Texas Youth Commission Journal, September 1995 Page: 4
28 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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4 lYC JOURNAL
Legislation (continuedfrom page 3)
The term of a determinate sentence may
not be more than 40 years for a capital, first
degree or controlled substance felony; 20
years for a second degree felony; or 10
years for a third degree felony.
Courts may place a child on probation
in a TYC intermediate sanction facility.
The juvenile courts are required to in-
clude as a condition of probation that the
child work a specified number of hours at a
community service project.
Juvenile court proceedings will be open
to the public (unless the court determines
that good cause is shown for excluding the
public).
Juvenile records to be computerized
Law enforcement officers and other ju-
venile justice personnel will collect infor-
mation including fingerprints and photo-
graphs (for felony and jailable misdemeanor
offenses only) for the Department of Public
Safety, which will develop and maintain a
computerized juvenile justice information
system (JJIS). (However, the child must be
referred to juvenile court on or before the
10th day after he is taken into custody to
be included in the system).
The courts may no longer order the seal-
ing of records of a person who has received
a determinate sentence.
The Department of Protective and Regu-
latory Services (DPRS) is required to oper-
ate a program to provide services for child-
ren age 7 to 17 who are in at-risk situations
and for families.
TYC youth may now be sent to prison
as early as age 16
TYC may refer a sentenced offender be-
tween 16 and 21 to the court for consider-
ation of transfer to TDCJ (who is sentenced
for an offense committed after January 1,
1996) if he has not completed his sentence
and his conduct indicates that the welfare
of the community requires the transfer. The
current automatic referral for all sentenced
offenders at age 17 1/2 is repealed as of
January 1, 1996, for offenses committed af-
ter that date. The current law remains in
effect for other youth.
The agency may establish and operate
youth boot camps for TYC youth or for pro-
bation youth who are placed there as anintermediate sanction (if the program is ap-
propriate and space is available) after Janu-
ary 1, 1996.
In addition, TYC, in consultation with
TJPC, will develop guidelines for placing
TYC parole violators in boot camps oper-
ated by probation departments.
Specific authority is provided for TYC
to contract with a private vendor for the
financing, construction, operation, mainte-
nance or management of a youth boot camp.
Industries program to be developed
TYC was given authority to implement
an industries program by January 1, 1996,
to provide employment andvocational train-
ing, and to develop and expand public and
private TYC industries.
A nine-member advisory committee is
to be appointed to represent industries ap-
propriate for hiring TYC youth. The agency
will apportion wages earned by youth, first
to pay court-ordered or agreed victim resti-
tution, and second, to pay court-ordered
child support.
The agency is also authorized to con-
tract for services related to the program;
receive donations from contracting busi-
nesses; accept grants for vocational reha-
bilitation; lease land to a private business
to expand and develop the industries pro-
gram, and certify the amount of wages paid
by private employers in order for them to
receive franchise tax credit for employing
TYC youth.
TYC will establish vocational and edu-
cational assessment through cooperation
with the Texas Employment Commission,
(now Texas Workforce Commission) and
refer youth to Project RIO (Reintegration of
Offenders) through the parole officer for
possible job placement.
A youth adjudicated for sex offenses is
now required to register with local law en-
forcement authorities when he is paroled
- in any city or county where he intends
to live for more than seven days. (Effective
September 1, 1995). This requirement does
not end until the 10th anniversary of the
day on which the youth ceases to be under
TYC's supervision.
(continued on page 10)Progressive sanctions
guidelines seek to
ensure consistency
ne of the most significant com-
ponents of juvenile justice re-
form is the provision of statu-
tory guidelines for making decisions
and sanctions based on offense sever-
ity and frequency.
"The guidelines do allow consid-
eration of individual needs and circum-
stances," said Neil Nichols, TYC gen-
eral counsel, "and these 'progressive
sanctions guidelines' are not particu-
larly new."
They describe seven sanction lev-
els, each one more restrictive and de-
manding than the previous one, begin-
ning with a supervisory caution at level
one and ending with a sentence to com-
mitment to the Texas Youth Commission
at level seven.
"The guidelines reflect generally
how most juvenile justice practitioners
believe the juvenile justice system
SHOULD work when resources are ad-
equate to meet the needs," he explained.
A team of staff members from TYC
and from the Texas Juvenile Probation
Commission had already developed the
guidelines for possible administrative
implementation before they were in-
cluded in HB 327, the juvenile justice
omnibus bill passed by the 74th Legis-
lature.
"The permissive language used
throughout the chapter reflects the
Legislature's intent that the guidelines
not be regarded as unfunded mandates
(which would require that all the ser-
vices at each level be provided to all
youth who would be qualified to receive
them)," Nichols added.
"However, the Legislature did ap-
propriate a large amount of money to
both TYC and TJPC to fund the pro-
gressive sanctions guidelines with the
expectation of good faith implementa-
tion," he pointed out.
One of the key purposes of the
guidelines is to provide a means of iden-
tifying what the system provides and
who the system serves.
Another key purpose of the guide-
lines is to inform youth what they can
expect at each level. 44
TYC JOURNAL-
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Texas Youth Commission. Texas Youth Commission Journal, September 1995, periodical, September 1995; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1031771/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed May 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.