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| Texas prepares for major prison bed shortage |
| By CBS 11 |
| Published: 08/30/2004 |
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A new report says the state will run out of prison beds this time next year. The forecast comes a decade after the massive prison-building boom in Texas. One state lawmaker says this legislative report serves as a wake-up call to everyone in Texas. And a crime victim advocate and a human rights activist say they're shocked by the findings. Jo Ann Starkey's son Brian Higgins was murdered in Dallas ten years ago. His killer is now serving 55 years in state prison. But Starkey says she's stunned by a state report that finds by next summer the state will run out of prison beds. By next July the state will need 188 beds. And by the end of the decade, the state will need space for as many as 8500 more inmates. In the early 1990's... Violent crime soared. The state toughened prison sentences and built new prisons. Now, 11 years later, there are more than 150-thousand inmates. State rep. Ray Allen of Grand Prairie says, " our combination of tough sentences and long sentences and low parole rates have filled up a system... It's like having a bathtub where the water is flowing in rapidly... And the drain is not flowing out at the same rate." Rick Halperin is with Amnesty International. "It should give us pause to wonder as to what we're doing to stem the violent crime problem. Why is this state plagued with so much violence? Nobody seems to have a workable answer." Joann Starkey says - the only answer is to keep violent inmates locked up. "I'm afraid the legislature will change the law and maybe the killer of my son will get out early." Starkey now helps other parents whose children were murdered. She says lawmakers need to keep victims in mind when deciding how to solve the prison bed problem. The state could simply build more prisons, rent space in county jails, reconfigure prisons or change sentencing for certain inmates, most likely non-violent offenders. |
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