From Red Tape to Redemption
Winning bipartisan support for skilled work after incarceration
- Related Services:
- Policy Development
- , Lobbying
- , Coalition Building
The Problem
Ninety-five percent of TDCJ inmates are released after serving their time in prison. Of those, 46% are rearrested and 15% are reincarcerated. The legislature has long grappled with the problem of recidivism, and established educational programs under Windham School District (WSD) in the 1960s to offer inmates the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills that they need to earn gainful employment upon release. The Sunset Commission process offered an opportunity to carefully review the outcomes to the fundamental question: how successful has the agency been in achieving its mission, goals, and objectives? In response to this question, WSD highlighted that occupational licensing requirements posed a significant challenge to former inmates, highlighting the fact that the licensing process must usually begin after release, which “delays a [WSD] graduate’s ability to work in the field of training and may cause graduates to settle for lower earning employment in areas outside of the field of training, or be unemployed.”
Our Approach
We identified the problem posed by occupational licensing through the Sunset process, and performed original research to identify solutions to WSD’s challenge. Our initial findings revealed that almost no inmates could earn a license during incarceration, with one exception: state policy allowed students of WSD’s Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) to receive a license prior to release, with the result that 85% of CDL graduates found skilled and profitable employment upon reentry: However, there are poor outcomes overall:
- the average time to employment was 4-5 months after release, and
- wages averaged $20,000 per year.
We delivered our findings to the Sunset committee staff and published best-in-class policy analysis in a fall 2024 whitepaper: Incarceration to Employment. Throughout our research process, we delivered provisional findings to legislative staff to preview the work and ask what questions it prompted. Policy solutions emerged through this deliberate cycle of communication, and supportive legislative staff connected us with potential allies.
Breakthrough Solutions
Because licensing delays were driving recidivism, we drafted a bill to allow WSD students to earn a provisional occupational license before their reentry, with the license effective for 1 year starting on the date of release. We earned support from business leaders, non-profits, conservative think tanks, and progressive legal counsel. Moreover, we sought expert guidance from licensing authority staff and WSD leadership to craft an effective policy solution. Senate Bill 1080 was authored Sen. West and sponsored by Rep. Cook, and we drafted a one-pager which the bill’s authors used to garner strong support. When filed, the House version of the bill had five joint authors while the Senate version had five co-authors, both of which are the maximum allowed by each chamber. Through Sen. West’s and Rep. Cook’s hard work, the bill ultimately passed the Senate unanimously and cleared the House with 147 Representatives signed-on. Our team successfully approached criminal justice reform by applying expert policy analysis techniques in collaboration with many Texans of good will. We connected education and employment opportunities by identifying adverse conditions, policy-level causes, and effective solutions.
August 2025 Update: WSD Superintendent Kristina Hartman presented about SB 1080 at the 2025 American Correctional Association Conference. She wrote to our team: “We played the video that you circulated of SB 1080 in the House when the bill passed and discussed the great collaboration and support within Texas. I am confident that we are headed in a good direction with the implementation plan for SB 1080 … Thank you.”