Texas wants more youth prisons instead of investing in mental health | Opinion
During the latest legislative session, James Talarico, D-Round Rock, made a radical but popular proposal to dissolve the entire juvenile justice department and close its five prisons. Instead, legislators earmarked $200 million to build three additional state-run prisons and to accommodate more youth in the draconian adult lockups.One defense attorney specializing in juvenile cases said the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s prisons are already a dumping ground for severely mentally ill kids.
“I don’t understand how that will address a labor shortage,” said Fuller. “The entire juvenile justice system is falling apart here.” For much of the 20th century, Texas routinely locked up thousands of kids in juvenile state prisons. In recent decades, the majority of those prisons were closed, and those that remained open moved, at least in theory, towards rehabilitation rather than a punitive approach.
“If the kids weren’t there, you would not be able to distinguish it from the adults’ jail next door,” said Fuller of the Denton detention facility. “It’s all the same stuff; nothing special, nothing extra; except a classroom down the end of the cells instead of an office. They’re sleeping on concrete blocks with about a quarter-inch pad.”
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