There are a lot of things wrong with how Texas chooses to raise and spend its money. But ignoring the fairly regressive tax system, and also ignoring large investments in business over things like children’s healthcare, the most deplorable aspect of Texas’s inability to budget reasonably is the huge amount of money spent on public safety, particularly the corrections system. Don’t get me wrong. Public safety is the epitome of why governments are even around to being with. It’s important! But in the U.S., and especially in Texas, we’ve been going about handling it in the least responsible way possible.
The breadth of the prison system is no secret in Texas, and it keeps on growing. More beds are added to keep up with a growing population and an even faster growing incarceration rate. Massive prison construction began in the late 1980s coinciding with widespread public fear of gang violence and the war on drugs. Public officials sought to quell these fears with suppression and incarceration. But even with new prison construction, the incarceration rates were higher, leading to early paroles and the rather shocking fact that about 50% of prisoners are released each year due to shortages of beds. To say that rates of recidivism are high would be an understatement. Texas has spent and continues to spend a lot of money on the corrections system, but if more arrests are made, why is the crime rate still comparable? Well, for each criminal that goes to prison, there is one coming out.
It’s understandable to see why the government would choose to spend so much money on prisons. It reassures the general public that criminals are locked up and off the streets. But that’s obviously a false security. However, since recent fears of violence spillover from drug cartels in Mexico have reignited public unease, it’s all the Texas government has got. Or so it says.
Regardless of whether or not violence spillover is real (it is to some degree), crime is still a problem that needs to be dealt with. Spending more money on prisons isn’t the answer. Instead, that money needs to be directed to something that Texas is very reluctant to spend money on: more resources. Criminologists have created 8 theories as to why crime exists, most of them point to a lack of resources in poor communities. There are no doctors. Poor schools and lack of recreational activities fail to form social bonds among youth. Redlining and disinvestment by banks create dilapidated neighborhoods. And I, as someone who researches urban food landscapes and geographies, am especially appalled by the existence of food deserts in poor communities (food deserts are locations that lack a grocery store within a certain distance). It’s no wonder so many people in Texas resort to crime when looking at our dismal spendings on resources like education and healthcare and our rather high rate of incarceration. Moreover, very little of the money that is spent on prisons goes towards actual rehabilitation, but rather incapacitation and punishment. Yet, the existence of prison gangs (or Security Threat Groups as we like to call them in Texas) signifies one thing. Prison doesn’t reform people. It makes them more toxic. And half of those toxic prisoners are getting out of jail each year.
Case and point—money spent on prisons is ill-spent money. Expenditures need to be rearranged with more money poured into resources, something that will alleviate crime rates by treating the cause: the miserable conditions we allow our underclass to inhabit in Texas. What’s even more miserable is that expenditure rearrangement will never happen, and Texas, known for its expansive prison system, will remain unchanged. I suppose we’ll just have to treat the crime problem with more executions.
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