Marc A. Levin is a director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Levin is an Austin attorney and an accomplished author on legal and public policy issues.
Levin has served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
In 1999, he graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Levin received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law.
Levin's articles on law and public policy have been featured in
publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in
1996. As part of that program, he interned at Reason Magazine and had two articles published, one on juvenile justice and one on airport privatization.
Rewarding Results: Measuring and Incentivizing Performance in Corrections
August 11, 2010
As new crimes and sentencing enhancements mount, more offenders fill probation rolls and prisons, and many return after being discharged without being reformed. To break the cycle, policymakers must align incentives and goals by rewarding results through tying a portion of corrections funding to outcomes such as recidivism, cost effectiveness, restitution to victims, and the employment of ex-offenders.
The Role of Risk Assessment in Enhancing Public Safety and Efficiency in Texas Corrections
July 15, 2010
In allocating limited correctional resources to maximize public safety returns for each taxpayer dollar spent, it is important to know which offenders pose the greatest risk and what strategies are most effective in reducing that risk for various types of offenders.
Texas has made remarkable progress in lowering juvenile crime while reducing costs. Policymakers can build on these gains for public safety and taxpayers by continuing to strengthen community-based programs that hold juveniles accountable through proven supervision and treatment strategies, ensuring that the most costly destination for Texas youths is truly the last resort.
Testimony before the House Corrections Committee Interim Hearing
March 25, 2010
Regarding Interim Charge Relating to Females in the Corrections System
Policymakers must continue the state’s recent progress in driving down crime and lowering the burden on taxpayers through reducing unnecessary incarceration and investing in alternative approaches for nonviolent offenders that provide a greater public safety return for every taxpayer dollar that is spent.
Innovative and Cost-Effective Approaches to Reduce Crime, Restore Victims, and Preserve Families
Through replicating effective, evidence-based juvenile probation programs and implementing reforms in policies and practices at the state and local level that are described in this report, Texas can make further progress in reducing crime, reforming troubled youths, restoring victims, and preserving families while controlling costs to taxpayers.
Treating Texas Crime Victims as Consumers of Justice
March 05, 2010
By expanding the use of victim-offender mediation and continuing to strengthen viable alternatives to incarceration, Texas can empower and restore victims and communities impacted by crime.
With so many sweeping and often ambiguous criminal laws, including those that are created every week by regulatory agencies without the approval of elected officials, it is impossible for any person or business to regularly stay abreast of the line between what is legal and what is criminal.
By continuing to build upon the initiatives that are successfully reducing both crime and incarceration rates, Texas can achieve further crime reductions and lower its corrections budget through the closure of unneeded adult and juvenile correctional facilities.
What Conservatives Are Saying About Criminal Justice Reform
January 14, 2010
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is at the forefront of a broad reexamination of the criminal justice system by advocates of policies that emphasize limited government and personal responsibility. There is an increased recognition that policymakers must think outside the cell and embrace approaches that reduce crime, restore victims, reform off enders, and control costs to taxpayers. Policymakers must also rein in the ever-growing body of criminal law so it focuses on its traditional mission of addressing serious wrongdoing that harms individual victims and degrades neighborhoods.
Evidence from Texas cities and scholarly research increasingly indicates that communities can enhance public safety and reduce costs to taxpayers by providing alternatives that divert appropriate youths from detention, adjudication, and probation.
Solutions for Public Safety, Victims, and Taxpayers
This presentation to lawmakers from across the nation highlights the growing evidence and public consensus supporting alternatives to incarceration that enhance public safety, empower and restore victims, and reduce the burden on taxpayers.
As thousands of troops return from Afghanistan and Iraq, unfortunately some of them will violate the law. A new type of specialty court promises to reduce recidivism among eligible veterans by holding them accountable and helping them address the challenges they face that often stem from their service and readjusting to society.
As American businesses navigate a challenging economy, it is imperative that any immigration reform legislation balance the private sector’s appropriate role in enforcing immigration laws with the need for greater fairness, predictability, and efficiency.
What Conservatives Are Saying About Criminal Justice Reform
September 25, 2009
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is at the forefront of a broader rethinking of criminal justice issues by many advocates of free market-oriented policies. There is an increased recognition that alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders can both reduce recidivism and costs to taxpayers.
Businesses face many challenges in complying with federal, state, and local immigration laws. In some situations, business owners can be imprisoned for employing illegal immigrants, even if they were not personally aware of it. Congress can take steps to ease the burdens that immigration laws place on business while continuing to combat illegal immigration.
After years of following the wrong path, Texas’ juvenile justice system is on the right track to become a national model rather than a source of embarrassment.
A review of the 81st Texas Legislature’s work on effective justice policy including: overcriminalization, controlling costs, juvenile justice, and victim restitution.
States should utilize parole for low-risk offenders. There are a number of key practices that can improve the effectiveness of parole decisionmaking and supervision.
Mental Illness and the Texas Criminal Justice System
May 05, 2009
Mental illness poses a serious challenge for the criminal justice system. Fortunately, there are policies and practices that Texas can adopt which improve outcomes for mentally ill offenders, enhance public safety, and save taxpayers’ money.
Controlling Corrections Costs While Protecting Public Safety
May 04, 2009
There are common sense initiatives that states can take to protect public safety while limiting costs to taxpayers. These include drug courts, graduated sanctions for probationers and parolees, and electronic monitoring.
Mentally ill offenders will always pose a substantial challenge in the criminal justice system. But through initiatives like these, we can achieve our goals of enhanced public safety and reduced costs to taxpayers.
Written Testimony to the House Corrections Committee
March 05, 2009
Regarding Sunset Recommendations on TYC and TJPC
Written testimony of Marc Levin, Director of the Center for Effective Justice, regarding Sunset recommendations on the Texas Youth Commission and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission.
The Right Prescription for Juvenile Drug Offenders
February 23, 2009
How best to deal with Texas students who abuse alcohol and drugs? The question grows in importance and immediacy, despite four decades of public commitment to protecting young people from harmful substances such as alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants.
There are over 150,000 juveniles arrested every year in Texas, and more than 50,000 are incarcerated at Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and local detention and postadjudication facilities. The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) monitors these local lockups. Also, some 68,000 Texas youths are on probation or parole.
Since 2005, $55 million in state probation funding has been incentive-based. Departments are eligible if they adopt progressive sanctions and pledge to reduce their technical revocations. Progressive sanctions involve utilizing graduated measures such as increased reporting, community service, curfews, electronic monitoring, mandatory treatment, and shock-nights in jail prior to revoking a probationer to prison for technical violations.
In 1989, Texas adopted a constitutional amendment now in Article I, Section 30 establishing the various rights of crime victims, including the right to be reasonably protected from the accused throughout the trial process, the right to notification of court proceedings, the right to be present at all public proceedings, the right to confer with a prosecutor’s representative, and the right to restitution.
The problem in higher education finance is not relatively insignificant changes in appropriations, but spiraling increases in operating costs. The difference between real appropriations and real operating costs has more than doubled from about $5,400 in 1970-71 to nearly $11,700 in 2007-08. Not surprisingly, higher tuition has filled this bulging gap.
Competition can make any system better, and the juvenile justice system is no exception. Whatever the agency running state lockups is called, what is most important is that it competes with local and private providers.
The private sector can bring innovation and competition to the criminal justice system. Private prisons cost about 14 percent less to operate than their government-run counterparts--saving taxpayer money and providing greater public safety.
Criminal law is not just for criminals anymore—at least not criminals as we have traditionally defined them. Significant differences between criminal and civil law make criminal law an overly blunt instrument for regulating non-fraudulent business activities.
While Texas should maintain tough laws that keep violent offenders, sex off enders, drug kingpins, and habitual home burglars in prison for long periods, narrowly tailored policy changes can control future incarceration costs by rerouting nonviolent substance abuse offenders who do not pose a threat to public safety.
Measuring Performance in the Juvenile Justice System
October 21, 2008
As the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) undergo sunset review, their performance measures should be enhanced to focus more on results-based performance measures such as recidivism, educational progress, administrative costs, and restitution to victims.
Invited Written Testimony: Interim Charges Relating to State Jails
October 01, 2008
Presented before the Texas House Corrections Committee
This invited written testimony regarding interim charges relating to state jails, technology in the criminal justice system, and offender reentry was presented before the Texas House Corrections Committee on August 21, 2008.
Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee
The overcriminalization of occupational licensing is limiting job growth and competition while unfairly excluding some Texans from the workforce. Texas regulates too many occupations, applies excessive criminal penalties to violations of licensing rules, and too often prevents otherwise qualified individuals from obtaining licenses because of a minor and sometimes decades-old conviction. This testimony offers solutions that can put more Texans to work and, by increasing competition, bring greater choice and value to consumers.
After working closely with state policymakers on landmark legislation to overhaul the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), the Texas Public Policy Foundation is pleased to share with the Sunset Advisory Commission key research and recommendations as it reviews both TYC and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission.
Five Technological Solutions for Texas' Correctional and Law Enforcement Challenges
June 19, 2008
Better utilization of technology in the criminal justice system can help control costs and maximize the productivity of personnel. In some cases it can also improve outcomes such as recidivism, crime rate, and percentage of crimes solved.
Aligning Goals and Incentives in the Texas Criminal Justice System
This PowerPoint presentation was given to the Montgomery County Bar Association Luncheon and provides policy recommendations on how to align goals and incentives in Texas' system of criminal justice.
A new British blueprint on prison reform could send ripples across the pond, leading Texas and other states to rethink the way they fund corrections. Following the lead of the U.K's Conservative Party, Texas could truly make less crime pay, given the freedom to innovate using the most successful programs.
For Texans behind bars, a job can be the key to unlocking gates of opportunity and abandoning the criminal lifestyle. The limited experience in Texas and evidence from around the nation indicates that work release programs that properly monitor and carefully screen participants can reduce recidivism and costs to taxpayers while protecting public safety.
Analyze Before You Criminalize: A Checklist for Legislators
March 26, 2008
With more than 1,700 criminal offenses on the books in Texas, policymakers should carefully weigh some key factors in considering whether additional criminal laws are needed. Evaluating these factors suggests that in many circumstances civil laws and market incentives can more efficiently and less onerously achieve the intended results.
Ultimately, Texas farmers and food vendors don’t profit from making their customers sick. In such very rare instances, they can face incredibly costly lawsuits. Instead of producing another crop of rules that stifle entrepreneurship and criminalize ordinary business activities, government should leave the field and let the market for food and flowers bloom.
Ten Tall Tales About Texas Criminal Justice Reforms
March 06, 2008
The Legislative Budget Board declared in early 2008 that Texas taxpayers would no longer be handcuffed with a billion dollars of new prisons. However, Texans need not worry that they are saving money by opening the floodgates for violent offenders. The hard reality is that Texas is not going "soft on crime," but it is getting smarter.
From the State House to the Jail House: Protecting Public Safety Without Punishing Taxpayers
February 25, 2008
PowerPoint Presentation
Jails are the largest item in most county budgets and Texas jails currently house over 69,000 inmates - 29 percent more inmates per capita than California. This Powerpoint presentation highlights solutions to the county jail overcrowding problem that protect public safety without punishing taxpayers.
Regarding Sunset Review of the Texas Department of Public Safety
This letter requests that the Sunset Advisory Commission, as part of its review of the Texas Department of Public Safety, examine the issue of the Private Security Board’s disqualification of many otherwise qualified professionals from occupations such as locksmith and alarm salesperson solely because of a minor criminal offense that occurred many years ago.
Rather than being handcuffed to the past – to the detriment of the taxpayers – legislators charted a new course that emphasizes alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders while continuing to lock up violent and sexual offenders.
Enhancing Front-End Alternatives in the Juvenile Justice System
By linking each county's TYC commitments of nonviolent offenders to state funding for local probation and prevention efforts, and tying a share of state juvenile probation funds to key outcome measures like recidivism, restitution, and educational progress, Texas can encourage local innovations that will control TYC utilization and incentivize best practices.
Sunset Review of the Texas Department of Agriculture
January 28, 2008
There are many unnecessary, and unnecessarily excessive, criminal laws relating to licensing and regulation in Texas. This letter requests that the Sunset Advisory Commission examine this issue during its review of the Texas Department of Agriculture to determine whether some of the occupations regulated by TDA with criminal penalties require continued government regulation or would be better left to market processes.
Criminal Offenses as Barriers to Entering Licensed Occupations in Texas
To maximize the productivity of Texas’ workforce in a tight labor market, we must fully utilize the skills of the 20 percent of Texans with a criminal record. While ex-offenders who are employed are three to five times less likely to re-offend and more likely to pay restitution and child support, Texas law precludes some of them from entering over 100 licensed occupations. Through targeted reforms such as provisional licenses, licensing authorities can expand economic opportunity for ex-offenders seeking to turn their life around while still protecting the public.
The true promise of competition in corrections lies not in saving money while providing the same product as state-run prisons, but in harnessing the innovation of the private sector to develop programming that will reduce recidivism, since 99 percent of inmates are ultimately released.
Our criminal justice system is bursting at the seams. There are simply not enough law enforcement and correctional resources to keep up with the glut of lawbreakers. Federal and local authorities are recognizing that it is more efficient to use carrots in addition to sticks.
This Powerpoint presentation describes the current statutory and regulatory barriers that exclude ex-offenders from numerous licensed occupations ranging from plumbing to nursing to cosmetology and suggests reforms to lower these barriers. Such reforms can improve economic productivity and reduce crime, as ex-offenders who are employed are three to five times less likely to re-offend.
This series of policy briefs by the Center for Effective Justice cover nine areas of criminal justice reform including victim restitution, parole reform, business overcriminalization, juvenile justice, prison overcrowding, offender reentry, student overcriminalization, empowering victims, and probation reform.
"The words of a prophet are written on the subway wall,” Simon and Garfunkel once sang. Perhaps "I love Alex" could be a hit record, but in Katy these words written on a gymnasium wall instantly made a 12-year-old a potential felon.
Texas lawmakers chart a new course that emphasizes alternatives to incarceration
People suffering from depression must often hit rock bottom before they get better. The same can be said for criminal justice in Texas. Few could have imagined the abuses that surfaced earlier this year at the Texas Youth Commission, but they led to landmark reform legislation. Indeed, reforms made this session indicate that lawmakers are finally rethinking all aspects of the criminal justice system.
While many Texas families rightfully fear violent criminals and child predators, no police alert has yet gone out for an interior decorator on the loose. Yet, as the Legislature continues to produce solutions in search of problems, a pending bill would criminalize thousands of interior decorators.
This paper presents an analysis of pending legislation and budget strategies that will successfully divert offenders from prison while protecting public safety and demonstrates how these initiatives will eliminate the need for building new prisons.
Business Overcriminalization in the 80th Legislative Session
April 12, 2007
By reining in the excess of existing criminal offenses, lawmakers can chart a new course that improves the state's business climate and enhances public safety by targeting law enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial resources at those who pose a true danger to their fellow Texans.
No Texan should be fooled into thinking that we need more prisons to keep up with population growth or lock up sex offenders. The real question is whether we need more prisons to lock up more nonviolent drug offenders.
Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, presented this testimony on HB 3702 in front of the House Corrections Committee.
Presented to the Texas House Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee
Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, presented the attached testimony on HB 2291 to the House Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee at its March 28, 2007 public hearing.
Presented to the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee
Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, presented the attached testimony on HB 2437 to the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee at its March 27, 2007 public hearing.
Texans have been horrified to learn that some of the 5,000 juveniles allegedly being rehabilitated at Texas Youth Commission facilities have instead been molested and mistreated.
Presented to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee
Marc Levin, Director of the Foundation's Center for Effective Justice, presented the attached testimony on SB 103 to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee at its February 27, 2007 public hearing.
Alternatives to More Prisons Promote Public Safety, Restorative Outcomes, and Fiscal Responsibility
February 14, 2007
By simply utilizing a bigger toolbox when it comes to nonviolent drug offenders, and selected nonviolent property and DUI offenders, Texas taxpayers can be spared a billion-dollar commitment to new prisons.
We must not view crime as simply an offense against the state, and instead ensure that crime victims have a place in the courtroom and a seat at the table. The marginalization of victims is not only unjust, but deprives us of the public safety benefits that are only realized when an offender’s conscience is awakened upon realizing the harm caused to another human being.
The Role of Parole in Solving the Texas Prison Crowding Crisis
November 21, 2006
Through targeted, evidence-based parole initiatives, more nonviolent, low-risk offenders can be released with proper supervision, thereby ensuring public safety while freeing up existing space behind bars for the most dangerous criminals.
Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice, presented testimony before the Texas Legislative Budget Board regarding the TDCJ Legislative Appropriations Request, September 22, 2006.
Testimony Regarding Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs)
September 20, 2006
Presented before the Texas Senate Education Committee
Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice, presented testimony before the Texas Senate Education Committee regarding Disciplinary Alternative Learning Programs (DAEPs), September 20, 2006.
Presented before the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Coastal Resources
Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice, presented testimony before the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Coastal Resources regarding the Animal Identification Program, September 6, 2006.
Only an appreciation for the important but limited role of criminal law, and the unintended consequences of its indiscriminate application, can ensure that Texans are not handcuffed by a proliferation of criminal laws.
With Texas projected to need another 9,600 prison beds by 2010, the 80th Legislature must focus on policy changes that reduce or eliminate the need for new beds by preventing crime, lowering recidivism rates, and reducing probation revocations.
By diverting a share of the resources used to imprison non-violent probationers who may be reformed with better supervision and drug treatment, the state can save taxpayers' money and produce more effective outcomes for offenders, victims, and communities.
Texas prisons have once again reached their breaking point, and policy changes will be required to avoid the necessity of creating even more new prison beds.
Victim-Offender Mediation and Plea Bargaining Reform in Texas
April 24, 2006
One way to empower crime victims in Texas would be to offer mediation and binding contracts as a voluntary alternative to traditional prosecution for certain types of crimes.
Better Disciplinary Alternatives for Texas Students
This perspective addresses the need for reform at the intersection of school discipline and juvenile justice, providing recommendations to ensure Texas students are not being prematurely and unnecessarily written up and written off.
Drug courts are not soft on crime. They force participants to confront their addiction and repair damage to themselves, their families, and communities. Overwhelming evidence shows that by diverting minor drug offenders to drug courts, we can cut recidivism and costs.
From T-Shirts to Kitten-Registries, Everything (Could Be) a Crime
Criminal law is a blunt instrument and should be reserved for conduct that is blameworthy and threatens public safety, not wielded to enlarge the power of government at the expense of ordinary Americans.
While Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) have a valid purpose in ensuring that the education of the many is not unduly impeded by the severe misbehavior of a few, we must focus on reforms such as eliminating unnecessary DAEP referrals, holding DAEPs to a higher level of accountability, and developing best practices for DAEPs in order to produce verifiable results in academic performance and behavior modification for Texas' youth.
Aligning Incentives and Goals in the Texas Criminal Justice System
November 30, 2005
Many of the challenges confronting Texas' criminal justice system result from public policies that create incentives which are not fully aligned with the stated goals of the system--reducing crime, restoring victims, and minimizing costs to the taxpayer. This perspective provides policy recommendations for better aligning the system's incentives and goals.
This report highlights several existing successful restorative justice programs in Texas
and offers recommendations based on effective restorative practices in other jurisdictions.
Because crime is first and foremost an offense against the victim — victims should
be provided with enhanced restitution, greater input in sentencing, and a mechanism for
securing prosecution when local prosecutors decline to act.
With the state's prisons approaching capacity with 150,000 inmates and more than half a
million Texans on parole or probation, the key to reducing long-term incarceration and
supervision costs is lowering the recidivism rate through initiatives such as victim-offender interaction programs
that emphasize accountability and penance.
Greater Use Of Probation Is Good For Texas Justice
Everything is bigger in Texas and our prisons are no exception. Although California has nearly twice as many people as the Lone Star State, Texas has only 13,000 fewer prisoners – with over 150,000 inmates. The inmate population is approaching prison capacity.
While the Supreme Court’s reversal of the trial court conviction of Arthur Andersen will not give the company’s 85,000 former employees their jobs back, the ruling will benefit all Americans if it helps rein in criminal laws that permit convictions without a guilty state of mind. In recent years, crimes that dispense with any culpable mental state have proliferated well beyond the traditional exception of speeding.
Testimony on HB 1751 Making Restitution a Mandatory Part of Sentencing
May 19, 2005
Senate Criminal Justice Committee
By making restitution a mandatory rather than an optional part of sentencing, HB 1751 recognizes the paramount importance of compensating crime victims for the harm they have suffered.
We support the probation concepts in HB 2193, particularly progressive sanctions, more intensive supervision, and the expansion of drug courts. We are hopeful that some of the money saved on incarceration costs can be redirected to residential restitution centers and mental illness and drug treatment programs.
There is perhaps no more famous legal truism than the phrase that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Yet, it is simply not always true. In the closing days of Texas’ legislative session, there are several important policy areas – from zero tolerance to taxes – where the Legislature is confronting the question of criminal intent.
In Texas, criminal law is not just for criminals anymore –
at least not criminals as they have traditionally been defined. Pending legislation would criminalize everything from failure to recycle any piece of electronics equipment to placing a business sign on a rural road, and even leaving a dog tethered to a tree for a total of eight hours in a 24-hour period. The blurring of civil and criminal law is not a novel development in Texas, but rather part of a national trend.
Confronted with the staggering costs of the state prison system, the Legislature appears ready to replace the longstanding policy of “lock’em up and throw away the keys” with “don’t build it and they won’t come.” However, this change will only succeed in reducing crime and relieving the burden on taxpayers if the probation system is reformed. Currently, half of all probationers have their probation revoked and these probationers serve an average of 4.5 years in prison. Probation must evolve from a revolving doorway to prison into a gateway to responsibility, restitution, and rehabilitation.
Testimony on HB1440 Requiring Graffiti Offenders to Restore Property They Have Damaged
March 30, 2005
Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Enhancements
Under this bill, graffiti offenders would make restitution by either personally erasing their markings or paying the cost incurred by the government, business, or individual in expunging the graffiti.
Testimony on HB1290 Creating Health Care Cost Fee for Convicted Criminals
March 30, 2005
Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Subcommittee on Enhancements
The costs of inmate health care are enormous. The state estimates that it costs over $500 a day to keep a prisoner in the hospital and the prison hospital at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston recently announced they will run out of money in a matter of months. County jails face these same skyrocketing health care costs.
Incarceration Need Not Be Only Criminal Justice Tool
No matter how the Legislature resolves school finance, one lawmaker wants kids to know they should use books and paper, not school buildings and stop signs, to communicate their ideas. Using tough but smart measures that don't involve incarceration to discourage minor crimes like graffiti, we can intervene early in the lives of youths who may be drifting toward a life of violent crime and send a message that lawlessness will not be tolerated.
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