Number of Texas youths in jail expected to rise

By ANNA M. TINSLEY / Harte-Hanks Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - The number of Texas youths in juvenile jails is expected to jump nearly 75 percent in the next five years because of stricter state laws and longer sentences, according to a report issued Tuesday.

More youths are going to jail, and they are staying there longer, said Tony Fabelo, executive director of the Criminal Justice Policy Council, which issued the report.

That means the Texas Youth Commission, now at 110 percent of its capacity, will have an even bigger load to carry. By March 1997, TYC is projected to be at 120 percent of its capacity, according to the report.

State lawmakers say that sends a positive message to Texas kids.

"Punishment works and is a deterrent to crime," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who worked on juvenile justice reforms last session. "It is no deterrent at all to see Johnny commit a crime and see him back on the street five days, two weeks or two months later.

"But it is a deterrent when he doesn't come back for five years," she said. "Young people need that message today and I am convinced if we are going to stem the tide of crime, we must stem it at the juvenile level."

Last year, state lawmakers passed juvenile justice reforms from lowering the age at which juveniles can be tried as adults to increasing sentences for violent youth offenders.

Gov. George W. Bush already has proposed a new law for next year, letting law enforcement officers stop and randomly frisk juvenile offenders as a term of their parole or probation.

Shapiro said she also expects other fine-tuning of reforms passed last year.

In the meantime, state officials are grappling with ways to house a growing number of kids sentenced to youth commission facilities.

Last month, 3,541 youths were in Texas facilities. That number is projected to jump 73 percent, to 6,113, by August 2002, according to the report.

Officials are converting two adult prison units - in Bryan and Vernon - into youth facilities to supplement other youth commission facilities, Fabelo said.

Bryan's Hamilton Unit will become a 720-bed youth facility. In February, 320 of the beds should be ready. The rest should be ready in June, said Judy Briscoe, a TYC spokeswoman.

The Vernon Unit eventually will have 336 beds for youths. An undetermined number of those beds will be ready in March, with the rest coming in June, Briscoe said.

The youth commission likely will ask state lawmakers for another 500 beds during the next Legislative session, which begins in January, Briscoe said.

When the two adult units become available for the youth commission, overcrowding will drop to 104 percent of capacity, the report shows. "This is potentially a serious situation," Fabelo said.

The population increase was expected, Briscoe said, because of new state reforms and internal changes.