STAR-TELGRAM: When it comes to the criminal justice system, Texans get what they pay for. Funding is largely based on volume -- as Texas' prison population has quadrupled during the last two decades, the cost to taxpayers has risen proportionally. Although warehousing works to the extent that inmates cannot commit another crime while in prison, 99 percent of inmates ultimately will be released -- usually while still in their prime criminal years. Many of the same offenders are recycled through the system; 60 percent of Texas prison intakes are revoked probationers and parolees. The three-year re-incarceration rate of released Texas inmates has hovered around 30 percent during the past decade.