perry hashed out a bipartisan package. he created a new criminal justice oversight committee to evaluate reforms and successes. it expanded drug courts, which are key to push treatment over prison. $241 million to create parole and probation treatment programs. shortened probation terms and a medical parole program. and it's been long enough that the results are coming in. the state's prison population has stabilized, texas closed a state prison for the first time in 2011. and by locking up fewer people, the reforms saved projected more than $2 billion for texas by 2012. and according to a new report by the very institute of justice, texas isn't the only state working on this. since 2000, 29 states have actually enacted laws to increase some kind of judicial discretion for sentencing. and according to one report, the three-year recidivism rate for inmates released in 2007 improved to 24.3% over the old rate of 31%. that's a 22% decline. let's bring back in the panel and talk about the fact that