Texas

Overview Implementing the Strategy Media Coverage Publications & Maps
Step 1: Analyze Step 2: Provide Step 3: Quantify Step 4: Measure

Step 3: Quantify savings and reinvest in select high-stakes communities.

The state reinvested $241 million, which would have otherwise been spent on prison construction and operation, to expand the capacity of in-prison and community-based treatment and diversion programs. 9 The LBB projected that this reinvestment would eliminate the prison bed shortfall by 2012. Because the cost associated with increasing the capacity of treatment and residential facilities is significantly less than the TDCJ’s original budget request for additional prison capacity, the state saved $210.5 million for the 2008–2009 fiscal biennium. 10 Assuming that no additional prisons are constructed, the state will save an additional $233.4 million over the 2008–2009 fiscal biennium.

Policymakers also reinvested some of the savings generated in strategies to improve outcomes for low-income children and families. For example, the legislature appropriated $4.3 million for fiscal years 2008–2009 to the Nurse-Family Partnerships (NFP) program, a nationally recognized model that pairs nurses with first-time, low-income mothers during the child’s first two years. The purpose of NFP is to increase self-sufficiency, improve the health and well-being of low-income families, and prevent violence. The program will provide services to 2,000 families in “high stakes” communities throughout the state.11

Step 4: Measure »

  1. Texas Legislative Budget Board, Conference Committee Projection Scenario, May 7, 2007. The original projection assumed that the parole rate will continue at the FY 2006 level of 26% while the final policy assumes that the rate will increase to 28% due to the additional in-prison treatment capacity and assumes that the new prison will not be constructed due to the impact of the diversion policies.
  2. The savings represent the difference between the original request for appropriations by the administration and the final adopted plan and do not consider potential future savings or cost avoidance due to the impact of the plan on the projected prison bed shortfall and reductions in recidivism.
  3. The Colorado Blueprints for Violence Prevention, a national initiative to identify models that provide effective violence prevention and intervention strategies, conducted a rigorous evaluation of 600 model programs and identified the NFP program as one of 11 proven models to prevent violence.