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| Foreigners in prisons to be studied |
| By Star-Telegram |
| Published: 01/26/2004 |
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Texas may be able to free up as many as 2,000 prison beds and save countless tax dollars by paroling and deporting foreign-born inmates who demonstrate that they are unlikely to become repeat offenders, a key lawmaker said last Thursday. State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he will begin a legislative study on whether foreigners imprisoned for property crimes, drug offenses and other nonviolent crimes are being kept behind bars longer than American inmates with similar records. Whitmire got the go-ahead to begin his study from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the Texas Senate, who gives directions to committee chairmen between legislative sessions. Dewhurst has instructed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee to examine ways to reduce the cost of incarcerating foreign prisoners, including whether the state can obtain funding from the federal government to offset its costs or whether some of the inmates can be returned to their homelands. After more than a decade of beefing up the prison system, lawmakers took the budget-cutting knife to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice last year, along with virtually every other state agency, to bridge a $9.9 billion budget gap. The prison system's work force was trimmed by about 1,500 positions. Even dining facilities at the 100-plus units were instructed to trim the fat -- literally. The system cut back on the amount of meat it serves inmates and switched from fresh milk and eggs to powdered products whenever possible. At the time, Whitmire urged parole officials to take a closer look at policies for releasing nonviolent offenders who appeared unlikely to commit new crimes. He also called on officials to develop innovative ways to reduce the number of foreigners in Texas prisons, including whether they could serve their sentences in their home countries. A report prepared for lawmakers last year found that the 150,000-bed Texas prison system houses nearly 9,000 foreigners. About 6,600 are from Mexico. Almost 54 percent of those Mexicans were convicted of violent offenses. The others were imprisoned for such offenses as theft, drug use or driving while intoxicated. More than six in 10 of the other foreigners -- mostly those in Central America -- were convicted of violent crimes. Between 2,000 and 3,000 nonviolent foreign inmates have served enough of their sentences to be eligible for parole consideration, according to the report. Dewhurst and Whitmire said that the Legislature must continue to push the $2 billion-a-year agency to stretch every dollar. |
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