TDCJ proposes 5% budget cuts

Though the agency requested an exemption from budget cuts, here's the proposal (pdf) the Texas Department of Criminal Justice submitted to state leadership yesterday regarding how it would cut 5% from its budget without closing any prison units - mostly by laying off more than 3,000 employees. I'll have more to say on this when I've had a chance to read it in more detail, but wanted to get the link out there. UPDATE: See initial coverage from AP, the Austin Statesman, and the Houston Chronicle.

The Texas Youth Commission was late with its submission but I'll add a link when it becomes available. UPDATE: Here's the link. See a brief description from Mike Ward at the Statesman, who reports:

Victory Field Correctional Academy in Vernon and the West Texas State School in Pyote, both slated to be closed in August, will instead would shut down April 2 to save about $3.5 million.
Six dorms at several youth prisons would be closed and a total of 138 jobs — some filled and some vacant — would be eliminated to save about $9 million. But officials cautioned in the budget-reduction plan that the dorm closures and layoffs could disrupt operations, and they requested an exemption to ensure that safety and security are maintained.
Staff vacancies would not be filled to save about $7.5 million.

UPDATE: Here's the plan for budget reductions (pdf) at the Texas Department of Public Safety. The Statesman has more.

AND MORE: Here are the proposed cuts (pdf) suggested at the Juvenile Probation Commission.

NUTHER UPDATE: I'll have a more complete analysis later, but here are the TDCJ budget items that stood out upon initial perusal of their proposed reductions (most of which they've suggested be waived):

• Firing 2,037 security staff
• Slash operational funds for food and fuel, assuming non constat that market prices won't fluctuate
  
• Slashing $42 million from mental health care
• Reduce the number of probation officers, parole officers and Hearing Officers at the Board of Pardons and Parole
• Cut direct funding to CSCDs for probation officers by $22 million
• Transfer "underutilized" or unspent treatment diversion funding, since as the programs rolled out, "utilization rates have been below appropriated levels." (The message here to judges and CSCD directors: Use it or lose it!)
• Eliminating energy and water conservation programs
  
• Divert $5 million in commissary profits currently used for inmate recreational and educational materials to budget reduction
• Delay opening long-term medical facility in Marlin
  
• Cuts to substance abuse treatment, intermediate sanctions facilities, treatment services, halfway houses, and the State Counsel for Offenders

Among possible cuts TDCJ alluded to but did not formally suggest: TDCJ has replacement contracts with several private facilities it's scheduled to renew in the next 12 months. But since the agency presently enjoys more than 2,300 empty beds, including private capacity (with numbers trending downward), perhaps those inmates should be absorbed into other units and some or all of those contracts be allowed to expire?

Otherwise, this is a very political document from TDCJ, cutting popular programs and suggesting large staffing cuts that make no sense from a security standpoint unless they actually close prisons. And yet, they suggest cutting everything but prisons, including programs that have helped reduce prison populations and saved the state hundreds of of millions in additional incarceration costs.

TDCJ is asking for an exemption from budget cuts, but I don't think that's necessary. Rather, since the agency is circling the wagons and suggesting only cuts that would harm public safety and cripple the agency operationally, the Lege will probably have to step in and set their priorities for them. This document is more ploy than plan - suggesting the unthinkable, ignoring more modest, reasonable potential cuts, then insisting the agency should not be required to share any budget-cut pain at all.