Opinion

Parker and Schneider: Make 17-year-olds juveniles in justice system

As juvenile court judges, our mission is to help troubled kids get back on track while ensuring accountability and community safety. To help our communities meet those goals, we join sheriffs and other officials in calling on the Texas Legislature to make the juvenile justice system the default for 17-year-old offenders.

Youth crime is declining, but every day our courts see teens who have made mistakes. When we see 16-year-olds who have used marijuana, shoplifted, committed assaults or broken other laws, we have the tools we need to hold them accountable in a way that helps them turn their lives around.

As juvenile judges, we have the resources and authority to make an impact on an offender's sobriety and family life. We have the tools to enhance their chances of defeating drug abuse and improving family relationships. Our approach strengthens families and makes the offender's family a powerful ally and partner in the treatment and rehabilitation process.

We can make sure youthful offenders obtain their high school education. We can assign them to intensive probation or, if necessary, place them in juvenile facilities or treatment centers. This range of services is particularly effective with teens whose brains and habits are still developing and, in some cases, have been negatively influenced by abuse or other traumatic experiences.

But when a 17-year-old walks into an adult criminal courtroom, the same options are not available. Texas is one of the few remaining states that consider each and every 17-year-old offender an adult. These youths never make it into our juvenile courtrooms. No matter how minor or childish their offense, they land in adult criminal courts.

As high school juniors and seniors, 17-year-olds are quite similar to the 16-year-olds we see every day. The vast majority of their offenses are nonviolent misdemeanors.

Because they are considered adults, it means their parents are not contacted and cannot be forced to participate in the youth's probation. It means our community cannot demand they get services they need.

It means that if they need to be placed in detention, Texas law forces judges to put them in adult jails or prisons. Once there, they are more likely to be assaulted, commit suicide, adopt a life of crime and break more laws in the future.

In other words, when it comes to 17-year-olds, currently judges can't hold them accountable and help them get back on track in the way that is best for these teens and best for public safety.

Sheriffs also are raising concerns about a new, growing cost of the status quo. The increased risk of assaults on youths in adult facilities led to new nationwide rules requiring 17-year-olds to be held apart from older inmates - a sensible but expensive system for jailers to implement.

Of course, there are some 17-year-olds who commit violent crimes and need to be treated as adults. Under the proposal the Legislature is currently considering, we could still appropriately certify those 17-year-olds as adults while directing all others to the juvenile system.

Fortunately, as sheriffs, juvenile probation chiefs and other juvenile justice experts speak out, momentum is building for this proposal. Last year, the Speaker of the Texas House directed a committee to study the issue. During that interim hearing, criminal and juvenile justice stakeholders agreed that it's time for a change.

In fact, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence recently released its recommendation to the full Texas Legislature: Classify 17-year-olds as juveniles in the justice system.

We urge the Texas Legislature to raise the age this session. Delay sends more 17-year-olds toward a life of crime and unrealized potential. Delaycreates additional costs to our communities for keeping 17-year-old offenders separate from older inmates in adult facilities.

As juvenile judges, we can tell you our courts are ready to implement the change. We just need state lawmakers to give us the order.

Parker is presiding judge of Bexar County's 386th Juvenile District Court. Schneider is presiding judge of Harris County's 315th District Court.