Treatment vs. Prevention

On February 11, the editorial board of the Austin-American Statesman published an editorial critiquing the state government's choices on spending for state prisons.

The paper's staff is made up of several columnists who've had previous work writing editorials about fitness, art, food, and entertainment. However, I didn't come across any whose descriptions listed any significant experience in politics or even economics. I still, however, found this article both well-written and convincing. I believe its target audience is criminals, plus their family and friends, and prison employees. However, it also is applicable to Texas' population as a whole due to its comments on state spendin, a topic we all should be concerned about.

The columnists argue that the state government is wasting its $123 million dollar investment in prison bed leases since there are just not enough inmates to fill them anymore. This is a hard statement to refute when you look at the facts; crime rates have been steadily falling over the years, therefore fewer and fewer people are being locked behind bars. Why, then, is our government continuing to fund the "brick and mortar" parts of crime treatment rather than following the road of criminal reform that lower incarceration rates have paved for it?

The columnists say this action stems from a reliance on prisons to fuel the job market. Sure, prisons require employees, but so does drug-dealing and child trafficking; a need for jobs does not justify the morality of the work. By no means am I comparing illegal activity to the hard work of the people with prison jobs; I'm merely attesting to the double-standard view that governments seem to have that "a job is a job". The work is admirable, but the job quality is poor, with low wages and little benefits, and the spots may not be needed with the lower inmate rate. While cooks and janitors are hired out the wazoo, security guards are few and far between. Yet, the Texas government refuses to make changes. It insists upon paying for  workers we don't need and beds that aren't slept in instead of joining the forces of citizens and organizations working on preventional and correctional programs within local communities. Is it conspiring to wonder whether the governments actually wants more incarcerations? Prepping the prisons instead of preventing the crimes is like shopping for a liver transplant instead of tossing out the booze.

I think the lack of reform is just another example of government stubbornness, and it may not even be backed by a good enough reason, like job creation (this is my liberal side speaking). Prisons will always be necessary, but, as the article states, the staff should be shrunk and funds redirected. I absolutely agree that the government needs to pull its money out of private company investments and work on the homefront: on our streets, in our schools, homeless shelters, and local businesses. These are the places where criminality is halted by awareness and education.

The State of Austin

Texas Monthly recently published an article about the history of racial segregation in Austin, entitled What Nobody Says About Austin. Reporter Cecilia Balli recounts feelings of being outcasted for her Latina heritage and delves in Austin's cultural and political history to uncover an explanation for why Texas' most confidently liberal city may also be its most segregated.

I couldn't empathize with Balli on a racial level, but her commentary on the whacky and unpredictable social behaviors of Austinties is something I found humorously true. Though it's a place I feel very at home, I find it hard to ever feel like I really fit in socially. Walking down Guadualupe is as much a people-watching paradise as it is a retail one; the locals choice of attire, hair style, and demeanor never cease to amaze and perplex me.

This article is almost a spin-off on our last participation question about Texas exceptionalism. While it's impossible to deny Texas' sense of being "it's own country", I think the same goes for Austin as far as being it's own little state. No where else, from San Antonio to Llano to San Marcos, is the demographic atmosphere quite as particular as it is in Austin. No doubt does this atmosphere play off of a segregational tendancy, and Balli really opened my eyes to see it. Anyone who knows Austin decently well can admit that a divide exists between classes and, subsequently, races.

Austin does indeed exemplify a unique spirit, but just how accurately does its culture represent the entire state of Texas? Based on this article, I'd say not very well. Will Austin ever redefine its reputation for the sake of a desegregated city?