The Facts
- In 2010, parole cost $3.74 per day per offender, compared to $50.79 a day per prison inmate.
- The most dangerous Texas sex offenders are ineligible for parole. The most seriously violent inmates serve 85% of their sentences and those incarcerated for indecency with a child serve 91.7%. Yet more than two-thirds of offenders enter state lockups for a nonviolent offense.
Recommendations
- Continue to strengthen parole supervision and treatment programs that reduce recidivism and revocations.
- Create a supervised reentry program for inmates now discharged after serving the entire sentence in prison.
- Require nonviolent parolees revoked for technical violations, not new crimes, to be sent to an ISF rather than prison, provided they have not been to an ISF within the last two years.
- Provide relief to employers from negligent-hiring lawsuits on the basis that the employee is an ex-offender.
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