Texas lawmakers are pushing more than 100 bills to clamp down on crime, threatening to overcrowd the state’s jails and prisons whose populations have continued to grow after dipping significantly during the pandemic.
Lawmakers have proposed at least 121 bills that seek to increase criminal penalties by either creating mandatory minimum sentences or by elevating punishment, according to the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. That nonprofit organization has also tracked 90 bills that would create new felonies and 96 bills that would create new misdemeanors.
Those figures only include bills filed through Monday and are expected to increase once they account for the hundreds of bills lawmakers have filed this week in advance of Friday’s bill filing deadline. Still, the estimates show the state’s growing push towards more punishment.
