Texas Juvenile Justice Department
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department was established by the legislature to manage and oversee the agencies that were abolished.
[2] The TJJD has gone through several iterations of major and moderate reform following scandals marked by sexual abuse and violence, including a full rebranding from the Texas Youth Commission in 2011.
[3] In 2021, the United States Department of Justice announced that it would examine whether children detained in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s five lockups are reasonably protected “from physical and sexual abuse by staff and other residents, excessive use of chemical restraints and excessive use of isolation.” The investigation followed an incident reported in July when a detention officer was arrested for allegedly touching the breast of an 18-year-old detainee.
[4] In August 2022, The Texas Tribune reported on severe understaffing in the prisons that routinely left children inside cells alone for up to 23 hours a day, forcing them to use water bottles and food trays as toilets.
The Finish the 5 campaign, led by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity, proposes phasing out the five prisons by 2027.
[5][6] Texas Juvenile Justice Department operates and maintains institutions and halfway houses statewide.
Texas Juvenile Justice Department maintains records and registry of the registered facilities in operation.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department includes high, medium and low security facilities.
The medium to low facilities are not fenced and consist of houses that the Texas Juvenile Justice Department operates or contracts with outside organizations to provide low to medium treatment for the juvenile offender.
[7] According to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department report of 2011, the total amount of secure facilities registered include "34 post-adjudication, 31 public and 3 privately operated; 49 pre-adjudication facilities, 47 public and 2 privately operated".
Other countries include Australia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
TJJD got its funds through the State Financial Assistance Contract that encompasses grants to each of the 165 local juvenile departments.
