Close Cuts - TDJC & Project Rio

Close Cuts: The Budget in Real Life

The proposed budgets in the Texas House and Senate both propose cuts with numbers in the millions and billions. The budget influences every area of the State, from social services, to regulation, to public schools. Sometimes, the bridge from budget lines to real, relevant issues is difficult to navigate. As real numbers connected to cuts are revealed, Texas Impact will provide you insight into how the cuts connect to our legislative issues – so that you can see who will be affected.

TDCJ: Project RIO

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has started tackling implementation of the 2.5 percent reductions the Legislative Budget Board ordered to state agencies last December. The reductions are supposed to help make up for a projected multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall for the current budget year that ends on August 31, 2011. According to TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston, TDCJ will cut spending by 1.3 percent, or $40 million. 400 non-prison jobs within the agency will be “reduced,” at a savings of $3.1 million. Additional personnel cuts will come from Project RIO (Reintegration of Offenders) with 155 positions at a savings of $1.5 million. Project RIO is a key reentry service, providing job training and services to thousands of offenders who are on their way to release.

Each year in the U.S., around 650,000 prisoners are released back into society. Texas’ ex-offender population accounts for more than 10 percent of these individuals, with over 72,000 prisoners being released from Texas facilities per year, on average. A plethora of barriers to carrying out a normal life exist for these ex-offenders. Not only do they lack stable housing and transportation, they often have poor health as well. Perhaps the greatest barrier to successful and sustainable reintegration is the lack of employment that faces such individuals. It is estimated that 75 percent of released prisoners will be people who have never before held a legal job. With convictions marring their records, this population looks unattractive to the average employer, and may face continual roadblocks to achieving a normal life outside the prison walls. Without educational attainment, job skills, work history, and positive environment, these individuals cannot compete in the labor market.

Project RIO and Project RIO-Youth are collaborative partnerships between the two Texas corrections agencies, TDCJ and the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The two programs seek to train and prepare eligible inmates for gainful employment upon their release, with the mission statement: “to reintegrate offenders and adjudicated youth efficiently and effectively into the labor force, thereby promoting public safety, reducing recidivism, and meeting the needs of Texas employers.”

Project RIO began as a pilot program in North Texas in 1985, and was implemented statewide in 1993. By linking three major state agencies, the program is able to integrate the delivery of services, such as child care services and transportation, to help offenders navigating the real world upon exit from a correctional facility.

According the Texas Workforce Commission, in 2009, of the 31,625 adult job seekers exiting Project RIO, 23,366 (74 percent) entered employment. Of the 20,500 Project RIO job seekers who were still employed during the quarter after exit from post-release service provision, 13,344 (65 percent) maintained employment during the second and third quarters following exit. A 2000 report by the Texas Criminal Justice Policy Council found that Adult releasees who were employed had a 17 percent lower recidivism rate than those not employed. Project RIO has been recognized nationally as a model reentry tool.

Within TDCJ, funding for 42 additional Project RIO workforce specialists was appropriated in the 81st Texas Legislative Session, and additional funding for 64 reentry specialists was included in TDCJ budget for the 2010-2011 biennium, with the goal of increasing the agency’s reentry efforts.

Sources:

The 2010-2011 Project RIO Strategic Plan

Article from the Austin American-Statesman on TDCJ's plans to cut budget

Article from the Dallas Morning News addressing the TDCJ cuts