30 Years of Broken Promises: Texas Chooses Punishment Over Treatment
For more than thirty years, Texas lawmakers have known that addiction and the criminal legal system are deeply connected. And for more than thirty years, they've responded the same way: refuse to fund treatment, block harm-reduction tools, and expand criminal penalties.
The result: a system where incarceration is the default response, not because it is effective, but because it's what our legislators prefer.
A broken promise: State jails that were never built to treat anyone
The story starts in 1993, when Texas reclassified low-level drug possession as a state jail felony. Lawmakers promised new treatment-oriented facilities that would break the cycle of addiction and incarceration.
But they never funded those facilities. They broke their promise. The facilities meant to rehabilitate people instead became revolving doors.
By 2013, people sent to state jail were rearrested at a rate of 62.7%.
2023: The session Texas said no to almost everything
If 1993 was a broken promise, 2023 was a slammed door. Lawmakers had a real opportunity to change course — multiple bills on the table that would have reduced harm and expanded access to care. Almost none of them passed.
What got blocked reads like a checklist of basic, nationwide-standard public health tools:
Allowing nurse practitioners to prescribe Schedule II medications in treatment programs for serious addiction
Decriminalizing drug-checking tools and paraphernalia
Legalizing fentanyl test strips
Authorizing syringe service programs — introduced and failed, every session since 1993
None of these are radical ideas. They're tools used across the country to prevent overdoses and connect people to care. Texas rejected all of them.
The drug-induced homicide approach isn't just unproven — research from other states suggests it can actually increase overdose deaths, because it discourages people from calling 911.
Punishment is the point
None of this happened by accident. Every year the Legislature declines to fund treatment, blocks a harm-reduction bill, or passes a new penalty, it makes the same choice: incarceration over treatment and safety. By defunding treatment infrastructure, rejecting harm-reduction tools, and starving hospitals and local health departments of resources, Texas has made sure that non-carceral pathways stay out of reach — not because they don't work, but because legislators have only wanted to fund jails.
Sources: Texas Comptroller, Prison Legal News, the Baker Institute, Texas Legislature Online, and the American Statistical Association.
