We recently posted that Harris County is searching for juvenile detention beds as a result of a restructuring of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). The County has authorized funding for leasing prison capacity from private lockups, and is considering buying a new prison over an hour away. This story once again emphasizes that local policies implemented by the District Attorney's office and law enforcement agencies are driving up incarceration numbers. As a result, county officials must rethink these policies and identify innovative solutions that don’t rely on adding new beds to the system.
I recently toured Harris County's Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Houston. The facility was at full capacity and was basically a prison for kids. County juvenile detention facilities are residential facilities that hold youths awaiting court decisions. The lockup held kids as young as 10 years old. That Harris County is considering obtaining additional capacity in a county more than an hour a way is seriously troubling.
As I walked the halls of the juvenile lockup, staff requested that I and the others on the tour volunteer to mentor kids in the lockup and show them the attention and care that many young people need and crave. As county officials consider placing these children in lockups away from their home communities they must also consider the impact on their behavior, their ability to undergo treatment, and their families.
In fact, during my tour, one of the young girls had been sentenced to a TYC facility a few hours away because of her behavior. According to guards this fourteen-year-old who had been previously placed in other residential facilities was acting out because her mother had not been able to visit her regularly during her detention stay. The guards emphasized that her original offense was not serious or violent, although they did not go into detail. She was sentenced to a TYC prison facility for a 9-month stay.
Residential facilities designed to incarcerate young prisoners in the juvenile system are either pre-dispositional or post-dispositional. Following adjudication, courts can set penalties such as probation, confinement, or community service for those found delinquent. Additionally, post-dispositional facilities accept youths placed with them by court order. These institutions vary in the degree of security, the length of stay, and the focus of programs they provide.
State law requires each county to have a juvenile board which consists of district and county judges and is responsible for overseeing the operations of the juvenile justice system in that county. The Harris County Juvenile Board sets policy for the county’s juvenile justice system and designates juvenile judges, appoints the chief juvenile probation officer, and manages the department’s budget.
According to Harris County officials, juvenile prisoners are serving shorter sentences. In 2004, the average stay was 58 days; this year length of stay decreased to 38 days.
Yet since the board continues to search for new beds, a lot of work could still be done to contain capacity and eliminate the need of Harris County to obtain new beds.
The board could work with law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office to rethink the way it deals with chronic misdemeanants who are being held for truancy and other nonviolent crimes. Rather than relying on incarceration, identifying ways to strengthen low-income communities in order to effectively structure the time of at-risk youth would reduce recidivism and improve public safety.