The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has announced it will end its contracts for 1,899 temporary beds at privately-operated county jails. At a rate of $41.48 per day, this will save taxpayers $28.8 million per year.
This still leaves TDCJ with 156,641 beds, and Texas with the nation’s second highest incarceration rate. Nonetheless, this is a significant victory for taxpayers and a product of criminal justice reforms that have redirected nonviolent offenders from prison. Indeed, this eventuality was unthinkable in early 2007, when the state was projected to need an additional 17,000 prison beds.
It is important to note that this transformation of Texas criminal justice was achieved without shortening sentences for any offenses. Judges were given more options such as shorter-term treatment facilities but offenders could still be sent to prison. Additionally, the Texas crime rate declined in 2008.
Since the contract facilities were county jails, they were designed for short stays, not the prison population they were being used to house. Accordingly, the temporary contract beds do not offer the same programming as the regular privately operated beds within the system.
It is always possible TDCJ will need to restart the contract, particularly if the economic downturn continues. Crime has increased in every recession since the late 1950’s. However, the Legislative Budget Board projected in January 2009 that, due primarily to reforms enacted in 2007, the demand for prison beds would not exceed TDCJ’s regular capacity until 2013.
The uncertainty in the demand for prisons illustrates the benefit of using private lockups versus building new prisons. Not only does a prison require the state to invest tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in capital, government-run prisons are politically difficult to close.
– Marc Levin