The Facts
* In 2012, parole cost $3.63 per day per offender, compared to $50.04 a day per prison inmate.
* The most dangerous Texas sex offenders are ineligible for parole. The most seriously violent inmates serve 85% of their sentences and those incarcerated for indecency with a child serve 91.7%. Yet more than two-thirds of offenders enter state lockups for a nonviolent offense.
Recommendations
* Continue to strengthen parole supervision and treatment programs that reduce recidivism and revocations.
* Require split sentencing for certain state jail felons so that they are discharged from state jail on to probation supervision.
* Revise the 2011 state jail earned time credit law so that TDCJ can administratively credit the time earned unless the sentencing court affirmatively decides otherwise.
* Reinstitute mandatory supervision for most drug possession offenders convicted of possessing four grams or less who do not have a prior violent or sex offense.
* Allow ex-offenders who have proven successful on probation for a non-violent state jail felony and paid all required restitution to petition the sentencing court to reduce the offense to a Class A misdemeanor.
* Require nonviolent parolees revoked for technical violations, not new crimes, be sent to an ISF rather than prison, provided they have not been to an ISF within the last two years, and cap initial revocations of nonviolent parolees for a misdemeanor at one year.
* Immunize landlords from being sued for renting to ex-offenders.