EDITORIAL BOARD, Austin American Statesman Sunday, February 20, 2005 If the Legislature actually funds the proposals being offered in the House of Representatives to reduce the number of prison inmates, it could dramatically change the way Texas manages its criminal population. The changes being considered in the criminal justice subcommittee have much to recommend them. This proposed overhaul would put more emphasis and most importantly, more money into alternatives to prison for low-level offenders. Shifting from prison cells to probation, drug rehabilitation and community supervision could save Texas millions of dollars a year. It's a bold proposal worthy of serious consideration by a Legislature that too often has looked at incarceration as the only answer to criminal behavior. Creating new programs, adding more probation officers and establishing more drug treatment centers will be expensive. But those programs could save twice as much as they cost and delay the need to build more and more expensive prisons.

Texas is facing a crisis in its growing prison population. It could be over capacity next month, which will invite lawsuits and judicial intervention. The state has been there before, and it's not comfortable.

But prisons are extremely costly, and they're not a solution for people who commit crimes out of desperation or addiction. The better answer, and the one legislators are striving for, is to find good, practical alternatives to prison cells.

At $40 per day, per bed, prison is the most expensive punishment option the state criminal justice system has at its disposal. Community supervision and probation, by contrast, can cost as little as $2 a day. Texas has to take aggressive steps to minimize incarceration and maximize alternatives.

The changes unveiled last week would encourage the judiciary to use probation for certain property crimes, theft and drug possession. But as subcommittee Chairman Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, acknowledged, it will take the efforts of everyone at every step of the criminal justice system to make it work.

No one wants violent criminals and unrepentant recidivists loose among the population with slack supervision. Some criminals must be locked up.

But there are many others who will benefit from the less expensive alternatives of probation, drug treatment and counseling.