Page 6 - Juvenile Practice is not Child's Play

INTRODUCTION

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Youth crime has steadily decreased in recent years, including in Texas. Even so, and even as detention numbers fall
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for substance-related offenses, detention has actually increased for all other offenses.

The most restrictive placement for a youth offender in the juvenile system is the Texas Juvenile Justice Department,
which is designed to incarcerate the most serious and/or chronic youth offenders. Due to the tenacious work of youth
advocates, Texas is among a handful of states who have ended commitment to secure juvenile facilities for low-level or
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nonviolent offenses. Early incarceration can be harmful to child development and can sometimes lead to adult
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incarceration. Research has repeatedly proven that intensive habilitation/rehabilitation and treatment in a youth’s
home or community not only yields lower rates of recidivism, but also is less costly than incarceration of youth in large
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correctional institutions. Thus, it will be ideal if the players in the system as well as advocates for reform continue to
identify and develop even more alternatives to TJJD for eligible youths.

The plight of children in the youth justice system is further exacerbated by the fact that many indigent youth offenders
in Texas have been poorly represented in court by their attorneys. Excessive caseloads and limited budgets have

prevented many appointed attorneys from conducting basic functions such as pretrial investigations, witness
interviews, and requests of mental health and/or educational reviews in order to adequately prepare for trial or
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otherwise dispose of cases. Some attorneys succumb to pressure to quickly plead clients guilty, or readily agree to
guilty pleas for their clients thinking that “it’s just juvy court.” Minority youth are disproportionately affected by these
problems since youth of color are over-represented among indigent youth in Texas’s criminal justice system.

Moreover, the judicial system often does not effectively assess mental health problems and identify treatment needs for
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youth offenders. This situation is particularly troubling considering that over a third of the children adjudicated to the
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Texas Juvenile Justice Department have been diagnosed with serious emotional disturbance, which often stems from

1 National Center for Juvenile Justice, Juvenile Court Statistics (2016), https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/njcda/pdf/jcs2016.pdf
2 Juvenile Justice, Geography, Policy, Practice & Statistics, Texas Juvenile Justice (2017), http://www.jjgps.org/texas
3 Supra note 1: “Between 2005 and 2016, the use of detention decreased for drug law violation cases (from 23% to 18%), while the
use of detention increased for all other offenses. The use of detention increased from 31% to 33% for person offense cases, from 19%
to 23% for property offense cases, and from 26% to 29% for public order offense cases”
4 Prison Policy Initiative, Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2019.html
5 Aizer, A., and J. J. Doyle, “Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital, and Future Crime: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges” The
Quarterly Journal of Economics 130, no. 2, 759–803 (Feb. 2015).
6 See, e.g., RICHARD A. MENDEL, AMERICAN YOUTH POLICY FORUM, Less Cost, More Safety: Guiding Lights for
Reform in Juvenile Justice 8-9, 21-27 (2001) <http://www.aypf.org/lesscost/index.html>.
7 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Indigent Defense for Juveniles (June 2018),
https://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/litreviews/Indigent-Defense-for-Juveniles.pdf
8 J Appl Juv Justice Serv. 2018; 2018: 97–125
9 Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, Overview of the Special Needs Diversionary Program