You didn't have to do anything to keep numbers up because bookings and arraignments are on the rise, not necessarily crime. The police let stuff go as long as certain people have theiimpression that there is order. Once that impression is lost it's balls to the wall and everybody gets a speeding ticket leading up to the first or 15th. It's called a quota. On the 3rd you can do 70 in a 55 np. On the 14th go the speed limit and watch the light show unless your feeling generous. This is the exact opposite of traffic law and not only does it teach young impressionable drivers that speeding is ok as long as you don'tget caught, it removes the safety the signs are there to begin with. I'm not saying that all police operate with these outcomes intended, but there is direct cause and effect.
It's not just Texas that's building new prisons, they're everywhere. Hence the 48 states... Those 'hood's you refer to are not the source of crime or criminals. Crime lives everywhere from Nacodochez to Trump towers to Beverly Hills. Crime lives anywhere there are people.

Let me say this soon to be ex-prison Co,
Lots of us jump on here and give our little horseblind perspective on ________ whatever. This guy, at least if we are to take him on his word, an insider. Having experienced being a finger on our governments fist, I know for a fact that even the top ranking people don't have the whole picture. I certainly didn't being a low ranking soldier, you follow orders and work until they say you can go home. In the military, the potus says on t.v. what he expects from your unit orders come down and people have a general idea of what's going on and who can be held accountable if something gets fubar.
Here though, as our brave ex Co says, he can't stand to be a part of the company anymore because the reform aspect, which I thought was the entire point of incarceration for most, is pretty much not a priority or even allowed. I'm sure it's not 'easy' to do time there but from what older people have told me about how things used to be it's another planet. Does ANYBODY????? anybody remember voting, signing off on or seeing a newscast that these bastards are doing this to us? If you say they aren't doing it to you, you're not American. The governments of the States are OURS. The states we claim or live in are OURS and our constitution wrote in state's rights for US so that the Fed can't just smash a legislatively rambunctious state without due process, in layman's terms house and senate bill #_____ referendum on our ballots.
Responding to sassy on your limb, you're the statistical outlier here. We are talking about the CCA not the CSA or for those who don't know, the confederate states of America which no longer exist. The CCA and the CONFEDERATE battle flag you were referring to has squat to do with privatized prisons in 48 of our 51 states. That would be filed under 'hate crimes and the reason people commit them'. Funny I don't see that category in the forum listing. IF black men are 45% of the population at our Co's facility it's because police are called more proportionately,aarrests are made more proportionately, sentencing is different, and lower income families who have any history with the penal system have less income because ofwhat jobs were made available -those who were imprisoned= the family can't make bail or afford a good lawyer. Maybe the family is so broken that no one cares to make bail or get them legal aid. Yes some black people commit crime. With so many of our father figures in prison (slave labor camps for all) the FCC pumping stupidity through 'our' radio stations and the crap some people watch on t.v. No Wonder. They arrested Dr Martin Luther King Jr. for walking. Reverend William Barber has been arrested several times for moral Monday peaceful protest here in NC. The fact that minorities from broken families with low or no income cannot afford bail or a good lawyer doesn't make them any more criminal than someone who is out the next day.
If we as a state or a country (now a corporation) could turn 1 out of every 10 jails or prisons into an income based tuition college (as I believe all colleges should be) with a youth center not much change necessary from the gyms rec rooms, etc, I believe we could drastically change those numbers. Until then it's officer _____'s word against ours and we lose 95% of the time. Your limb is cracking.