By:  Smith, Ashley                                      H.R. No. 59
       73R1968 RCA-D
                                  R E S O L U T I O N
    1-1        WHEREAS, Harris County, with a population of more than
    1-2  2,800,000, is estimated to have approximately 16.6 percent of the
    1-3  total population of Texas, which the 1990 census put at nearly 17
    1-4  million; and
    1-5        WHEREAS, Out of the over 33,728 prisoners admitted to the
    1-6  Texas prison system in fiscal year 1992, 6,932 inmates came from
    1-7  Harris County; this number constitutes 20.6 percent of the total
    1-8  number of persons admitted to Texas prisons that year; and
    1-9        WHEREAS, In that same fiscal year, 1992, 7,643 inmates were
   1-10  paroled to Harris County; this number represents 26.7 percent of
   1-11  the 28,543 prisoners released in Texas that year; and
   1-12        WHEREAS, As of August 31, 1992, Harris County had a total of
   1-13  19,713 parole or mandatory release cases in supervision or
   1-14  community service programs; this number amounts to 24.6 percent of
   1-15  the 80,177 cases under supervision or in community service in
   1-16  Texas at this time; and
   1-17        WHEREAS, The pardons and paroles division of the Texas
   1-18  Department of Criminal Justice has located 38.6 percent of the
   1-19  division's halfway house capacity in Harris County, resulting in
   1-20  the county receiving a disproportionate share of the parole
   1-21  system's most difficult and problematic supervision cases; and
   1-22        WHEREAS, As of August 31, 1992, Harris County had a total of
   1-23  6,798 parole violators, which amounted to 29.2 percent of the
   1-24  23,257 violators statewide; and
    2-1        WHEREAS, The office of the district attorney of Harris County
    2-2  estimates that more than 60 percent of halfway house or pre-paroled
    2-3  transfer inmates paroled to Harris County committed their crimes
    2-4  elsewhere; and
    2-5        WHEREAS, Out of 1,102 parole officers in Texas in 1992, 288
    2-6  officers, or 26 percent, were located in Harris County, resulting
    2-7  in an average parolee-to-officer ratio of 74.6 to one for parole
    2-8  supervision programs and a ratio of 75.1 to one for intensive
    2-9  supervision programs in this county; and
   2-10        WHEREAS, It is abundantly clear that the citizens of Harris
   2-11  County have been made to suffer excessive danger to their lives and
   2-12  property as a result of an unfair allocation of the state's
   2-13  criminal justice responsibility; now, therefore, be it
   2-14        RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 73rd Texas
   2-15  Legislature hereby direct the pardons and paroles division of the
   2-16  Texas Department of Criminal Justice to provide for a proportionate
   2-17  allocation of parolees and parole officers to Harris County; and,
   2-18  be it further
   2-19        RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
   2-20  prepared for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.