AUSTIN, Texas — House lawmakers are considering a plan to privatize all state prisons housing low-level felony offenders, a move they say could save the state up to $40 million.
“Government is not always the efficient provider,” said state Rep. Erwin Cain, R-Como, who filed an amendment to the bill that would require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to seek private bids for the operation of all state jails.
The department would be required to turn over the jail operations to private bidders if the result is at least a 10 percent savings to the state.
Cain said, however, that he would rescind his amendment because of technical concerns about the language and will instead attach the proposal to a corrections-related bill sponsored by state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, the chairman of the House Corrections Committee.
Madden said he agreed with finding out whether private companies can run the facilities at a reduced cost. Five of the 20 state jail facilities are already privately operated; the new proposal would affect the remaining 15 facilities.
Texas created state jail felonies – offenses that carry a sentence of up to two years – in 1993. In August 2009, there were more than 12,500 inmates in Texas state jails, according to TDCJ reports.
But state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, cautioned against privatization, saying it could cost the state more in the long-term. Past attempts at privatization have shown that companies are interested only in less expensive inmates, he said. The state is left to shoulder the burden of housing costlier prisoners - those who are sick and mentally ill. Also, there is no guarantee that private providers’ rates won’t increase in the future, he said.
However, many of the offenders in state jails are there because they committed technical violations of their probation terms, Turner said. He filed a bill that would give probationers incentives to abide by the terms of their sentences and stay out of state jails in the first place.
Ana Yaûez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, said privatizing jails provides an incentive to continue policies that keep more people in jail, because it produces more profits for the companies running the facilities.