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