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: Grits for Breakfast

Fewer prisoners, more guards at TDCJ

According to AP:Texas prison officials plan to cancel contracts to house up to 1,900 state convicts in county lockups because the number of inmates in state prisons has fallen.Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Austin American-Statesman that officials plan to move the convicts now housed in county lockups back into state prisons by the end of August. Lawmakers, who directed the move, anticipated the population decline and did not appropriate $28 million to continue leasing the contract beds.The decrease in state inmates ? part of a national trend ? coincides with an increase in correctional officers at the state?s 112 adult prisons. The vacancy rate for prison guards has dropped to about 5 percent, the lowest in more than a decade for a state that has long had a shortage of prison guards...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 28, 2009 (boomark / email).