Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Progressive Probation Reform Passes
And now for some uplifting news from the Lege: the Senate this afternoon passed a very progressive reform of the Texas probation system. House Bill 2193 sailed through the Senate--passing 25-5 on the key procedural vote.
The measure now moves to Gov. Rick Perry's desk. If he signs the bill, it would be a major victory for Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson), the ACLU of Texas, and other criminal justice reform advocates. Scott Henson is all over this issue at Grits for Breakfast. Here is Scott's in-depth report on the bill and last week's Senate committee hearing.
The problem: Texas has one of the harshest probation systems in the nation.
Last year, the state revoked probation for 25,000 convicts, sending them back to prison. Of those, 10,000 (or 41 percent) had their probation revoked simply for technical violations, meaning they didn't commit an additional crime. Those probationers return to prison for an average for 4.5 years each.
Whitmire and Madden's reform bill may keep many of those 10,000 technical violators out of the state's crowded prisons. It gives judges more discretion on when to end probation for people who have turned their lives around and to direct more attention to helping probationers headed for a technical violation. "This is the part of the criminal justice system that is most broken," Whitmire told the Senate. "We need to reward people for turning their lives around and are doing right." He said that getting reformed felons off probation will free up resources to aid those who need more attention. That, he said, would create a more focused and effective probation system and improve public safety.
And damn if that isn't the most sensible thing we've heard at the Lege in a while.
The measure now moves to Gov. Rick Perry's desk. If he signs the bill, it would be a major victory for Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson), the ACLU of Texas, and other criminal justice reform advocates. Scott Henson is all over this issue at Grits for Breakfast. Here is Scott's in-depth report on the bill and last week's Senate committee hearing.
The problem: Texas has one of the harshest probation systems in the nation.
Last year, the state revoked probation for 25,000 convicts, sending them back to prison. Of those, 10,000 (or 41 percent) had their probation revoked simply for technical violations, meaning they didn't commit an additional crime. Those probationers return to prison for an average for 4.5 years each.
Whitmire and Madden's reform bill may keep many of those 10,000 technical violators out of the state's crowded prisons. It gives judges more discretion on when to end probation for people who have turned their lives around and to direct more attention to helping probationers headed for a technical violation. "This is the part of the criminal justice system that is most broken," Whitmire told the Senate. "We need to reward people for turning their lives around and are doing right." He said that getting reformed felons off probation will free up resources to aid those who need more attention. That, he said, would create a more focused and effective probation system and improve public safety.
And damn if that isn't the most sensible thing we've heard at the Lege in a while.