Flat-out Irresponsible: TDCJ says it's still not considering prison closures

According to the Huntsville Item, TDCJ still isn't contemplating possible prison closures in the face of a gaping budget shortfall, insisting it can lay off thousands of employees but keep all 112 of its facilities open: "At this point, TDCJ is not looking at closing prisons, Oliver Bell, chairman of the state prison board, said when the Texas Board of Criminal Justice met Dec. 9."

That's the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard. In other words, rather than close units, the agency will just leave them unguarded. The suggestion that TDCJ would fire a significant number of line staff and keep the same number of units open is fundamentally unsafe and unsound. I consider this a typical bureaucratic budget ploy, refusing to suggest realistic cuts and instead offering up only unrealistic approaches to shaving the budget that would obviously harm public safety.

What needs to be happening right now - and if the agency won't do it, the task will fall to legislative staff or the public interest lobby - is to develop unit-by-unit profiles just like was done at TYC to tell legislators exactly what each unit is costing, the pros and cons of keeping it open, and how much could be saved if it were closed. Check out the spreadsheet (xls) with that data for TYC facilities, rating facilities by staff turnover, difficulty of recruiting, cost per day, the condition of the physical plant, and a variety of other factors. Further, somebody - and it clearly won't be TDCJ - needs to be developing policy recommendations to reduce inmate numbers, just like the state did with juvenile prisons. The Texas Public Policy Foundation would be a good place for legislators to turn on that score.

I can't believe at this late date TDCJ anticipates cutting its budget by as much as is required through staff cuts alone without closing a single unit: It's just not realistic and smacks of bureaucratic gamesmanship. TDCJ has already been asked to cut $75 million, and is $61 million short on healthcare costs for a total of $136 million in red ink before the serious budget cutting even starts. I don't believe they can cut even that deeply without closing multiple units. If and when cuts go any deeper, the agency will pay a heavy price for their complete lack of leadership and planning on this topic, as decisions they refuse to contemplate get made by others in ways they won't always anticipate, much less agree with.

This malingering by agency administrators and head-in-the-sand comments from TDCJ's board chair remind me of my 4-year old granddaughter, who likes to play with her food and utensils instead of eating at the dinner table. When we take her fork from her and put food in her mouth directly, with threats of a time-out for non-compliance, she plaintively asks why we don't let her feed herself "like a big girl." We answer that if she would eat on her own, we wouldn't have to do it for her. I guaran-damn-tee a moment will come during the 82nd Texas Legislature when legislators (or their staff) will tell TDCJ chief Brad Livingston exactly that: If you'd do it yourself, we wouldn't have to do it for you. Somebody has to make the tough choices; agency staff can put off eating their vegetables, for now, but next spring legislative budget writers cannot.