Using the Evidence-Base to Transform the Juvenile Justice System in Texas: Scandals and Saving Children

Background: The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was created to care for, treat and educate the state's most serious and chronic juvenile offenders. In March of 2007, the Governor of Texas placed the TYC under conservatorship to guide reform of the agency's correctional and rehabilitative systems following reports of sexual abuse of youth at TYC facilities. I was asked to chair a Blue Ribbon Task Force to identify evidence-based practices in the treatment and education of juvenile offenders. The work of the Task Force was ultimately driven by two questions: (1) If we could re-design health care, education, treatment and case management at TYC correctional facilities, what would it look like? (2) If we could re-design the juvenile justice system in Texas, what would it look like?

Methods: A Blue Ribbon Task Force of two-dozen experts was quickly convened in May of 2007 over the course of a two-day summit. The final report was released four months later. The Task Force was comprised of university faculty, juvenile justice researchers, an economist, presidents and executive directors of national and local nonprofit organizations, education and disability specialists, mental health specialists, lawyers, policy analysts, a victim's rights advocate, and a former state health commissioner.

Results: The Task Force generated a list of 65 evidence-based recommendations structured into three major sections: Before, During, and After. The Before section focuses on crime prevention and diversion, detention, and sentencing reform. The During section addresses the health care, education, treatment, and case management of youth in correctional facilities. Finally, the After section coalesces around transition planning, reentry, aftercare, and parole. All of our recommendations are driven by evidence-based practice.

Implications: There are many strategies to be shared regarding how to use evidence-based practices to inform juvenile justice policy and programming at the local and state levels. We have engaged in a range of efforts to transform the system. Members of the Task Force have met with state legislators, the Governor's office, the TYC executive leadership, and other key stakeholders; engaged in community organizing to bring together previously fragmented juvenile justice advocacy groups; secured key endorsements (including The New York Times, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and the National Juvenile Justice Network); used the media to prevent our report from being buried by the previous TYC executive leadership and to bring attention to the recommendations in our report; supported efforts to bring lawsuits against TYC for policies promoting increased use of pepper spray and isolation; fed information about reports of abuse at TYC facilities to the independent Ombudsman; and used our social network to gain buy-in from counties across the state to treat juveniles in their local communities rather than sending youth to TYC. While there is clearly a reform movement underway in Texas, one question lingers: To what extent can we effectively leverage the evidence-base to influence political will so that Texas might lower its juvenile crime rate, reduce the victimization of citizens, and more efficiently and effectively spend its pecuniary resources?