Listen to thisWhen I speak to business leaders in other states, one of the Texas accomplishments I like to brag about is the “smart on crime” approach that our state leaders have implemented in recent years. We’re saving money while keeping the public safer.
Our success has extended to juvenile justice, but this legislative session there’s more work to do. Texas businesses want to make sure that teens are held accountable when they make mistakes, that they get the education they need to help us keep building the economy, and that they don’t head toward a life of crime. And we want to reach those goals in a way that uses taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible.
The Legislature can help Texas businesses reach these goals through a three-pronged approach:
Keeping teen offenders closer to home.
Including 17-year-olds in the juvenile justice system.
And reforming truancy laws to keep kids in school instead of court.
A recent report by the Council of State Governments found that Texas youth have better outcomes when they are held accountable in their community rather than held in facilities far from home. While the approach doesn’t work for all youth, the data shows that keeping them with or near their family and involved in local programs is the best bet for turning their lives around.
The study found that teen offenders kept close to home were 21 percent less likely to commit additional crimes, compared to teens locked up in state facilities. This session, legislators should consider taking this local approach and pass legislation that would allow more of our youth offenders to be with family or in their home communities yet still safely and effectively monitored.
Studies also find that teens held in the juvenile justice system, rather than the adult system, have fewer repeat offenses. Texas is one of only nine remaining states to direct all 17-year-old offenders to the adult system, even though the majority have committed non-violent misdemeanors.
There are good reasons to change that. In the adult system, youth are less likely to get the education and rehabilitative services they need to get back on track. When 17-year-olds are locked-up with adult offenders, they also face greater risks of assault, so that sheriffs have to spend more of our tax dollars to keep them separate from older inmates.
Business leaders join sheriffs, judges and other officials who are backing legislation to make the juvenile system the default for 17-year-olds while reserving the option of sending the most difficult youth to the adult system.
Finally, reforming our state’s juvenile justice system also could help with truancy.
Right now, the truancy laws and policies in many of our school districts are driving absent students into the courtroom, rather than back to the classroom. Student absences can start piling up for a variety of reasons including: to avoiding a bully, working to help put food on the table, health problems, academic difficulties or a classic bad attitude.
Sending truant kids to court won’t solve these problems, but it does leave students with criminal records that make it harder to get into college or get a job. Fortunately, the Legislature is considering a number of bills to handle truancy as a civil rather than criminal offense, and we support those bills.
By passing this package of juvenile justice improvements, the Legislature will keep us safer, save us money, strengthen our workforce and give us one more Texas accomplishment to brag about, but most important, it will benefit the children of Texas.
Chris Wallace is president of the Texas Association of
Business based in Austin
12 April 2015
