Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Interim reports from House committees posted online

For those interested, check out the recently released interim reports from criminal-justice related Texas House committees:
Once I've had a chance to read them, some or all of these reports - particularly the one from House Corrections - may merit their own (perhaps multiple) posts, but for now I thought I'd pass along the links for anyone interested in a preview of what these committees have been discussing over the interim (which may or may not have any relationship with what they actually do during the session).

RELATED: See Grits' earlier coverage of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee's interim report (pdf).
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9 comments:

  1. Anonymous1/25/2011 06:42:00 PM

    Reading through the "corrections" report, I came across this statement on page 47.
    "Offenders under community supervision are also required to pay the Parole Division
    monthly supervision and administrative fees for each month they are required to report to their parole officers. Currently, those fees equal $33 a day. Parolees who are unemployed can seek permission from the parole panel (through their parole officers) to defer payment of these fees, but they must begin payments as soon as
    they find jobs.61"

    $33 A DAY???? Can that be right? That is $1000 a month. Men and women who just got out of prison and are having to rebuild their lives are expected to pay $1,000 a month to the parole office? If that is the case, no wonder recidivism is so high!

    Someone tell me this is a typo or I am misunderstanding this!!

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  2. Anonymous1/26/2011 05:06:00 AM

    Lets go back in time.....
    No prisons....
    No taxes....
    Self preservation....
    Survival of the fitess....
    Better gene pools...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gritsforbreakfast1/26/2011 05:29:00 AM

    6:42, I'm sure that's a typo. Probation costs $2.75 per day so I'll bet it should be $3 instead of $33. But even that seems high for fees. I'll email the committee clerk and ask.

    To 5:08, add to your list:

    Shorter lifespans
    Rampant disease
    Racial discrimination
    Women as chattel
    Exploitation of children
    And so on.

    If you want to go back in time until there were "no taxes," that takes you basically to prehistory. You're welcome to live as a hunter-gatherer if you like, Mr. Neanderthal, while marveling over the purity of your "gene pool," but the rest of us must operate, however imperfectly, in the 21st Century.

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  4. Anonymous1/26/2011 09:08:00 AM

    No new Taxes but look at the fees coming out all of us very soon!!!

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  5. Anonymous1/26/2011 09:47:00 AM

    Under the TYC report, they seem to be under the impression that student services are currently being met, and sufficiently funded. They're not. Though, they have made, and are still making, a major improvement in both core and vocational education at Al Price. But, it cost them some major bucks to get there, and will cost them even more to finally get where they want to be. But, they are still having problems with dead weight personnel on the corrections side. If they could fix that, Al Price would be the shining star of TYC.

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  6. Angee1/26/2011 10:47:00 AM

    That $33 a day shocked me as well and it also applies to juveniles. This is impossible so I am interested in Grit's follow-up.

    Has anyone seen or heard about changes in in-patient civil commitment. An inmate has sent me several letters from a facility at the Robertson Unit. He says he is there because he has a problem with compulsive masturbation. Not pleasant but not violent. He says he asks for help and is told he must help himself. Information on these facilities and what they do is scarce and I suppose they can keep him forever.
    I believe that our inpatient civil commitment was set up due to one inmate and teaching him a lesson. Locals are divided on his guilt or innocence. The judge did not give a life sentence to this man that was probably 17 at the time the crime took place so the state has decided to correct that.

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  7. Wendy1/26/2011 06:49:00 PM

    Angee-compulsive masterbation? Sorry but you didn't give me enough information to decide if this guy was innocent if he was in an adult video store or a strip joint I can see your point but if he was anywhere in the vincinity of children? Lock the bastard up. It's just kind of hard to feel sorry for a guy that can't control himself. One count of indecent exposure isn't enough to lock a guy up for that long....

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  8. Angee1/27/2011 01:15:00 AM

    Wendy, I only know what he has told me in letters asking for help. /as an advocate and an author of many articles I hear from many inmates. I have tried checking this man's story but records don't get that personal. He is an offender and that would be offensive, particularly in front of a child. But this is not an act of violence and defeats the purpose of the program. If he really is being truthful I expect he would end up right back inside at $55 of tax payers money a day. And he might do fine. But paying 4 times that amount for a non-violent offender seems like a waste of resources.

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  9. Anonymous1/28/2011 11:18:00 PM

    Grits, have you heard anything back from the committee clerk, as to rather the $33 is a typo?

    Thanks for checking on that.

    ReplyDelete