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'Six Impossible Things': Do you believe in a conservative, rational, and smaller corrections budget?

Today in Texas, state and county government directly supervises around one in 22 adults in prison, in jail, on probation or on parole. Being "tuff on crime" is part of the state's self-promoted persona, one which has garnered bipartisan consensus for decades in support of political and policy decisions that took a "money is no object" approach to crime and punishment. Facing a $15-$27 billion budget gap, that road has now abruptly ended, and state leaders must chart a new path.The other day I quoted the White Queen from Through the Looking Glass, who famously told Alice that, in her youth, she was capable of believing no fewer than six impossible things before breakfast. Following that theme, this post details Six Impossible Things about corrections policy that the Texas Legislature must come to believe before breakfast on the morning of Sine Die (the 82nd session's final day) if their aim is to pass a conservative, rational, and smaller corrections budget:#1 Prison closures aren't just possible but necessaryIt's been said many times, by many different people: Texas has never closed a prison since the first one  opened its doors in 1846, and it never will...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 28, 2011 (boomark / email).