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The Source: Texas Leads Country In Growth Of Prison Spending

Sean Hobson | The Texas Tribune
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The Texas Tribune

If a state's budget is an indication of a society's priorities - then it can be argued that Texas is five times more interested in putting people in prison than in giving them an education.

A new federal study shows that Texas has ramped up its spending on prisons at five times the speed of education spending, and while we spend more total on education we spend twice as much on an inmate than on a student in the state. 

Is this a shocking surprise? Does this need to changes and how do we do that?
 
 

Guests:

  • Sen. John Whitmire, chair of Texas' Senate Criminal Justice Committee
  • Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation
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David Martin Davies can be reached at dmdavies@tpr.org and on Twitter at @DavidMartinDavi