Profiles in Government: Department of Criminal Justice

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) manages all state prisons, jails and correctional facilities. It also provides funding and oversight of community supervision and oversees all inmates released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision.

Here is more information about the agency, including who leads it, how many staff the department employs and what the department does as a whole.

FAST FACTS

Budget: Estimated at $3.4 billion overall, with a $128 million IT budget, according to Industry Navigator.*

Leadership: Tina Clark is the TDCJ’s information technology division director.

Staff: The agency has approximately 36,000 employees working across 104 prisons.

MORE ABOUT THE AGENCY

In 1848, the state’s second Legislature established the TDCJ after passing “An Act to Establish a State Penitentiary.” At the time, the act established a three-member board of directors appointed by the governor and a superintendent to manage day-to-day operations.

The board defined the state’s first penal code abolishing corporal punishment and restricting the death penalty to crimes like murder, treason and breaking and entering, according to the state’s Library and Archive Commission.

Today, nine members make up TDCJ’s board of directors and are responsible for hiring the department’s executive director and setting rules and policies that guide the agency.

The department’s mission is to “provide public safety, promote positive change in offender behavior, reintegrate offenders into society and assist victims of crime.”

As for how technology comes into play, the TDCJ listed the following goals in its FY 2023-2027 agency strategic plan:

• Maintaining IT hardware and software requirements, including personal computers, wiring and telephone switches across the agency.
• Enhancing security in correctional facilities with advanced technology.
• Continue maintaining facilities and aging infrastructure by identifying and documenting deficiencies daily with corrective and preventive maintenance work orders to repair and replace identified deficiencies in a timely manner.
• Use strategic planning to guide the delivery of programs and services, including internal audits, fiscal accountability tools and data management procedures supporting TDCJ’s community supervision tracking system.
• Monitor the Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD) and agency utilization of the Texas Risk Assessment System (TRAS) and provide ongoing technical assistance.
• Use data-driven decision-making for grant programs that result in lower revocation rates for populations such as offenders with mental illness or substance abuse dependencies.

*Industry Navigator is a product of e.Republic, which also produces Industry Insider — Texas.