Since 18 is the age of majority for Texans in other aspects — deemed mature enough to marry, vote and enlist in military service on their own, for instance — it makes little sense to view a 17-year-old as mature enough to weather adult trial, sentencing and imprisonment.
This is exceedingly arbitrary.
Raising this threshold would coincide with Texas’ need to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, which includes a requirement that those under 18 be separated from the adult prison population.
This requirement does not occur in a vacuum. Youths younger than 18 are abused sexually and physically more often than those older, University of Texas Professor Michele Deitch told McGaughy. And they are 36 times more likely to commit suicide.
Gov. Rick Perry has resisted complying with PREA. That must change in the new administration. We note, however, that the 14 youths who were 17 in the Bexar County Jail last week were separated from those 18 and older.
Texas can rightly crow about its progress on criminal justice. It should add raising the age of an adult, when it comes to being prosecuted for crimes, to 18.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Will PREA spur Texas Lege to raise age of criminal culpability?
Editorial writers at the SA Express-News think (Jan. 12) that pressure to comply with the Prison Rape Elimination Act may spur the Texas Legislature to raise the age at which criminal defendants may be charged as adults for their crimes. The staff editorial concluded:
PREA, the Federally unfunded mandate that the taxpayers of Texas will hvae to pay for, should not be the catalyst for the discussion of raising the age. Fundamentally, raising the age sounds great, but doing so also bears a greater cost. Will the legislature be willing to pay for the greater cost associated with treating them in the juvenile system? Intake processing alone in the juvenile system will add to the every day cost due to STATE mandates to perform a risk and needs assessment. $$$$$ Money is key I personally don't think there should be the potential for a 18 year old to even be housed in the same building as a 10 year old. Oh yes, when a child reaches the age of 10 they could be held in a juvenile detention center. Which is worse?? 17 year olds in an adult jail or 17-18-19 year olds around a 10 year old??
ReplyDeleteIf you think it "sounds great," 4:00, that's the important thing. Unless you were just being facetious pretending that 10 year olds somehow can't be separated from 17-18 year olds. The large majority of other states have figured it out, Texas can, too.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, IMO money won't be the deciding factor; PREA may be a significant factor, but not the only one. There is both bipartisan support AND opposition on this, as near as I can tell, with diverse motivations. It's going to be an interesting debate when the members get around to considering the issue.
It has never been clear to me what aspects of PREA with which Texas is not compliant. We in the business are told that Texas was already doing virtually everything that PREA called for. We have PREA instruction all the time and are continually told to be aware of PREA standards and to follow them.
ReplyDeleteI am sure there are some 17 year olds in Texas prisons, but as a Texas prison doctor since 2001, I have never, ever run into one.
Prison Doc
My husband entered TDCJ adult prisons when he was just barely 17...He has served 21 years.
DeleteHe was also beaten his first day in prison for refusing to comply with extortion attempts...
DeleteI feel that if we lower the age where one can be held as an adult they should be afforded the rights of an adult too which includes voting.
ReplyDeleteThough I agree that those below 18 years of age must be treated separately but seriousness of crime must also be considered. If say a 16 years old is allegedly involved in a gruesome rape and murder, then that should be treated as an exceptional case and considered accordingly.
ReplyDeleteOur state agency (TJPC now TJJD) started the sky-islfalling / everyone-will-be-sued talk in 2003 when they started re-writing standards to reflect what they THOUGHT PREA would look like. Many aspects of PREA have already been implemented in the juvenile probation departments. There are several requirements of PREA that cost money and/or very controversial for this conservative state to implement, thus, most departments are not too comfortable in performing some of the requirements.
ReplyDeleteThought Texas via governor Perry was rejecting the Federal PREA mandate. Thought it was up to the local sheriff to decide whether or not to follow PREA?? Does anyone know exactly where Texas currently stands on the Federal PREA laws?
ReplyDelete