News & Views
Private prison contract renewals may cost Texas additional millions
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Mon, 2010-03-08 12:44 Authored by GritsforbreakfastAt a House Appropriations Committee meeting today, House Corrections Chairman Jim McReynolds asked TDCJ chief Brian Livingston if private prison-contracts up for renewal might increase their rates and increase costs for the state.
Livingston said that was possible, since contracts covering the 12,000 or so private beds for which TDCJ contracts are 5-7 years old. Most of these are up within the coming year and all new contracts should be negotiated by mid-2011. Livingston said that in general, for every dollar increase in per-inmate costs represented a $4.5 million cost increase to TDCJ.
Monday morning roundup
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Mon, 2010-03-08 07:55 Authored by GritsforbreakfastHere are several stories that deserve Grits readers' attention, even if I don't have time to write about each of them individually:
Absurdist 35-year pot sentence a hometown embarrassment
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Sun, 2010-03-07 07:52 Authored by GritsforbreakfastThis absurdist sentence from my hometown embodies much of what's wrong with today's justice system, even if I partially disagree with this writer's diagnosis at the Houston Press' Hairballs blog of the offender's biggest error.
Smith County (East Texas) judges and juries have long had a reputation of meting out severe, some might say ridiculous, punishment for drug convictions. And Henry Wooten's case is no exception: the 54-year-old Tyler man was sentenced Thursday to 35 years in prison for possessing slightly more than four ounces of pot. Wooten actually got off easy -- the prosecutor asked the jury to give him 99 years. (We just hope TDCJ can free up room for this menace to society; maybe the state can release a child molester or serial arsonist to find a cell for Wooten.)
Indigency rules for Driver Responsibility surcharge published in Texas Register
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Fri, 2010-03-05 16:50 Authored by GritsforbreakfastThere's good news and bad news on proposed reforms to the Driver Responsibility Surcharge.
The good news: The Department of Public Safety today published proposed rule changes in the Texas Register to establish the first-ever indigency program for the surcharge.
The bad news: DPS has dramatically scaled back their original proposal last summer, and the Public Safety Commission will need to provide staff additional direction if the rules are to improve as much as is really needed.
Local TX probation faces large, unexpected shortfall
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Fri, 2010-03-05 08:22 Authored by GritsforbreakfastThe amount budgeted by the Texas Legislature for basic probation funding in 2010 has fallen short, and state and local probation officials are scrambling to find a solution. A probation official and friend of the blog sends the following note which explained the problem well:
There is an unprecedented funding crisis for adult probation in Texas. At the end of every fiscal biennium, the 122 CSCDs in the state return their unspent state funds to TDCJ-CJAD. The Legislative Budget Board counts on those refunds to fund part of the budget line for the first year of the following biennium.
No accelerated closure for TYC's Pyote, Victory Field units
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Fri, 2010-03-05 05:54 Authored by GritsforbreakfastThe Odessa American reported yesterday that the Texas Youth Commission did not plan to close two facilities - in Pyote and Vernon - earlier than expected. These units were already scheduled to close in August, but TYC told state leaders they could save money by closing them sooner, in early April. However, TYC spokesman Jim Hurley "added that the Legislative Budget Board could still order the facility to close sooner than August," a comment that seemed to leave the issue up in the air.
So I contacted state Sen. Chuy Hinojosa, who currently sits on the LBB, to get an answer straight from the horse's mouth. He had a staffer send me a memo on the topic which read, in relevant part:
Texas CCA recognizes two more non-DNA exonerations
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Thu, 2010-03-04 19:16 Authored by GritsforbreakfastA Texas appeals court has agreed to set aside the convictions of two Dallas men wrongly imprisoned for capital murder.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday agreeing that 39-year-old Christopher Scott and 54-year-old Claude Simmons Jr. were innocent. The men were serving life sentences for the 1997 slaying of Alfonso Aguilar until their release last year.
Prosecutors say another man confessed to the crime in a sworn videotaped statement from prison and implicated an alleged accomplice, who was arrested in October and charged with capital murder.
Scott and Simmons will be eligible for compensation based on time served. Each will receive a lump sum of about $960,000, plus lifetime payments of about $80,000 a year.
Dems' demagoguery over ex-offender business owners counterproductive
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Thu, 2010-03-04 12:34 Authored by GritsforbreakfastAnother of the Texas Democratic Party's top ten attacks against Republicans in 2010 they've identified is that the Public Utility Commission regulates businesses owned by people with criminal records. "PUC allows criminals to manage prepaid electric providers," screamed the headline to a widely circulated Democratic attack piece.
Should Democrats attack Rick Perry over TYC?
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Thu, 2010-03-04 07:23 Authored by GritsforbreakfastIn the aftermath of Rick Perry's trouncing of Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP gubernatorial primary, Emily Ramshaw and Jason Embry have been suggesting attacks on the incumbent they thought Hutchison should have waged and now think Democrat Bill White should embrace. Their comments come just as the Democratic Party has put the Texas Youth Commission scandal at the top of its hit list of things for which it intends to blame Rick Perry.
Emu Payback?
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Wed, 2010-03-03 12:04 Authored by GritsforbreakfastVia AP, yesterday:
A mad emu gave deputies a Texas-sized hard time. El Paso authorities say the big bird was running loose Tuesday, snarling rush-hour traffic near Interstate 10 and attacking deputies trying to restrain it. Deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office tried to prevent the tall, flightless bird from running into traffic. But when deputies neared the emu, it became aggressive and slashed one deputy's pant leg.
The deputy was not seriously injured.
The emu died as it was being transported to an animal control shelter. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Hmmmm ... Publicly attacking Sheriff's deputies then mysteriously dying during transport on the way to the hoosgow. Except for the emu part, the story sounds eerily familiar. Payback's a bitch, I guess, even for flightless birds. ;)
