Just four years ago, the Texas juvenile justice system was awash in allegations of brutality, neglect and sexual abuse by staff members. Thanks to leadership by Gov. Rick Perry and thoughtful, decisive action by the Legislature, a state juvenile justice system that was in chaos a few years ago is making impressive strides.
Governor Perry placed the Texas Youth Commission in a conservatorship not long after allegations of wrongdoing emerged in 2007. The state also convened a task force that came up with an ambitious plan that essentially argued for razing the system and rebuilding it.
The panel’s report called for moving Texas away from the prison model and toward a less costly and more effective system in which troubled children receive guidance and rehabilitation services in or near their communities, where families, churches and other local organizations can be part of the process.
The Legislature made reform a high priority. First, it changed the law so that children convicted of misdemeanors were no longer sent to state lockups. Then lawmakers pumped about $100 million over four years into community-based programs, which typically serve children while they live at home. These programs cost less per child than prison and are better at rehabilitation. It is too early to judge recidivism rates, but a growing body of research shows that children are more likely to become lifetime criminals if they are locked up.
As more young offenders have been redirected to these programs, the youth inmate population has dropped from more than 4,000 in 2006 to about 1,400 today, allowing the state to close several lockups. Bolstered by this success, Texas lawmakers this year passed another sweeping reform bill that commits the state to creating a unified juvenile justice agency that works in partnership with local governments, the courts and communities to provide comprehensive services to troubled young people and their families. If the state reaches that ambitious goal, it could eventually become a juvenile justice model for the nation.