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| Lawmakers study consolidation of Texas parole system |
| By statesman.com - Mike Ward |
| Published: 06/12/2012 |
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More than 20 years after Texas limited the responsibilities of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to approving or denying cases not supervising parole officers or parolees a new state report is sparking debate about whether to expand the agency's duties again. Such a change, if approved, would be the biggest shift in Texas' corrections system in decades — and the idea has sparked a turf war between the parole board and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which runs state prisons and currently supervises parole officers. Texas has more than 75,000 men and women on parole, one of the largest such systems in the United States. Although parole decisions and cases generally are not public, several examples have surfaced in the past year in which the parole board voted to impose restrictions on convicts as a condition of their release, and then a parole officer later modified or removed that condition without the parole board ever knowing about it. In other cases, restrictions were imposed on parolees by the parole division without the parole board approving. "This has been going on for some time," said Bill Habern, a prominent Huntsville parole attorney. "It causes confusion, both for the parolees and the officers. The solution is to unify the roles of the two agencies and have one captain in charge of the ship." A study released early this month by the Sunset Advisory Commission examined continuing complaints about conflicting decisions by the parole board and the parole division that have landed both agencies in court and drawn criticism from legislative leaders. The Sunset Commission — which periodically reviews agencies to determine if they should be reauthorized, reconfigured or discontinued — recommended that no changes be made. The "analysis did not find significant problems, certainly none large enough to recommend dismantling the functions, nor were there significant cost savings related to an alternative structure," according to the commission's report. Read More. |
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