More Juveniles In TX Prisons: Report
Scores of youthful offenders are being sent straight into the adult criminal justice system — 246 of them last year alone — for crimes they committed as juveniles. Juvenile justice advocates are blaming last year’s 22 percent spike on a reform effort launched two years ago that was designed to protect younger offenders.
After the Texas Youth Commission sex abuse scandal in 2007, state officials decided the agency would no longer handle offenders 19 to 21 — a move intended in part to protect younger children from older youths. “It’s pretty simple,” said Jill Mata, Bexar County’s chief juvenile prosecutor. “If we didn’t have enough time to work with these kids within the juvenile justice system (before they turned 19), then we were faced with no option but to certify them as adults.” Bexar County certified 28 juveniles as adults last year, a 75 percent jump from a year earlier. Tarrant County certified 11 juveniles as adults last year, nearly triple the number from a year earlier. Harris County saw a more modest rise in adult certifications since the TYC reforms passed in 2007, from 74 cases in 2007 to 76 last year …
Texas allows juveniles as young as 14 to stand trial as adults for capital and first-degree felonies. Fifteen-year-olds can stand trial as adults for any kind of felony. TYC ombudsman Will Harrell, who in a recent report highlighted the increase in adult certifications last year, would like to see the age limit restored to 21. But with key lawmakers vowing to further reduce TYC’s already dwindling population — calling the troubled agency a lost cause — it’s not clear if there will be an appetite for raising TYC’s maximum age past 18. “We’re not going to change anything at this stage,” said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. “We need a greater sampling before we determine that there’s a cause and effect. I’m not convinced.”
More information in the San Antonio Express-News.