Continuing reforms:
.... The tremendous success of the initial reforms has allowed Texas lawmakers to pursue new avenues that will lower prison costs and crime and repeat offenders rates. In the 2015 session, for example, the Texas Legislature passed SB 1902, which would allow low-level, nonviolent offenders to seek an order of nondisclosure from state courts. An order of nondisclosure provides these offenders with an opportunity to live productive lives -- such as when they apply for a job or fill out a college application -- without the burden of past mistakes hanging over their heads. Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 1902 into law in late June.
Other Republican states have taken notice of the success in Texas, where the steps to change the culture of corrections have strong support from voters, and legislators have sought to repeat it by adopting similar innovate reforms to reduce prison costs and ensure public safety by focusing on treatment instead of incarceration. Though these reforms are fiscally conservative, they have found bipartisan support in state legislatures and outside organizations.
"After decades of assuming that locking up more people was the best way to reduce crime, states across the country have figured out that they can scale back imprisonment and still protect public safety. In 2015 alone, Utah, Alabama and Nebraska have all passed comprehensive sentencing and corrections reforms; West Virginia took steps to reduce incarceration of juveniles in their state for misdemeanor or status offenses, and Alaska began major work on a second wave of reforms," Madden notes. "The list goes on -- Ohio, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mississippi -- and while each state tailored the reforms to fit its system, they have looked to Texas for inspiration."
Some adherents to the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mindset may say that these reforms are "soft on crime," but the Texas model should be judged by its results. With now $3 billion saved and lower crime and repeat offender rates in Texas, this innovative and fiscally conservative approach to justice reform has proven to be exceedingly more effective at disrupting the cycle of crime than the approach taken in the 1980s and 1990s. Which is why so many states are seeking to emulate the Lone Star State.
http://www.freedomworks.org/content/savings-prison-reforms-texas-top-3-billion-crimes-rates-hit-lowest-point-1968 |
