Overcrowded Jails

On October 15th, Scott Henson, a former journalist, posted a blog on jail over crowding in Howard County viewable at his blog here: Grits for Breakfast.

I've heard a lot about jails being overcrowded and while I never really thought about it much until I read this blog post, it seems that this problem could be easily avoided. Like with most every problem that involves a person in power, they start playing the blame-game. Sheriff Stan Parker blames back ups in the state prisons that leave them holding onto prisoners longer and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as they are supposed to transport inmates to the state facility within 45 days.

Seems to me that the author is saying that the reason the prisons is crowded is because the people aren't getting a speedy trial and thus end up sitting in the slammer before they get to see a judge. Based on the data 44 of 73 inhabitants of the jail of the time were pretrial defendants. It's pretty hard to argue with the numbers right in front of your face that he uses showing the number of people in the jail and what they're in for.

Mr. Henson seems to be a pretty credible based on his credentials and use of reputable sources. His blog's audience and therefore probably the only people who would see this post would people who care enough about this issue or generally politics and there going ons in Texas.

His post is short and sweet providing a pretty solid argument for prison reform and while doesn't say any one particular thing that they should do to fix this problem, he lists some possible solutions they could attempt to solve the problem. He concludes that something should be done about the jails being overcrowded, but someone needs to take the first step and initiate the process, finger pointing won't get us anywhere.

New Water Treatment Plant for Austin?

Due to the terrible drought that Austin and the surrounding area has been experiencing for that past 20 months water issues have grown ever more important in the eyes of the public. This article is about the new water treatment plant they're currently attempting to decide if we need. The author seems to be arguing in favor of the water treatment plant as they say the expectancy of a water treatment plant is ~50 years and the two we have currently the Davis plant built in 1954 and the Ullrich plant built in 1969 are getting up there in age. The author also goes to lengths to say that people who oppose the new treatment plant by saying more aggressive conservation efforts would eliminate the need for a new one but with the rate of growth for Austin water usage will naturally go up. The debate over this treatment plant has been going on for 20 years now and the city council still hasn't even decided where to build it at. The author seems to be aiming the article at the people of Austin hoping to finally get some results because the longer we wait the more expensive it will be to build the thing. I'm not sure who the author of this was so it was hard for me to really evaluate their credibilty, but I think they made a good case for the water treatment plant and if we're going to build it we might as well build it sometime soon before that 508 million dollar price tag gets any bigger.


Link:Counting on greater water needs, Austin American Statesman, 9/17/2009