TJJD Doing Blanket Review of Youths in Facilities
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is in the process of reviewing the histories of all youths in its detention centers to better assess security risks in the facilities.
The review was mandated by interim TJJD executive director Jay Kimbrough, who took on the new role this month. The review is of all youths in the system, starting with those with determinate, or fixed, sentences, and will look at a variety of data, including their reasons for being committed, length of sentence and whether or not they have a history of violence within the facility.
"You don't want 10 people ...
Comments (2)
Del Murphy
Anytime I see Kimbrough appointed to fix something, I know there is something that is in a fix.
Thomas
The steady downward spiral of the juvenile justice system began back in 1984 when the Legislature tipped over the first domino by eliminating detention of juveniles in designated and separate juvenile cells at local county and municipal jails across the state and taking away the discretion of local law enforcement to decide when a kid needed to be locked up. Back then most juvenile offenders who experienced the shock of that first night in jail were unlikely to be repeat offenders. That initial reform back then with the many other kinder and gentler reforms over the years discouraged the detention of any juvenile and gradually evolved to the broken system we have today where only the worst of the worst actually face detention and only then after committing egregious and violent crimes. There are too many thugs on the streets who know there is nothing the police can do with them and that they will never face real punishment or consequences because they are juveniles. Now we have the implosion of the system and the descent of the juvenile lockups into total anarchy to the point where aspiring hard core lifetime criminals are kicking the staff's ass and running the joint. Most kids that might benefit from therapy and counseling never see the inside of a juvenile detention facility. The reason the State has lost control is the same reason that many school systems have lost control, kids who have no fear of consequences will never respect anyone or anything. There can be no discipline or deterrent without real punishment.