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Kids who make mistakes can turn their lives around, and Texas can prevent young offenders from growing into adult criminals.
Each youth brings Texas the promise of a future where all our neighborhoods have children growing up to be productive and successful adults, not criminals. To reduce our future prison population, Texas must see that youth have positive activities, supports, and connections in their communities. They need adults to look up to, options to keep them out of trouble, and a chance to be part of solving the challenges they face. Youth in the juvenile justice system further need the guidance and safeguards to help them make better choices and truly rehabilitate.
What Texas can do and why it matters:
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Prevent youth from becoming criminal offenders in the first place by providing quality youth services upfront.It is over 150 times more expensive to incarcerate a Texas child than it is to serve that child through a successful state delinquency-prevention program, like Services To At-Risk Youth (STAR). Providing that child with needed counseling costs 30 times less than incarceration. More »
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Adopt strategies that work to keep juvenile offenders from becoming adult criminals.No state has a higher percentage of its children and youth growing up to enter the correctional system than Texas does. One way Texas can help give kids better odds is by leveling the juvenile justice playing field. More »
- End school discipline that treats kids like criminals.
Children who act out in class today are too likely to be met by school rules that funnel them out of the classroom, into the streets, and off to prison. More »
More:
Join our Juvenile Justice Roundtable
Check out our Recommended Resources on Juvenile Justice
See Juvenile Justice Blog Posts
Learn about Texas Laws on Juvenile Justice from our Legislative Recaps
See our Testimony on Juvenile Justice
Review the Texas Legislature's Interim Charges to Study Juvenile Justice
Become a member and allocate your gift to our Juvenile Justice Promise Fund
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