BAD FEDERAL LEGISLATION TELLS STATES HOW TO RUN THEIR JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS

Federal legislation boosts Raise-the-Age prospects in Texas

By Scott Henson

Grits for Breakfast
December 14, 2018

Texas is one of only four states which still charges 17 year olds as adults. But new federal legislation awaiting President Trump's signature will soon prevent the Lone Star State from housing 17-year olds in adult county jails, providing a big incentive to change their status to match 92% of other states and the federal government. The president is expected to sign the measure.

Dubbed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, the the bill would force Texas to stop housing 17-year olds in adult jails within three years, with narrow exceptions for rural jails, reported the Marshall Project:

… earlier versions of the law contained a loophole: Juveniles charged as adults could be held in adult jails pretrial. As a result, according to a recent UCLA study, more than 32,000 youth spend time in adult facilities each year.

The new bill would require that problem be fixed within three years, although it would still contain a “rural exception” letting jurisdictions with no juvenile detention facility hold kids in their adult jail for a period of a few hours while they await transportation elsewhere.

Any county with its own juvenile detention facility, in other words, within three years will be barred from housing 17-year olds in the county jail at all. Counties without a juvie-detention facility could only keep them there for a few hours, and still must keep youth separated by sight and sound from adults, as mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Both Texas political parties have endorsed raising the age of adult criminal responsibility in their state party platforms. And the Texas House has approved such legislation each of the last two sessions. But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, and the state prosecutors association have so far have opposed the measure.

Now that Texas counties are facing a looming crisis - a federal law mandating they stop traditional incarceration practices for 17-year olds - maybe this legislation will make it over the hump in 2019.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I have always stated that an arbitrary age between juveniles and adults is meaningless. There are adults with the mentality of a 15-year-old and juveniles with the mentality of a 25-year-old. 17, 18, 19 ... it's all horseshit. I've personally investigated a number of crimes committed by juveniles who were sharper than a tack and as smart as much older adults.