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Posted on 04/14/2003 10:01:14 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
Alarmed at a trend that is filling state jails with people caught with less than a sugar packet-size amount of an illegal substance, some Texas legislators are pushing to change the law so more drug offenders get treatment instead of incarceration.
Lawmakers who believe Texas' criminal justice system is overly harsh are using the state's $10 billion budget crisis as an opportunity to call for saving money by putting fewer people in prison. Others are skeptical about whether the changes are needed.
One proposal to lessen the punishment for small-time drug offenses is heading for the House floor in the next couple of weeks, and another is pending in a House committee.
"We went through a period of criminalizing just about everything you could think of and raising penalties," said state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, sponsor of one of the bills. "We may have gone a little bit too far in some cases."
Both bills aim to reduce the number of people locked up for such crimes, require treatment for drug addicts, and keep those caught with small amounts of drugs from being saddled with a felony conviction that could impair their ability to get jobs or rent apartments.
The Houston Chronicle reported last fall that nearly half of the 15,000 inmates in the state jail system -- lower-security jails established in 1994 to house nonviolent felons -- were there for drug crimes involving less than 1 gram.
The bulk of those offenders -- 49 percent -- were from Harris County. The county accounts for 16 percent of Texas' total population.
Of the 58,000 drug convictions won by local prosecutors over the past five years, 77 percent involved less than 1 gram, according to a Chronicle analysis of district court data. Harris County sent 35,000 of the small-time offenders to jail or prison.
Drug cases also make up an increasing proportion of Harris County's felony cases. The number of drug cases before the courts has increased 300 percent since 1985, while the total number of felonies has increased by 56 percent, according to data from Republican state District Judge Jan Krocker.
Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal last week defended the incarceration record.
"They don't appreciate what's going on here," he said of critics. "I see judges giving them (offenders) chance after chance after chance to stay on probation, and apparently they're not doing it."
A bill sponsored by Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, would remove jail time as an option for first-time offenders who are convicted on less-than-a-gram charges. Instead, convicts would be sentenced to probation and treatment programs.
If they then violate their probation or commit multiple offenses, convicts could be sentenced to a state jail.
Rosenthal, a Republican, asked why convicts need several chances at probation and treatment before they receive jail time.
Though less-than-a-gram convictions would still be felonies under Allen's bill, offenders who successfully complete their sentences would have the conviction "set aside." That means they could answer "no" when asked on job and rental applications whether they have felony convictions, but the offenses could still be used against them legally if they commit other crimes.
"We don't want to take the ability of someone to be gainfully employed and be a law-abiding citizen," said Scott Gilmore, Allen's chief of staff.
Rosenthal is concerned the "set aside" system would be unworkable in the courts.
Dutton's bill would reduce drug offenses involving less than a gram from felonies to misdemeanors. The change would lower the penalty structure and shift the crimes from state district courts to misdemeanor courts run by the counties.
"Let's don't put them in prison," he said, adding that drug addiction should be treated as a medical rather than a criminal problem.
As the Legislature grapples with slashing social programs and trimming other costs to address a $10 billion budget deficit, both bills seek to save money by jailing fewer people.
A financial analysis of Allen's bill by the Legislative Budget Board predicts it would save Texas $7 million next year and $72 million by 2007. Dutton's bill, the board claims, would save $35 million next year and $144 million by 2008.
"We need to really think about how we're spending limited funding," said Will Harrell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "In no area of public policy can it be business as usual."
Harrell is lobbying for many of the 31 prison reform bills introduced this session in hopes that lawmakers who are not ready to "rethink the philosophy of crime and punishment" will consider "efficiencies" because of the budget crunch.
Allen's bill won a favorable recommendation Thursday from the Corrections Committee, which he chairs, and will likely be taken up by the full House in the next couple of weeks. Dutton's bill remains in the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
If the bills pass the House, they will likely go to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, headed by John Whitmire, D-Houston.
Traditionally a supporter of prison reform, Whitmire is skeptical that this year's proposals can pass a Republican-led Legislature.
"I just don't think it's realistic that we're going to change the penalty structure ... because of the makeup of the Legislature," he said. "I do think that it is reasonable and tough and smart to find alternatives to incarceration for low-level drug offenders."
Whitmire said a better avenue for reform might be opening a drug court in Harris County, a move that was mandated by the Legislature two years ago.
Whitmire and other lawmakers expressed impatience that the court has not yet opened.
The court will open Sept. 1, which Rosenthal said is the deadline set by the new law. He added that securing federal funding for the court has been slow work.
Meanwhile, the impact of Harris County's aggressive prosecution of low-level drug crimes is felt most harshly in black neighborhoods. The Chronicle analysis showed that 62 percent of those convicted were black and 37 percent were white. It was not possible to tell how many were Hispanic.
Harris County's population is 42 percent Anglo, 33 percent Hispanic and 18 percent black.
Rosenthal offered no explanation for why blacks feel the brunt of drug laws.
"I don't know that I know why the numbers are like that," he said. "It's certainly not an intentional thing."
Rep. Joe Deshotel, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said in a recent opinion article in the Chronicle that the high incarceration rates of blacks show "ineffective public policies and deep-seeded and disturbing attitudes toward people of color in our state."
"Regardless of a person's ethnic background, if they can be rehabilitated ... we should intervene and help that person become a productive citizen," Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said in an interview.
Houston Ministers Against Crime, a group of black ministers, is lobbying for both bills.
Changing the law would make it easier for former drug users to improve their lives, said the Rev. F.N. Williams of Antioch Baptist Church, president of the group.
"They can find some respectable jobs," he said.
Republican state District Judge Michael T. McSpadden has been saying for months that less-than-a-gram offenses overwhelm his and other district courtrooms, detracting from the courts' handling of violent crime, on which he believes they should be focusing.
"I still think the better avenue would be to reduce them to misdemeanor offenses where they belong," McSpadden said last week. "I don't think the lawmakers realize that they absolutely flood the district court dockets."
But others, including the Texas Conference of Urban Counties and the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, think changing minor drug offenses to misdemeanors could prove unwieldy.
Don Lee, executive director of the urban counties group, said he fears that if drug crimes become misdemeanors, counties will get stuck with the bill for jail time that is now paid for by the state.
"Felonies are traditionally a state responsibility," he said. "It is important to counties that we maintain that distinction."
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Define drug pusher.
Should we also do this to users of the deadly addictive drug alcohol?
You mean like a clerk at a 7-11, or are you specifically talking about pharmacists?
I've only met a few drug dealers and the only ones I have ever seen give or sell illict drugs to minors were other minors. So your statement means you advocate hanging children.
Death for giving a friend pot. Good advertisement for what passes as conservatism on this site.
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