A Case for More Youth Justice Programming
According to the Code of Corrections, the goal of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate youth offenders, and if possible, restore them to a state of useful citizenship. However, in the past decade, Texas and County juvenile systems have seen an increasing trend in incarceration of these juvenile offenders, and more importantly overcrowding of detention facilities and programs meant to help these youth change their behavior rather than punish them.
This paper, created by Big Thought Institute, analyzes publicly available data from Dallas County Juvenile Department for 2020 and from Tarrant County Juvenile Services for 2019, as well as other published literature, to examine the hypothesis that there are untapped opportunities for more youth to avoid prolonged detention and benefit from the community-based programming provided in connection with diversion and probation dispositions.
