Prison funding Budget additions not needed now, White says Post Austin Bureau AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Mark White said Thursday he does not think the Legis- lature needs to add money to its contemplated general appropriations bill this session to make prison improvements ordered by a federal judge. White noted the state will contest the ruling in an appeal to the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. White said his office is preparing to appeal U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice's order for changes in the Texas prison system, and he ex- pects a ruling by the appellate court in 30 to 45 days on whether to grant the state's request for a stay of those parts of Justice's order which the state will challenge. THERE ARE ONLY 39 DAYS left in the cur- rent Legislative session, which ends June 1, and White said the Legislature could take action in a later session if action is needed after the Fifth Court's ruling. His response came when asked whether the Legislature should add to its appropriations bill funds to increase the guard-inmate staff ratio from the present 1-11. Judge Justice ordered the state to increase the number of guards to provide a ratio of 1-8 by May, 1982 — the middle of the first fiscal year of the coming biennium for which this Legislature will appropriate — and to 1-6 by Nov. 1, 1982, early in the second year of the bien- nium. Legislative budgets now propose only to in- crease the ratio to 1-10 for the next two years. WHITE SAID HE FEELS that increasing appropriations to implement changes the state agreed in the prison suit to make — primarily dealing with improving prison medical facilities, for which the proposed legislative budgets would provide — "is about as much as you could ask the Legislature to do at this time." He said if the challenged orders ultimately are up- held by the higher courts, he is convinced the Legis- lature would have time to address the needs at that time. The attorney general said he did not think the orders would stand in the way of the state's going ahead with construction of the proposed Grimes County prison as planned. And he said he does not see that Judge Justice's order would affect the state's going ahead with construction of three 960-inmate emergency prison units to relieve overcrowding, for which $35 million has been appropriated, even though the judge ordered that all new prisons be built in administrative units for no more than 500 inmates. White Asked if waste would not occur if the new units are designed for 960 inmates and the 500-inmate- unit requirement is later upheld, White said the $35 million spent would be negligible in compari- son with to some $3 billion to $4 billion Judge Jus- tice's various orders could cost the state if the orders are upheld. WHITE SAID HIS OFFICE will appeal the sweeping order for improvements in bilingual education in the public schools, and ask for a stay of the orders pending the appeal, as soon as the legal preliminaries can be completed. He also said he is leaning toward appealing a decision by an Austin state district judge that Corpus Christi Evangelist Lester Koloff's church- operated schools for children do not need state child-care licenses. White spoke at a news conference with Joe Kel- ley Butler of Houston, chairman of the State Board of Education, to announce that the Texas Education Agency will soon distribute to school districts 10,000 copies of a "Voluntary Student Code of Conduct" developed by White's office in an effort to improve discipline in the schools. The code carries out one of White's 1978 campaign promises. THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION is recommending that each school district board adopt the code or one of its own. The proposed code spells out prohibited con- duct by students in elementary, junior high and high schools, along with disciplinary action per- missible when rules are violated. The ultimate punishments are paddling and suspension.