Abject Failure

Texas Prison System.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”), which is responsible for state prisons and parole, is an abject failure by any measure you choose to use.

Here is TDCJ’s mission statement:

“The mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is to provide public safety, promote positive change in offender behavior, reintegrate offenders into society, and assist victims of crime.”

It fails miserably.

In truth, the focus of TDCJ officials, starting with the Governor’s appointed Texas Board of Criminal Justice and continuing through TDCJ’s Executive Director, the wardens and prison guards, is to punish inmates for their crimes and to prevent inmates from escaping.

As a result, inmates are confined in close quarters with other inmates for many years, quarters that are often hostile. Given the current prison environment in all Texas prisons, TDCJ’s effort to promote positive change in offender behavior is half-hearted at best.

 When an inmate is returned to society, TDCJ gives the inmate $100. A returning inmate is desperately in need of transportation, drivers’ licenses, jobs, places to live, insurance, therapeutic help, and peer support. They also need help in securing community resources and job training. TDCJ provides none of that.

Texas citizens spend over $2.5 Billion a year to operate the State’s correctional system. What we receive for that colossal expenditure is reduced public safety and former inmates who are in worse condition and with fewer job opportunities when they reenter society than they were in when they went to prison.

 TDCJ’S mission statement is dishonest. It needs to change its mission statement or strive to fulfill it..