Arsonists Need Not Apply
April 30th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Sadly, Rep. Phil King’s bill to keep prisoners locked up in tents doesn’t seem to be moving this session. But if another lawmaker gets his way, criminals in Texas might yet get that camping experience while serving their time
Years of bare-bones funding have left the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department chronically understaffed, often relying on inmate labor from state prisons for basic park maintenance. To fix this staffing crisis, Rep. Harvey Hilderbran’s sweeping parks reform bill gives TPWD just what they need… more inmate labor!
The expansion of inmate labor, to include people locked up in local and county jails, was added to the Kerrville Republican’s bill, before it was voted out of committee last week.
The bulk of the bill involves giving TPWD more money from the sporting goods tax, and handing 18 historic sites over to the Texas Historical Commission (a dubious decision on its own, covered in the April 20 Observer). Park advocates have lately been focusing their outrage on the historic sites transfer — which would suck six percent of the sporting goods tax away from TPWD — and the way the Legislature has cooled to a dramatic increase in parks funding.
By adding local and county inmates to the mix, legislators would make sure any park can take advantage of this cheap labor pool, even if they’re not lucky enough to be near Hunstville or Mountain View.
Joe Arabie of Texas AFL-CIO says that while expanding inmate labor continues to be a popular move among legislators, it’s not a long-term fix for the parks department, and could spell trouble for TPWD’s current staff. “It all depends on how much TPWD gets” in the final budget, Arabie says. “If they don’t get adequate funding, more folks’ll lose their jobs, and that’s more inmate labor they’ll be using.”
A state auditor’s report released in March highlighted poor maintenance and unmanned fee collection booths as particular problems at TPWD. Struggling to stretch its budget, parks and wildlife was forced to cut 73 jobs last November.
Arabie says that judging from the work state prisoners already do in parks, a cash-strapped park superintendent could save plenty of money by handing jobs over to inmates. “Right now they do everything from maintaining roads to picking up trash. Those are jobs that can pay pretty decent wages.”
Last session, a bill by Rep. Leo Berman opened the door for nonprofits and cemetaries to use inmate labor. Later today, the House Government Reform Committee will hear Rep. Debbie Riddle’s bill authorizing fences along the border, built with prison labor. (By the end of 2002, Texas held the second highest state prison population in the nation and the third highest incarceration rate, according to the Urban Institute.)
“Inmate labor is just too readily available these days, and it seems to be growing,” Arabie says. “It’s just too easy a thing [for legislators] to do, instead of doing the right thing and giving [the agencies] the money they need to operate.”
May 4th, 2007 at 12:36 am
[…] some troubling provisions remain in in the bill. For starters, HB 12 taps more inmates to do the grunt work on Texas state natural areas, picking up trash or digging […]
May 27th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
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