Youth Justice

[2019 Session] “Second Look”: Provide an Earlier Parole Review to People Sent to Adult Facilities as Youth

Policy Background

After a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases, states were required to eliminate mandatory life without parole sentences for youth under 18 years of age. Texas now requires people who would have received that sentence to instead serve 40 years before becoming eligible for parole, a de facto life sentence that provides no reasonable opportunity to build a life outside of prison.

[2019 Session] Implement Holistic Reform Throughout the State’s Juvenile Justice System

Policy Background

In 2006, media and governmental scrutiny uncovered rampant sexual and physical abuse in the state’s juvenile corrections facilities, leading to a federal investigation and omnibus legislation in 2007 that removed all kids with misdemeanors from state secure confinement. Over the course of subsequent legislative sessions, the state has begun to redirect funding toward localized rehabilitation programs.

[2019 Session] “Raise the Age”: Hold 17-Year-Olds Accountable in the Juvenile Justice System

Policy Background

In Texas, 17-year-olds who are arrested are automatically sent to the adult justice system. Texas is one of only four states left to treat these teens as adults for criminal justice purposes1 – removing their parents from the court process, and exposing kids to confinement in adult jails.

Promise not to kill anyone? After losing election, TX judge wholesale releases juvenile defendants

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Thu, 11/08/2018 - 05:22
Promise not to kill anyone? After losing election, TX judge wholesale releases juvenile defendants

After losing his bench in a Democratic sweep, Harris County Juvenile Court Judge Glenn Devlin released nearly all of the youthful defendants that appeared in front him on Wednesday morning, simply asking the kids whether they planned to kill anyone before letting them go.

Policy Areas

Talking Points: Best quotes and tweets of the week

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Mon, 11/05/2018 - 03:30
Talking Points: Best quotes and tweets of the week

"What we ultimately got was a juvenile system where the lawyers get rich ... and everybody wins but the kids." — Jay Jenkins, an attorney from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, who said Harris County judges and lawyers are part of a "pay-to-play" system.

Read the rest of this article at The Dallas Morning News. 

Policy Areas

Harris County juvenile judges and private attorneys accused of cronyism: “Everybody wins but the kids”

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Thu, 11/01/2018 - 03:38
Harris County juvenile judges and private attorneys accused of cronyism: “Everybody wins but the kids”

An analysis of state and county data by The Texas Tribune shows that the county’s three juvenile district courts — led by Republican Judges Glenn Devlin, John Phillips, and Michael Schneider — have been assigning an extraordinary number of cases to a handful of private lawyers.

Read the rest of this article at The Texas Tribune.

Policy Areas

New Report Finds LGBTQ People are Often Unseen but Frequently Incarcerated

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Tue, 10/30/2018 - 18:02
New Report Finds LGBTQ People are Often Unseen but Frequently Incarcerated

The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition released the third report in its “One Size FAILS All” report series. The report, Out of Sight: LGBTQ Youth and Adults in Texas Justice Systems, explores how the Lone Star State often fails to adequately address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Texans, and instead frequently moves them into the youth and adult justice systems at higher rates than people in the non-LGBTQ community.

Policy Areas

2 Harris County judges responsible for 1 in 5 children sent to state juvenile prisons

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Mon, 10/22/2018 - 03:42
2 Harris County judges responsible for 1 in 5 children sent to state juvenile prisons

Two Harris County judges accounted for more than one-fifth of all children sent to the state’s juvenile prisons last year, driving up the county’s Texas Juvenile Justice Department commitments even as those figures fall in the rest of the state.

Read the rest of this article at the Houston Chronicle. 

Policy Areas

Revenue from juvenile detention center shows growing trend for Victoria County

Submitted by ZDS_Admin on Mon, 09/10/2018 - 09:49
Revenue from juvenile detention center shows growing trend for Victoria County

Victoria County is projected to almost double the revenue it brings in by housing youths from outside the county in its juvenile detention center, showing a shift in the economics behind the facility.

Read the rest of this article at the Victoria Advocate. 

Policy Areas
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