Overcrowded Prisons
Allowing Criminals to Walk Free
By Daniel Muniz

At one time or another just about every state in the union experiences the same dilemma with the state of Texas in regards to overcrowded prisons. That is years ago, crime was rampant but thugs and hoodlums spent very little time behind bars because the state correctional institutions were overflowing. In fact, it was difficult to keep inmates in prison for any length of time because there was such a huge demand for space.

Consequently, this revolving door of truncated sentences emboldened street hoods to commit even more horrific crimes because they were hardly going to be punished for it. And because of this predicament, people who committed relatively minor offenses barely got a slap on the wrist. This too encouraged petty thieves to continue their life of crime.

And tragically, even some of the serious violent offenders resulted in briefer sentences.

It was only until numerous brutal murders, vicious rapes, and other heinous violent crimes that vividly captured the headlines helped in finally forcing the Texas legislature to embark on a building spree of new prisons.

In fact, Texas experienced the largest construction boom of new correctional institutions in the nation’s history. As a result, thugs and hoodlums now had to spend hard time in prison for much longer sentences because there was now a place to house them. In addition, even petty street hoods and other minor offenders spent time in jail. Law enforcement and the court system enjoyed the additional capacity to house criminals which allowed tougher sentences to be meted out, especially against the dregs of society.

However, as what has happened with so many other states, the overcrowding problem in Texas eventually resurfaced. Today, the state’s correctional institution system is now overcrowded with projections of even more criminals that will have to be incarcerated.

Texas legislators, conservative and liberal, are now in consensus that something has to be done. Unfortunately, the solution does not include building more prisons.

On the Right, nobody wants to raise taxes and on the Left, nobody there wants to trim the fat from pet projects in order to build more prisons. Instead, elected office holders are examining ways to encourage more rehabilitation, treatment, and even worse, more lenient paroles.

So in order words, violent thugs and hoodlums will once again be roaming the streets. And non-violent offenders (like the repeat drunk drivers who haven’t killed anybody) and petty thieves will not spend much time, if any, behind bars.

Of course, this will solve the prison overcrowding problem because there will be fewer inmates to house. In fact, some politicians may try to claim that they succeeded in reducing crime because there are fewer people in jail.

And there will be certain elected office holders who may even have the temerity to insist that crime has been reduced under their watch because there are now fewer serious crimes being committed. That can be accomplished if the legislature simply reclassifies the nature of violent crimes in order to reduce prison time. In essence, calling murder and rape by different names may lessen its severity on paper, especially with prison time, but it won’t lessen the violent nature of those crimes that the victims experience.

If the state of Texas does indeed play these shenanigans to ease prison overcrowding (while falsely reducing crime), then it will once again have to wait several years until numerous violent crimes captures the headlines again. And then after an enormous public outcry, the process will start all over again with a new prison construction boom.

Sadly, plenty of states experience the identical crisis in which the pendulum swings in one direction for a while so that more prison are built while the courts are able to get tough on crime. Unfortunately, the pendulum then swings back in the other direction in which we get soft on crime and hoods walk free.

Yes, it is a shame that this nation has a lot of people who are incarcerated or on probation. It is tragic but the truth is that people are in jail for a reason. They broke the law and they have to pay the price for it. Inversely, if people didn’t break the law, then they wouldn’t be in prison.

Instead, for the time being, Texas (as well as other states) is examining ways to prevent criminals from spending too much time in prison, or at least finding a way to keep them in there for as little time as possible.

Such a temporary fix is wrong since because it won’t be long when thugs and hoodlums who are released back on the streets begin to commit another wave of violent crimes. And like it did before, this leniency will embolden the street hoods to commit more crimes because they know that they will not be punished as severely.

One purpose of a government is to establish security and protect its citizens. Allowing thugs and hoodlums to roam the streets does not accomplish that goal. It is just plain wrong to put your head in the sand and wait until things get out of control before trying to do something to fix the problem. Sadly, that is the course that so many states take.

Yes, it costs money to build prisons and house inmates but that is the price to pay in order to ensure a peaceful security on our streets. But the ironic thing is that it will be done because of how dysfunctional much of our society has become, crime will continue to increase. We shouldn’t have to wait until a crisis emerges before we solve a problem that we have known about all along.

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