|
Senate Interim Committee on Juvenile Justice
and Child Support
Charge
Study whether the criminal offense of failure to stop and render
aid, which applies to adults, should also apply to juveniles.
Recommendation
Direct Legislative Council
to draft legislation which makes minors subject to the offense
of failure to stop and render aid and other felony traffic offenses
in a manner similar to an adult.
Charge
Study and make recommendations regarding juvenile justice revisions
made by the 74th Legislature, with special focus on (a) implementation
of progressive sanctions and related programming by local entities,
and (b) the expansion of the STARS (Services to At-Risk Youth)
program of the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services,
by the Juvenile Justice Reform Bill (H.B. 327) and the Appropriations
Act (H.B. 1), 74th Legislature.
Recommendations
PROGRESSIVE SANCTIONS
Appropriate additional funds
to address the needs of each of the levels of the progressive
sanctions continuum. These funds should be provided in a way
that allows more discretion to juvenile probation departments
in how the funds are used.
STARS
Provide increased funding
to allow expansion of STARS services statewide.
Designate funds to support
the Criminal Justice Policy Council in performing ongoing evaluation
of the STARS program.
Restrict STARS services to
non-adjudicated youths.
COMMUNITY YOUTH DEVELOPMENT GRANT PROGRAM
Designate funding to support
the Criminal Justice Policy Council in performing ongoing evaluation
of the Community Youth Development Grant Program.
Continue funding the Community
Youth Development Grant Program and consider increased funding
subject to successful evaluation of the program.
Charge
Study and make recommendations for any juvenile justice related
issues that are identified as problems in the revisions of juvenile
justice laws, including omissions and unintended consequences
of the Juvenile Justice Reform Bill or related statutes and legislation.
Recommendations
Allow local law enforcement
agencies to keep records on juveniles arrested for any offense
until the youth reaches age 17 regardless of whether the youth
completes a first offender program.
Prohibit the sealing of juvenile
records until two years have elapsed since last contact and
the youth has reached 17 years of age.
Simplify the warning procedure.
(Allow peace officers, rather than a magistrate, to give first
rights warning.)
Repeal the requirement that
a peace officer, prior to obtaining a statement from a juvenile,
take the juvenile before a magistrate, provided that prior to
the taking of the statement the peace officer advises the juvenile
of his or her constitutional rights, and such proceeding is video
taped with audio sound. The requirement to take the juvenile
before a magistrate after obtaining a statement remains unchanged.
Support, but not require,
a county's decision to create or designate a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week
facility, where a youth can be taken if a parent or responsible
adult cannot be found in cases of Status and Class C offenses.
Provide funding to counties
for juvenile departments to fingerprint youths and forward the
records to the Department of Public Safety.
Clarify § 54.044, Family
Code (Community Service) to indicate that a court could require
each person (parent and child) to perform 500 hours of
community service.
Remove one of the barriers
to finding jobs for juvenile offenders by making more information
regarding the juvenile's record available through Project-RIO
to the potential employer.
Charge
Review analyses of the Criminal Justice Policy Council and other
information required to be reported to the legislature, governor,
lieutenant governor, or the Legislative Budget Board by the Juvenile
Justice Reform Bill or related statutes, and make recommendations
from those reports.
Recommendations
Without making recommendations,
the committee reviewed the following reports: "An Audit
Report on Contract Administration at the Texas Youth Commission,"
State Auditor Report No. 96-005; "Juvenile Processing in
Dallas County," Criminal Justice Policy Council; "A
Reexamination of Factors Influencing the Disposition of Juvenile
Cases in Dallas County," Dallas County; and "Top Priority:
Preparing the Juvenile Justice System for the Twenty-First Century,"
Criminal Justice Policy Council.
Without making recommendations,
the committee reviewed information on the Texas Department of
Mental Health and Mental Retardation First Offender Program; the
implementation of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice; the role of the Department of
Public Safety in the Juvenile Justice System; the Texas Commission
on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Youth Services; and information from
various local juvenile programs, such as First Time Offender and
Homework Programs, Back to School Program, Strength Through Academic
Respect Day Camp, and Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Pilot Program.
Charge
Study and make recommendations regarding child support payments,
specifically relating to the collection and distribution of child
support as in S.B. 793, 74th Legislature.
Recommendations
Define more clearly which
licenses and permits issued by the Texas Department of Transportation,
Texas Motor Vehicle Board, and Texas Motor Vehicle Commission
are subject to license suspension provisions of Chapter 232, Family
Code.
Charge
Study and determine whether the expansion of the Texas Youth Commission
and local juvenile facilities is sufficient to go into the year
2002.
Recommendation
Despite an impressive bed
acquisition program being conducted by TYC, based on projected
increases in commitments to the agency, a shortfall of 902 beds
is expected by the year 2002.
Charge
Study and report on juvenile sex offenders.
Recommendations
Provide a continuum of care
to be available either through Child Protective Services or out-sourced
so that a family is monitored for a period of time after a sexual
abuse incident involving a child has occurred.
Consider providing an incentive
to receive treatment by linking financial support through the
Victims Compensation Fund to the victim's attendance of treatment.
Create a Specialized Unit/Program
level within Child Protective Services for the identification
and monitoring of sexually abused juveniles.
Require those who provide
treatment to juvenile sex abuse victims to be credentialed and
registered as part of their licensure. Presently providers who
treat offenders must be so registered.
Remove any statutory barrier
for treatment providers to accept juvenile clients.
Require a specialized psychological
evaluation to be conducted by the county juvenile department or
equivalent in a county. This evaluation should consist of pertinent
information for treatment, placement, and proper identification
of the offender's propensity to recommit the offense. The evaluation
should then be placed in the juvenile's permanent file to be used
as a reference for any agency that comes into contact with the
offender.
Create an expedited court
hearing for sexual offenses in which the offender is a juvenile.
Require Child Protective Services
to create guidelines and allocate staff resources for adequate
training of videotaping policies, and implement that policy across
the state.
Amend the Texas Code of Criminal
Procedure to allow the admissibility of a child's first videotaped
statement, taken by a trained neutral party, as evidence in a
court of law.
Expand probation of juvenile
sex offenders so that they must attend, participate in, and complete
treatment.
Specifically address juvenile
sex offenders, their treatment, and supervision in the progressive
sanctions guidelines by adding a section requiring their mandatory
referral to treatment.
Statutorily allow the use
of polygraph examinations by juvenile probation officers.
Grant school districts and/or
parents the authority to bar placement of a juvenile sex offender
in the same class or school as the victim. Strengthen the ability
of school districts to obtain information on the offender.
Create a gradual step-down
transition into the community for juvenile sex offenders from
a high restriction institution, to a halfway house, to a community-based
outpatient followup with close parole supervision.
Charge
Study and report on Alternative Education Programs and Juvenile
Justice Alternative Education Programs mandated under Chapter
37 of the Texas Education Code.
Recommendation
The committee approved the
deferral of action on these issues to the Senate Education Committee
and other entities that have been, and will continue to be, involved
with the issues more comprehensively than time allowed this committee
to be.
|
|
