Texas has shown in recent years that punishment deters crime and that when crime does not pay criminals commit fewer crimes.

What can be done to continue reducing crime in Texas? At a minimum, this report suggests the following improvements:

First, the public sector must continue to raise the level of expected punishment to suppress criminal activity. Crime must be made not to pay on a continuing basis.

Second, the national laws hampering private employment of prisoners must be relaxed. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice already has the authority to pursue private employment agreements; now it needs to cooperate with those seeking such agreements and reduce its resistance to new ways of doing business. Prisoners should work to pay a greater portion of what it now costs taxpayers to keep them in prison.

"One of the threats to public safety in the years just ahead is the growth of the juvenile population and an increase in juvenile crime."

Reducing crime in Texas — or even holding it at its current level — requires continuing vigilance. One of the threats to public safety in the years just ahead is the growth of the juvenile population and an increase in juvenile crime. There are indications that juvenile crime — particularly violent crime — has continued to rise even as crime overall has decreased. The Texas Legislature has taken a positive step in adopting a new juvenile code that holds juveniles accountable for their behavior.

By both word and deed, it is up to criminal justice officials and the general public to persuade juveniles and other would-be offenders that crime does not pay.