AUSTIN—For the third year in a row, crime in Texas is falling, and state leaders are pointing to the decline as evidence that a nearly two-decade investment in tough enforcement and smarter reentry is paying off. Even so, a growing group of lawmakers, researchers and reentry advocates say the numbers open a window to build on that success, and they are turning attention to a less visible part of the story: what happens to people while they are behind bars, and whether treating their addictions there could help keep the crime rate falling for years to come
New Uniform Crime Reporting data from the Texas Department of Public Safety showed the statewide crime rate dropped 13 percent in 2025, the largest single-year decline in five years and the third consecutive annual drop. Governor Greg Abbott has attributed the trend to tough laws and strong law enforcement, pointing to a sweeping bail reform package and a focus on violent, repeat offenders.
Independent experts have urged caution about assigning credit to any single policy. Alex del Carmen, a criminologist and dean at Westfield State University who has worked with Texas police departments, told The Texas Tribune in July that no single actor could claim credit, and that declines happening at once in cities with very different policies pointed to broad structural and post-pandemic forces. Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction, told the same outlet that the drop had occurred in places with and without aggressive immigration enforcement.
Even so, Texas has spent nearly two decades building a distinctive model that supporters say leaves the state well positioned to hold on to the gains. That model rests on a simple split: be tough on the people the public genuinely fears, and be smart about the people who can be redeemed. Beginning in 2007, under an effort that became known nationally as Right on Crime and grew out of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the state expanded treatment and reentry programs rather than building more prisons. Texas went on to close prison units, lower its incarceration rate, and reduce crime while saving taxpayers billions, a record conservatives around the country have sought to copy.
The most recent addition came in 2025, when the legislature passed Senate Bill 2405, a bipartisan measure carried by Senator Tan Parker and Representative Terry Canales. The law overhauled how higher education is delivered inside Texas prisons, handing day-to-day administration to the Windham School District and building in new oversight. According to a report from the nonpartisan group Texas 2036, the changes have already produced results, with nine institutions approved to offer programs across eleven prison units, including seven units that previously had no higher education provider at all.
The research behind the push is well established. A 2023 meta-analysis cited in that report found that prison college programs reduced the likelihood of returning to prison by more than 40 percent. Separate analysis by the RAND Corporation estimated that every dollar invested in prison education saves four to five dollars in future incarceration costs, and Texas 2036 has noted that employers are significantly more likely to hire a formerly incarcerated person who earned a college credential than one who left with only a high school equivalency.
Now some of the same voices are asking whether Texas should extend that logic to one of the most persistent drivers of crime: addiction. The opioid epidemic has reached every corner of the country and a large share of the people in Texas jails and prisons, where substance use often sits at the root of the offenses that put them there.
Supporters of a broader approach argue that treating opioid addiction during incarceration, using long-acting injectable medications that can steady a patient for weeks at a time, and pairing it with the education and job training already offered, would send people home better prepared in two ways at once: employable, and medically supported against the cravings that frequently pull them back. “Recovery doesn’t happen in isolation. When someone leaves prison with effective treatment, a job and a real plan for stability, they have a much stronger foundation to rebuild their life and avoid returning to the system” said Isidro Torres, Interim Executive Director, NAMI Texas.
Proponents point to a practical fit with correctional settings. A single injection can last roughly a month, they note, and unlike a daily pill it does not lapse the moment a person is released, the very point at which recovery most often breaks down. Carrying steady treatment across the transition back into the community, they argue, is what turns a short term intervention into a lasting one.
Corrections sits at the center of that opportunity. Texas prisons release more than 45,000 people back into their communities each year, and nearly half are rearrested within three years, a churn that supporters of expanded programming call the clearest remaining target for progress. Far from a cost to be trimmed, they argue, the corrections system, alongside public safety and workforce programs, is precisely where a stronger state investment could do the most to sustain and build on the decline in crime.
Advocates and some lawmakers say the coming legislative session, along with scheduled reviews of the state’s criminal justice and health agencies, will offer the next opening to make that case. The pitch, in the end, is the one Texas has been refining for almost twenty years: invest in what breaks the cycle, they say, especially for addicted, nonviolent offenders who are looking for a path to becoming contributing members of society, and the state protects the public while spending far less on the revolving door of reincarceration. By accomplishing this, Texas will not only continue to lead but will see even greater success. For now, the crime numbers are moving in the right direction, and the question drawing attention at the Capitol is how much further a focused investment in public safety, workforce and corrections could take them. The way we handle crime in Texas will only improve by taking these steps.
