Archive for the ‘TISD’ Category
Education Now, Or Incarceration Later!
Education, or Incarceration: Smith county officials force a choice.
It costs more than 29 thousand dollars a year to house an inmate in the TDC. That is not counting all the peripheral cost just to get him there. It costs much less to provide an education!
This aspect of criminal justice is one of the least tapped in the whole field. The fact is, that it is probably the highest common denominator in criminal justice, and gets the least attention. Looking at the rates of recidivism in Texas, and across the country, the answer becomes obvious. The State of Texas found that there is 20% lower recidivism for those who received a GED certificate and completed a vocational training while in prison.
Stopping crime before it starts.
The impact of education can not be taken lightly when it comes to avoiding the sort of lifestyle which might lead to incarceration. All of the studies, of which I am aware, say the same thing: The better the quality of the education, the less the chance of ending up in prison!
Prevention costs less.
The cost of education is a real bargain compared to the cost of prison, and that does not factor in the cost of the impact of committed crimes, or the cost of the process of getting the convicted person into the prison system to begin with.
Education is not the only factor, but it does seem to be a major factor, and may well be the major factor in this debate.
Why build a jail now?
This adds an ironic poignancy to the debate concerning the Smith county jail bond. It says something about the mindset of our county officials when they choose to present a jail bond package on the same ballot as a school bond package. It is illustrative of the fact that they either don’t understand the situation, or don’t care! I am not sure which is preferable, ignorance, or indifference, but it comes out the same.
This situation is even more dramatic, when you see that the programs and policies of our courts are lowering the incarceration rates, and that these programs are being increased, which will undoubtedly further reduce the numbers in the county facility to meet jail standards.
Smith County Schools or Jails | School Bond vs. Jail Bond
“Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it…”
No, I am not talking about falling in love, I am talking about the ability to make distinctions. The ability to choose to swallow something that is beneficial, to the swallower, over something that might look good at the time, but not be so pleasant during the regurgitation. I have seen a somewhat disturbing trend develop in response to the bond issues being brought before the people this November. That trend, is the tendency to lump all entities together, as though the school bond, and the jail bond are all one giant conspiracy to rob us of our money. Let me try to offer a different perspective.
The TISD bond proposal is a part of an ongoing plan to bring the local school district facilities up to a level that should have been attained some time ago. The jail bond is a plan that is half backed, half cocked, and totally unnecessary. There are alternatives that work much more efficiently, and much, much more economically.
Seeing the two issues brought up together in this way, should invite some obvious comparisons, and correlations.
The rate of recidivism in state prisons, has a direct correlation to the education of the individual, therefore, it would seem that the better the quality of education, the lower the rate of both first time entry, and reentry into our perpetually clogged system. What does that mean in terms of tax dollars and cents over the long haul? If you want it in purely economic terms, it can be boiled down to this: It costs less to provide education than to provide cell space!
Whether the current school bond proposal is the right one for us at this time, well, that is up to the local taxpayer to determine, but lumping it together with the jail bond, as though they were part and parcel, is an error! In fact, the Commissioners court should be ashamed of presenting the jail bond on the same ballot as the school bond. It is wrong on so many levels that it would take pages to drill through them all.
We should be able to make distinctions, whether they are philosophical, or economic. In this case, the philosophy and the economy both fall on the same side of the issue. School is cheaper than prison!
Besides, it just makes more sense. Education now, or incarceration later.
