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Article: County jails cope with inmate underpopulation.(Public Finance Supplement: Texas)
- Article from:
- The Bond Buyer
- Article date:
- March 21, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 SourceMedia, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Although Texas appears to have solved its prison overcrowding crisis, counties have been dealing with the problem of inmate underpopulation.
When Texas experienced a dramatic surge in the backlog of inmate population a few years ago, the state decided to send its prisoners to county jails.
The state's correctional facilities were literally choked with felons, a situation that resulted from changes in the penal code which lengthened prison sentences.
A court ruling on prison overcrowding sent state prisoners to the counties, said Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
"We saw county jails stacked like cord wood ...