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TDCJ to absorb 15% of latest state budget cuts

Texas' Governor, Lt. Governor and House Speaker yesterday announced that state agencies must cut an additional 2.5% from their budgets, which at the Department of Criminal Justice will come to $75 million, or about 15% of the $500 million in cuts ordered.Lt. Governor David Dewhurst says the budget gap is only $15-16 billion, not $25 billion as earlier reported, but that's still a gargantuan number that will be difficult to meet with budget cuts alone. If TDCJ were asked to absorb 15% of budget cuts of that magnitude, they'd have to cut $2.25 billion for the biennium, or more than a billion dollars per year (which btw is the scale of prison budget cuts being discussed in Florida).To do that - hell, even to effectively cut $75 million without increasing recidivism from lack of community supervision and programming - will require closing prison units, which make up around 85% of TDCJ's budget...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 08, 2010 (boomark / email).