Case Study: The Texas Juvenile Justice System

Every year, juvenile courts in the United States handle an estimated 1.7 million cases in which a youth was charged with a delinquency offense (“Youth in the Justice System,” 2012). Throughout most of history, youthful offenders were handled under the same laws and system as adults were. While deviance has always been around, societal intervention and participation in handling juvenile transgressors has gained the most momentum in the last 100–150 years (Whitehead & Lab, 2013). A separate juvenile justice system was established in the United States with a goal of diverting youthful offenders from the adult system while encouraging rehabilitation. Today, one would hear that the system’s goal is to react to juveniles in ways that protect the
TJJD was created on December 1, 2011 replacing the Texas Juvenile Probation Commissions (TJPC) and Texas Youth Commission (TYC). Their mission is to transform young lives and create safer communities. Along with their mission comes their core values of justice, safety, integrity, partnership, and innovation. With this in mind their vision is to create an effective and integrated justice system that will: advance public safety through rehabilitation, provide youth services which match their needs and enhance their opportunity for a satisfying and productive life, employs a workforce empowered to be agents of change, operate safe and therapeutic environments with positive peer culture emphasizing mutual accountability, and lastly is a model system with innovative, data–driven, and successful programming (“TJJD,”
As a result, TJJD has created specialized residential treatment programs designed to specifically treat serious violent offenders, sex offenders, chemically dependent offender, offenders with mental health impairments, and offenders with mental retardation (“Specialized Correctional Treatment,” 2017). For each juvenile offender a comprehensive clinical assessment is performed when they first enter the Texas juvenile system. From the assessment youth are matched with a specialized treatment program to ensure their needs are met. To better evaluate the efficacy of these programs, this paper will address a sample of TJJD’s programs consisting of capital and serious violent offenders, chemically dependent offenders, and offenders with mental health