Mike Ward recently published an article discussing the details of HB 1915 and SB 653. In his March 8 article, he notes that “as much as $150 million might be saved the next two years by merging the Texas Youth Commission, which runs Texas' prison system for teenagers, and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, which supervises county-run probation programs for youthful offenders.” Remote TYC institutions would be replaced and more effort would be placed in enhancing the mental health and rehabilitation programs for youth. Along with bettering mental health and rehab programs, a greater effort would be placed in providing probation services over incarceration. As Ward notes in his article, both Whitmire and Madden made sure to say that “no youthful offenders would be ‘let go’ as a result of the merger” to ensure that the justice system would be just as strict for the most violent offenders.
Whitmire, one of the bill authors, said that the current juvenile justice “‘model is from the 1950s…we are an urban state. We need to change with the times.’” With the proposed plan, TYC closures will become work force agencies, treatment centers for adult offenders, or will be used for economic development purposes.
The proposed bill suggests that TYC and TJPC merge in September 2012 and complete the merge within a year. A 13-member governing board would be established to manage the new agency, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, and a “special transition team of political appointees and probation and advocacy officials would assist in the merge.” If this merge happens, though, and various TYC institutions close, where will the offenders go?
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