New prisons, again
By Mike Ward | Friday, May 25, 2007, 07:12 PM
Late word: The long-discussed restrictions on building new Texas prisons have suddenly disappeared.

First-available copies of the proposed state budget are missing a provision that would have placed constraints on prison officials before they could build new units. Such things as the effectiveness of diversion programs, paroles rates and other factors, plus review and approval by the Legislative Budget Board, would have to have been considered.

No more.

A disappointed Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, who had championed the changes as a way to support cheaper and more effective drug-treatment and rehabilitation programs, reported just a few ago: ?All the qualifiers have been stripped out of the budget.?

?Now, all that will have to happpen is to get (Legislative Budget Board) approval,? he said.

And that much-ballyhooed, new Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Board that was supposed to help ride closer herd on the adult prison system and the scandal-racked Texas Youth Commission?

It?s funding has been cut to zero.

Legislation creating the board is in a Senate-House conference committee. Stay tuned to see whether it gets cuts, as well.

Prison officials have been arguing against it. Prosecutors have been arguing against any new hurdles to build new prisons. Senate and House criminal justice leaders had been pushing for both.

Somewhere, in a backroom deal in recent days, they disappeared without explanation.