Page 7 - Juvenile Practice is not Child's Play

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an abusive and neglectful childhood. The overrepresentation of children with mental health disorders in the youth
justice system is partly due to the lack of mental health care available to less privileged children of all races and
ethnicities. Mike Griffiths, director of juvenile services for Dallas County, has pointed out what many have realized: “In
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Texas the only way adolescents get mental health care is if they’re arrested.” Nevertheless, the quality of mental health
care in juvenile detention facilities has been strongly criticized for failing to adequately treat youth or provide enough
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aftercare.

This handbook is an attempt to summarize the most important aspects of juvenile law for a new practitioner, and to
offer some additional ideas and strategies to any youth defense attorney. Our goal is to help improve representation of

youth across the state. This is not a complete reference, and it should not be treated as one. We have tried to include
references to useful books, cases, and statutes. This handbook is being written with reference to the laws as of January
2020. Juvenile law changes fairly often, so please reference the statutes frequently.

Texas is an extremely large state with 254 counties. Each of these counties varies in its practice. We have tried to get
the input of lawyers, judges, probation officers, and other stakeholders in the juvenile system from across the state. You
should investigate local practices and philosophies of the local judges, prosecutors, probation officers, and the
community. If you have time, observe proceedings in the courts handling youth cases. This kind of research can help

you in your proceedings and in securing the best disposition if the child is adjudicated.

We hope this handbook will help attorneys effectively defend their clients in Texas’s youth justice system. Zealous

advocacy can go a long way toward improving the opportunities for children in our criminal justice system.

Ellen Marrus

Director, Center for Children, Law, & Policy and Royce R. Till Professor of Law.

for Mentally Ill Juvenile Offenders (2010), https://www2.tjjd.texas.gov/publications/reports/RPTOTH201102.pdf
10 Springer et al, The Long-term Health Outcomes of Childhood Abuse: An Overview and a Call to Action, J Gen Intern Med. 2003 Oct;
18(10): 864–870.
11 Wendy Grossman, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, DALLAS OBSERVER, November 8, 2001, http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2001-11-
08/feature.html/1/index.html>.
12 Wendy Sawyer, Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019, Prison Policy Initiative (Dec. 2019),
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2019.html