TDCJ, tasked with providing public safety, promoting positive change in offender behavior, reintegrating offenders into society, and assisting victims of crime, according to the Texas Government Code, has $3.42 billion to spend on various efforts in 2022-23.
TDCJ was near the middle of the pack when it came to spenders on IT services in calendar year 2021, with the commission spending a relatively small percentage of its budget on those services — $1.5 million.
What follows are snippets of TDCJ’s five goals from its website, with some minor edits.
To make progress toward the department’s core goals and the governor’s statewide objectives, the department has identified the following priorities:
1: Probation Supervision and Community Diversions to Incarceration
To provide diversions to traditional incarceration with community supervision and other community-based programs.
- Promulgate standards for Community Supervision and Corrections Departments (CSCDs) to ensure departments maintain consistent, effective and efficient statewide supervision of the state’s probation population.
- Use strategic planning to guide delivery of programs and services. Required statewide goal targets: Prison diversions including improved revocation rates, technical revocations and program success rates.
- Monitor CSCD and agency use of the Texas Risk Assessment System (TRAS) and provide ongoing technical assistance. Annually evaluate TRAS data processes to improve use of TRAS across divisions and the CSCDs.
- Review the grant application and award process for Diversion Programs and Treatment Alternative to Incarceration Programs and revise in accordance with evidence-based practices.
- Determine the CSCDs’ compliance with the division’s rules and standards, accuracy of criminal case and program information submitted to the division, accuracy of felony case reporting for state funding, implementation of internal auditing plan and general case management practices.
- Maintain the Substance Abuse Continuum as a liaison between CSCDs and Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility (SAFPF)/Intermediate Sanctions Facility (ISF) services and create the Community Supervision Treatment Program Consortium to foster communication among our collaborative partners.
- Ensure funding recipients maintain fiscal responsibility and accountability and the state funds are expended in accordance with statutory requirements.
2: Custody, care and management of incarcerated inmates
To provide secure confinement, custodial care and support services for adult felons in TDCJ correctional facilities while ensuring public, staff and inmate safety.
- Continue to recruit, retain and develop professional correctional staff, which requires effective pre-service, in-service and leadership training.
- Ensure all inmates continue to receive quality and cost-effective medical, dental, and behavioral health-care services.
- Ensure the continuation of support services that provide classification and housing assignments as well as nutritious meals, clean clothing and bedding, personal hygiene items and the supplies to maintain a clean and safe environment, with a focus on prison-produced goods to reduce costs.
- Maintain systemwide accreditation through American Correctional Association (ACA) accredited reviews and systemwide compliance with Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards through PREA audits.
- Continue maintaining our facilities and aging infrastructure by identifying and documenting deficiencies on a daily basis with corrective and preventive maintenance work orders and/or major work requests to correct/repair/replace deficiencies in a timely manner.
- Continue to enhance safety and security through the installation of comprehensive video surveillance systems on the state’s 23 maximum security correctional facilities.
- Provide ongoing monitoring and oversight of contractual requirements for the privately operated prisons, state jails and other contracted facilities and services.
3: Rehabilitation and re-entry programs
To develop and provide evidence-based rehabilitation and re-entry programs that reduce recidivism and facilitate positive change in the lives of inmates.
- Continue to maintain evidence-based programs, ensure the effectiveness of their curriculum through research and evaluation, and implement additional programs.
- Continue to provide inmates with educational, vocational and substance use treatment and other programs by using intake screening tools and the TRAS as well as other agency-implemented assessments to guide programming.
- Continue continuity of care for special needs inmates nearing release, to include programming and processes for coordinating benefit entitlements (securing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration benefits, etc.).
- Continue providing identification documents and a county-specific resource guide to releasing inmates, and maintaining an automated tool for sharing pre-release job training and certification information with future employers.
- Evaluate recent enhancements to establishing and maintaining volunteer status through increased use of virtual and automated enrollment, retraining and notifications.
4: Parole supervision and revocation diversions
To provide effective supervision and administer the range of options and sanctions available for offenders’ successful reintegration back into society.
- Continue to maintain parole staff at levels conducive to managing caseloads at established ratios.
- Provide training to supervise and interact with offenders in the most effective and efficient manner based upon offender risk levels.
- Continue to respond to violations, using graduated sanctions when appropriate.
- Collaborate with communities, state and federal agencies, employers, nonprofit organizations and TDCJ re-entry case managers to create additional opportunities for offenders with limited resources.
- Coordinate with the Board of Pardons and Paroles to provide information for parole decisions, to include voting parole and discretionary mandatory cases, imposition of all appropriate special conditions, responding to new information, modifying conditions and imposition of sanctions up to revocation.
5: Victim services
To assist victims of crime and provide a central mechanism for crime victims to participate in the criminal justice system.
- Continue using the Integrated Victim Services System to provide registrants (crime victims, surviving family members, witnesses who testified at trial, criminal justice professionals and citizens) notifications regarding an inmate’s status, and maintaining a 1-800 hotline and online portal for victims and citizens.
- Continue improving the processing and collection of Victim Impact Statements (VISs) by incorporating the best practices of those Texas counties successfully processing VISs in all training materials, thereby providing greater opportunities for victims to exercise their right to complete a VIS and have it considered at various stages of the criminal justice process.
- Increase public awareness of a victim’s right to request victim inmate mediation dialogue from the Victim Services Division (VSD).
- Increase access to foundation-level and advanced training.
