Why Dallas County needs to figure out its juvenile justice system
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Dallas County’s juvenile justice system is pursuing a data analysis that could go a long way toward improving outcomes. We support it.
Managing aspects of the Texas criminal justice system is one of the main jobs of county government. Though the public largely focuses on what happens at the courthouse and the county jail, the juvenile justice system also falls under the county umbrella and demands attention and investment.
In Dallas County, about 7,000 youths enter the juvenile system every year. It falls on the Dallas County Juvenile Department, the county’s juvenile board, juvenile courts, prosecutors and others to keep young people on a path to have their cases adjudicated and to access treatment and rehabilitation services.
But county officials need to better understand the young population that is getting tangled up in the criminal justice system. We think it was wise for the Dallas County Commissioners Court to approve a contract this month to do an extensive analysis that will illuminate whether county government is properly serving young offenders.
That’s important not only for the young people whose futures will be determined by the outcomes of their cases, but also for the rest of us. Setting at-risk teens on a path that improves their lives and keeps them out of trouble is a win for their families, for public safety and for taxpayers. Unless there are proper interventions in place, underage offenders may grow up to continue breaking the law as adults, jamming our courts and county jails. Already, the Dallas County jail is crowded because of a variety of factors that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
The analysis is part of an ongoing examination of county criminal justice facilities so that officials can plan for future needs. There is also a desire among county officials to understand why Dallas County is lagging other major urban counties in the disposition of juvenile cases.
For example, when county officials looked up juvenile court disposition data from 2020, they found that Tarrant County had disposed of 58% of its cases in 90 days. For Travis and Harris counties, that rate was also above 50%, and it was 43% for Bexar County. But for Dallas County, it was 27%.
A search of juvenile court disposition data from 2021 shows that Dallas County continued to trail its peers.
The firm hired by the county to do the population analysis will look at data from the last 13 years, including juvenile offender profile characteristics, law enforcement practices, juvenile court workloads, alternatives to juvenile lockups and comparable data from other major Texas counties.
The goal is to make sure the county is actually getting better outcomes for the services it provides.
“We’re trying to continue to provide skills to our youth in the best possible environment that we can, so that when they do leave us, they don’t come back,” said Darryl Beatty, the county’s juvenile department director.
The data analysis will help the county improve its roadmap to that end.
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