AUSTIN, TX - Faced with the need for nearly 10,000 new prison beds by 2010, the state must improve its probation system and use prevention programs proven to work, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, promised to work to continue reforming the prison system in the 2007 legislative session. Both are chairmen of the criminal justice committees in their respective chamber.

Both agreed the most violent criminals should be locked up, but most prisoners will eventually be released, and cuts in recent years to prison programs mean they are returning to their communities without having been treated for their drug problems, learned to read or write or been trained to find a job.

The probation system is so overloaded with people who are not dangerous and are intent on staying out of jail that those who need help do not get it, he said.

“We keep so many people on probation,” Whitmire said. “They don't get any real supervision.”

He advocated being “smart” on crime by improving treatment, which will avoid future costs of imprisonment to the state and prevent another victim from being hurt.

Madden said he and Whitmire are trying to get the office of Gov. Rick Perry to restart a Criminal Justice Policy Council that was cut in 2003.

It would cost about $1.2 million, but would save the state more than that in the long run because lawmakers could support programs the council knows are proven to work, Madden said.

Recently the Legislative Budget Board projected the state would need an additional 9,600 prison beds by 2010. Madden would rather divert non-violent prisoners away from the system through community-based programs, he said.

“Intervention has to be in the community because mom and dad aren't doing it,” he said. “So many times they aren't even there.”

The comments were made at a forum of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative policy group based in Austin.