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TDCJ Grows & Grows
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) had a 1994 budget of $1.84 million dollars. According to the Texas Comptroller that is slated to grow to $3 billion by the year 2000. Texas currently has an incarceration rate of 553 per 100,000 (the highest in the country) and this is projected to grow to 1,428 incarcerated Texans per 100,000 which translated to one out of every 70 Texans. That figure is expected to include one out of nine black Texan men. One of every 18 Texan men is currently locked up.
While blacks make up 12 percent of Texas general population they composed 48% of its prison population in 1992. Whites make up 61% of the state population and 29% of the prison population, for Hispanics the figures are 23% in prison and 26% outside.
State Representative Wilhelmina Delco of Austin, and vice chair of the Texas House Corrections Committee, says: "Prison and criminal justice are the only growth industries in Texas." By 1996 the state will have 128,000 prison beds which is double the number it had in 1992. Construction costs alone, which are not reflected in the TDCJs operating budget above, will total more than $3 billion.
Christian Science Monitor
While blacks make up 12 percent of Texas general population they composed 48% of its prison population in 1992. Whites make up 61% of the state population and 29% of the prison population, for Hispanics the figures are 23% in prison and 26% outside.
State Representative Wilhelmina Delco of Austin, and vice chair of the Texas House Corrections Committee, says: "Prison and criminal justice are the only growth industries in Texas." By 1996 the state will have 128,000 prison beds which is double the number it had in 1992. Construction costs alone, which are not reflected in the TDCJs operating budget above, will total more than $3 billion.
Christian Science Monitor
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