AUSTIN, Texas, July 2 (UPI) -- Texas officials say the state's 150,000-bed prison system will exceed its operating capacity next year.
The Legislative Budget Board says there could be 500 too many inmates for the system by late summer 2005 and 5,000 too many by 2006, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday.
"Those are conservative numbers. I think it's even quicker than the report says, which means each legislator and the statewide leadership need to be aware of this," said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
The overcrowding comes after nearly a decade of prison expansion in which the system's capacity tripled. The growth is attributed to more prison sentences and a growing number of parole revocations.
Whitmire supports more early release of non-violent offenders who pose no threat to the public as a way to reduce the state's prison population.
Gov. Rick Perry is looking at leasing county jail space as a short-term solution and building more prisons in the long term, spokesman Robert Black said.
