Posted on 08/30/2002 10:39:02 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Texas spends more money on prisons than it does on schools a new study shows.
According to Houston Chronicle reporter Michael Hedges, the study shows that since the mid-1980s the state has increased spending faster on prisons than on education.
Wrote Hedges, the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute study also revealed that Texas, now has more black men in state prisons than in state colleges and universities.
But Texas was not the only state where spending on prisons rose along a steep curve over the last 15 years, while money set aside for higher education rose much more slowly, the study revealed.
"Since 1985, the increase in money spent on prisons nationwide topped $20 billion. That is almost twice the increase in dollars spent on colleges and universities," according to the report titled "Cellblocks or Classrooms."
"This report underlines the sad reality that the nation's colleges and universities have lost budget battles to the growing prison system," Vincent Schiraldi, president of JPI and a co-author of the study told Hedges.
State budgetary reports for Texas showed that in 2000 there were about 66,300 African-American men in state prisons, and only 40,872 in state colleges, Hedges reports adding that over the past 20 years, "the rate of increase in the black male prison population as been four times higher than the increase in black male college students.
"In 1986, Texas spent about $3.1 billion from its general fund on state colleges and universities. That year, $590 million was spent on corrections, or less than one dollar for every five spent on higher education, the JPI study found."
By 2000, however, spending on higher education grew to $4.5 billion while Texas' budget for prisons rose to $2.7 billion. In that period, the amount spent on colleges and universities grew by 47 percent, compared with a 346 percent increase on corrections.
"There is no doubt that criminal justice has been the fastest growing part of the state budget, because of concerns about public safety," state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, vice chairman of the criminal justice committee told Hedges.
Whitmire added that Texas politicians know the issue of being tough on crime resonates with voters. "We have a shortage right now of 40,000 schoolteachers, and 2,500 prison guards, and more is said about filling the guard positions," he said. "Being safe is basic."
Whitmire told Hedges he believed the Texas Legislature needed to evaluate the way it allocated dollars to criminal justice and education.
"We have to fight the crime issue by being tough and smart. No one questions that we are being tough enough. We may be coming up short on how smart we have been," he said.
Dianne Clements, of the Texas victim's rights group Justice For All, told Hedges that spending on prisons is a sad but necessary fact of life, and cheaper than alternatives.
"Do we spend too much on prisons? Absolutely. Is it necessary? Without a doubt," she told Hedges. "We'd love to spend that money elsewhere. But as long as people continue to commit violent crimes, we have to protect people. It is a self-defense mechanism."
Clements added, "It is always cheaper to incarcerate someone than to release them, rearrest them and convict them. We're spending a lot of money on prisons, but we're saving lives and trauma."
By 2000, however, spending on higher education grew to $4.5 billion while Texas' budget for prisons rose to $2.7 billion. In that period, the amount spent on colleges and universities grew by 47 percent, compared with a 346 percent increase on corrections.
The article contradicts itself. The lead statement in the article is simply false. Not only does Texas spend more money on colleges and universities than it does on prisons, but that figure also does not take into account the amount spent on pre- and elementary schools and secondary schools. Yet the lead sentence merely refers to the amount spent on "schools". It is also easy to get huge percentage increases when you're starting from a small base - presumably the prison system had long been underfunded, while the university system had been well funded all along.
All in all, a very misleading article from Mr. Limbacher. What a poor job if the intent were to convey facts - it's more likely that the intent of the article was to spread falsehoods via an easily-repeated (but totally false) info bite.
Stupid statement. The cost per square foot for a prison is about THREE TO FOUR TIMES what it is for a school.
Uh, anyone want to guess why that is?
In case anyone hasn't noticed, that's NewsMax's stock-in-trade.
Again this is the same faulty statistic that was presented in a similar report earlier in the week. You cannot compare the entire black male prison population with the black male college population whose ages probably range from 17-23 years old. A comparison of prison inmates to university students between this age range would be more meaningful, but probably wouldn't fit the agenda.
Also the previous report stated that the prison population for ALL races quadrupled.
Yes, we should consider the 6/5 prison prepatory schools on a per hour cost.
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