Tuesday, July 10, 2007

CrimJust Agency Boards Meet this Week; Learn the Nuts and Bolts of Juvenile Law

Three key state criminal justice agencies' boards - the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ), the Public Safety Commission (DPS) and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission - will all meet in Austin later this week. Here's the agenda for TBCJ's 2-day meeting (July 12-13). And here's the agenda for the Juvenile Probation Commission meeting on Friday (July 13).

TBCJ's meeting on Thursday will be dominated by committee meetings, while much of their Friday session will be taken up with presentations from division heads like Rissie Owens from the Board of Pardons and Parole and Brad Livingston from TDCJ.

The Juvenile Probation Commission will discuss a number of topics that were left unresolved by the 80th Texas Legislature, in particular whether enough money was allocated to counties for community corrections to make up for kids the Legislature diverted from TYC. An early agena item says the Commission will have:
Discussion and Possible Action on Funding Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009 Community Corrections Allocation and Related Funding
- Community Corrections Services Funding Formula
- Intensive Community Based Programs and Pilot
- Misdemeanor Diversionary Placement Fund
Those are exactly the topics left as big question marks when the Legislature mercifully left town in May - I know a lot of county juvenile probation directors will be watching closely what comes out of this process.

Speaking of the Juvenile Probation Commission, later this month on July 30 and 31 the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and the Texas State Bar Juvenile Law Section will hold a 1.5 day training in Austin titled "Nuts and Bolts of Juvenile Law." Looks like they're going to cover a lot of ground and it might be a really informative gathering. Registration information is here ($150) and there's also a brochure for the event.

5 comments:

  1. I have heard that TJPC has not been able to get TYC to respond on the effect of SB 103, and that TYC's General Counsel, Steve Foster, would not return phone calls or reply to emails from TJPC administrators.

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  2. He was completely unimpressive at the Austin State of the Agency event, though extremely chummy with "D" as he called Dimitria.

    An incompetent General Counsel will cripple TYC profoundly at this critical moment when implementing the sweeping reforms of SB 103 in TYC policy is so important.

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  3. An did anyone else attending the State of the Agency address in Austin notice that he spoke in circles?? Or was it just me??
    Much less did he sound or appear to know what he was talking about. These are the Dark Ages of TYC, if TYC will survive.

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  4. He's nowhere near Neil Nichols' caliber, that's for sure.

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  5. He is a friend of former TYC Conservator Jay Kimbrough. Nothing else needs to be said as to why he got the job.

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