experiencing severe if delayed effects in the state budget from a slumping economy, meaning legislators will be faced with cutting the budget or dipping into the state's "Rainy Day Fund...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 21, 2009 (boomark / email).