Scanning the Legislative Budget Board's new
Adult and Juvenile Correctional Population Projections (pdf), in the "qualitative analysis" section, for which they queried more than 100 people in "Focus groups and interviews with criminal justice practitioners, juvenile justice practitioners, and adult offenders," I ran across these interesting summaries about what these insiders told LBB they think could/should be done to improve the justice system:
REGARDING CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN TEXAS, WHAT SHOULD BE THE EIGHTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE’S MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITIES?
Focus group and interview participants most consistently mentioned the need for investment in mental health resources of all types. Expanded inpatient and outpatient treatment, additional funding for specialized community supervision caseloads, increased reimbursement rates for mental health professionals, and additional state hospital capacity for competency restoration were all mentioned as important needs. Practitioners also agreed statutes and policies regarding DWI punishments need revision. Currently, DWI offenders have little incentive to obtain treatment through community supervision; offenders increasingly prefer short terms of incarceration in county jail. Possible solutions mentioned for this issue included offering deferred adjudication and potential early termination from community supervision for DWI offenders. Participants also voiced support for ending or reforming the Driver Responsibility Program (DRP), which provides significant financial burden on DWI (and other) offenders with seemingly little to no public safety enhancement. Other legislative recommendations included providing Community Supervision and Corrections Departments (CSCDs) additional flexibility in the use of state funding and providing offenders more incentives to choose community supervision over incarceration. (emphasis added)
Equally important, questioning offenders:
WHAT CAN THE STATE OF TEXAS DO TO IMPROVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND KEEP OFFENDERS IN THE COMMUNITY AND OUT OF PRISON OR STATE JAIL?
Offenders most consistently mentioned three factors that would improve criminal justice and keep offenders in the community: employment opportunities and assistance, expanded access to substance abuse treatment, and additional educational opportunities. Offenders indicated employment opportunities and assistance as the most important need of these three responses.
Relatedly:
WHAT RESOURCES ARE NEEDED TO KEEP OFFENDERS IN THE COMMUNITY AND OUT OF PRISON OR STATE JAIL?
According to focus group and interview participants, mental health treatment options are the most needed resources to rehabilitate offenders in the community. Specifically mentioned resources included additional residential treatment, additional outpatient treatment, and increased reimbursement rates for mental health treatment providers. Along with mental health resources, practitioners indicated offenders need additional incentives to choose and/or remain on community supervision in lieu of incarceration. Participants also mentioned the need for additional resources specifically directed to meet the needs of female offenders.
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3 comments:
If the state really wanted to reduce the prisons, they would bring back Presentence Reports that MUST be used by the District Attorneys(DA) and Judges. Right now, the DA rules the world not the Judges. The report will inform the court of what the offender REALLY needs such as treatment. This isn't a perfect world so I am sure that is not happening.
I think eliminating the surcharges is also a great idea. Also, the police are still arresting people for very small amounts of marijuana.
The problem with TDCJ is that it is TOO big of an agency and the small and most important groups that fall under them like Adult Probation get very little money for what they provide. I think it is time to separate TDCJ into several smaller agencies!!!
Really is a very simple problem to solve but no legislator has the balls to take on TCDAA. Not one single piece of legislation proposed or passed attempts to reign in the Prosecutors. To make matters worse, prosecutors are the biggest propoganda mills misleading the public away from sound practice. Start whittling away the prosecutors budgets and seizure funds for failing to utilize smart sanction guidelines. Or just adopt mandatory sentencing guidelines.
Agreed with previous comments. CSCDs are expected to take the hit for revocations. CSCDs don't revoke probationers. Judges do, and usually the revocation is a rubber-stamp from a recommendation from a prosecutor. Make prosecutors learn about alternative sanctions through withholding of funding, if alternative sanctioning isn't used. And, yes Judges approved CSCDs Community Justice Plans and CSCDs budgets, but that gets lost once courtroom proceedings get underway.
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