By Robert T. Garrett
The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — Texas’ prison system, to meet state leaders’ demand for immediate budget cuts, will eliminate 555 jobs, most of them administrative and support posts.
Officials stressed Wednesday that no corrections officers or parole officers will be laid off.
Mike Gross of the Texas State Employees Union warned that some of the cuts, workers who help inmates nearing their release dates find jobs and parole support staff, would “have a big impact on public safety.”
If more released felons can’t find work, they’ll commit new crimes, Gross said. He said that parole officers “will be having to do more and more [despite] already growing case loads.”
Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said the “reduction in force” involves at least some vacant positions, though how many won’t be clear until next week.
“None of the unit-based staff or parole officers are affected at this point,” Lyons said.
In a memo posted online Friday, executive director Brad Livingston said 400 administrative and support jobs would be eliminated, as well as 155 positions at Project RIO, which stands for Re-Integration of Offenders. Layoffs will begin April 15.
In December, Republican state leaders asked agencies to cut spending by 2.5 percent in the budget year that ends Aug. 31. Livingston said he cut his by 1.3 percent, or $40 million. Of that, the payroll reductions will save just $4.6 million.
Other economies included delays of equipment purchases and the start-up of about 1,300 diversion beds, which Livingston said aren’t yet needed; cancellation of a plan to buy a video surveillance system for a maximum-security unit in Beeville; and new food service reductions.
At all units, inmates will be given powdered milk, not cartons. Lyons said powdered milk has been used at state jails and transfer facilities since 2003.
Dessert servings will be reduced to one per inmate per week, from two. Cooks will substitute sliced bread for hamburger and hot dog buns. Offenders at state jails and transfer facilities will get only brunch and dinner, not three meals, Saturdays and Sundays.