Texas Prison Population Expected to Rise Unless Changes Are Made

By Staff Reporter

Austin, Texas

 

   The Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison population is expected to rise to capacity by 2020 according to the latest forecast by the Texas Legislative Budget Board (LBB).  According to the report Overview of Adult Correctional Population by the LBB, Texas prisons are expected to only have 50 beds remaining by 2020 with increases in the projected offender population.

 

Year  / Population / Capacity / Difference /Percent

2015 - 150,476      /  152,760 /   2,284       / 1.5%

2016 - 151,306      /  152,760 /   1,454       / 1.0%

2017 - 151,550      /  152,760 /   1,210       / 0.8%

2018 - 152,025      /  152,760 /      735       / 0.5%

2019 - 152,413      /  152,760 /      347       / 0.2%

2020 - 152,710      /  152,760 /        50       / 0.0%

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Adult Populations Rearrest / Incarceration/Reincarceration

 

Prison      46.5% / 21.4%

State Jail  62.0% /  30.7%

Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility

                 44.7% /  44.1%

In-Prison Therapeutic Community

                 48.1% /  23.1%

Intermediate Sanction Facility

                 57.5% /  36.5%

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Fiscal Year 2014 Revocation Rates

Felony Direct Community Supervision 15.6 %

Parole 6.5 %

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  Several bills have been filed to address the projected increase and if passed are expected to lower the projected prison population within manageable levels.  Texas HB 3326 and HB 1546 are expected to reduce the offender populations if passed in the Texas Legislature.  HB 1546 would reduce TDCJ's offender population by 1,770 and save over $81,000,000 during the next biennium.  HB 3326 would save over $163,843,697 during the 2016-2017 biennium.  These funds could be used to increase the salaries of correctional officers to address the 3,500 vacancies in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

   Currently if Texas were its our country, the state would have more people incarcerated per capita than any other country in the world.  Currently probation and parole revocation rates are lower than recidivism rates from incarceration. 

   HB 1546 passed out of the House Corrections Committee last week and HB 3326 will be heard in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee today.


See written testimony by AFSCME Local 3807 President before the House Criminal Jurisprudence:
 http://www.tdcjunion.com/research/HB3326Flyer.pdf