No more dollars for unused prison bunks

 

A recent article titled “Money misspent on prisons is money better spent elsewhere" was published by the Editorial Board of the Austin American-Statesman on February 11, 2013. This article exposes the 123 million dollars spent by Texas to lease beds from private prison companies. It summarizes that a current decline of the crime rates in the state along with a different approach to reform offenders have caused about 10,000 bunks to go unused in the state prison system. However, Texas still pays 3.1 billion dollars per year to maintain these facilities. As many expect the crime rates to continually decrease within the next few years, we question the reasons why we destine such a large amount of money on unused cells. The article cites John Whitmire of Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee who explains, “We need to use taxpayers’ money to fight crime, on the public safety priorities of this state, rather than just on bricks and mortar that in some cases we don’t need.” A pretty reasonable statement as that money could definitely benefit in the fight against drug cartels so present in states neighbors to Mexico as Texas; just to mention one example. Others argue that closing a penitentiary means cutting jobs and it may have a very negative impact on the State economic development. Nevertheless, using so much money to keep prisons open doesn’t sound like an argument strong enough to justify not using this tax money in other programs that will help more our economy.  Public Education, Health Care and Public Safety are three major departments that will greatly benefit from some extra funds. To consider alternatives like shrinking the prison system or organizing its staff more smartly are good ideas to start saving some funds. The article offers some expert opinions on the subject and it also provides important ciphers. I believe the Austin American-Statesman’s team makes a pretty solid and well-supported argument addressing this situation. After all we want to see our money wisely spent on programs that will protect our homes on a more effective manner.  

 On the February issue of Texas Monthly this year, it was published an article titled "What nobody says about Austin".

 Who hasn’t heard the “Keep Austin weird" phrase? We are quick to say we live in a very progressive, liberal place that differs from all the other Texas cities; but do we really?  Austin is certainly a unique case in Texas and its prominent educational institutions make us all proud to call Austin the city we live in. However, there is a darker side to the story. If one does some research on the political representation of minorities in the Austin City Council, one could be very surprised. During the last 40 years, ”half the city council members and fifteen of seventeen mayors have been from four zip codes west of I-35, an area that is home to just a 10 % of the city’s population.” To date, Gus Garcia has been the only Hispanic mayor Austin has known throughout history. This physical division occurs along the Interstate-35. This highway divides the West area as home to a more exclusive, accommodated white class; and the East area as home to a more diverse class, with a majority of Blacks and Hispanics.  This phenomenon has its origins back in the early 1900’s, when a city plan proposed concentrating all services for black residents—parks, libraries, schools—on the East side of the city. It may be too strong of a statement to consider Austin as a segregated city. Maybe this day and age it is more socioeconomic reasons than race. Low income families typically means minority, doesn’t always, but reality generally is that way. Nevertheless, it would be a little ignorant to forget that urban areas where the City Council is elected on an at-large basis are pretty good examples of cities that don’t want minorities to have representation. Frankly, I believe that Austin falls short to celebrate multiculturalism. It sounds more like a group of white people sitting around talking about diversity.