17-year-olds shouldn’t go to prison

A youngster who is not old enough to buy cigarettes in Texas is old enough to be sent to an adult state prison if convicted of a crime.

That’s because since 1918 Texas law has defined an adult as one who is 17 or older, making it one of only nine states in the nation that does not classify youths under the age of 18 as juveniles.

As a result, those 17-year-olds who are charged with a crime can be punished in adult prisons rather than sent to facilities designed to rehabilitate juvenile offenders.

But recent actions by the Supreme Court and Congress suggest what many child advocates have maintained for a long time — that a youth who is 17, as a rule, doesn’t have the mental maturity to be declared an adult.

The Supreme Court, for example, has decided it is unconstitutional to sentence teenagers under the age of 18 to a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

And Congress, reacting to the number of young offenders who were abused in adult penal institutions, in 2003 unanimously passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which required that 17-year-olds be separated (by “sight and sound”) from older inmates, a mandate that added more expense for county jails, according to the Texas Tribune.

Several states, including Mississippi, Massachusetts and Illinois, in recent years have changed their laws to make 18 the threshold separating juveniles from adults, the Tribune said.

This week a bill that would do the same for Texas, House Bill 1205, was heard by a committee in the state House of Representatives, but the committee hasn’t voted on it yet.

If the committee approves it and it passes the House, the bill is likely to meet opposition in the Senate from Sen. John Whitmire, of all people.

Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, has long fought for reform in the prison system, so his opposition to increasing the age for juveniles is somewhat surprising. His concern is that the change would negatively impact the juvenile justice system.

Other opponents cite the increased costs of adding a substantial number of 17-year-olds to juvenile facilities and rehabilitation programs.

The Legislative Budget Board, in its fiscal analysis of HB 1205, points out that last year there were 514 new admissions to adult correctional institutions for individuals who were 17 at the time of the offense, and that same year 7,587 people convicted of crimes committed at age 17 were placed on adult supervision.

It costs $54.89 a day to house a person in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (for adults) and $437.11 per day for a person in juvenile residential facilities. For those on parole, the numbers are $4.04 per day for adults compared to $31.93 for juveniles.

The costs are higher because the juvenile system is designed to rehabilitate rather than just punish. Thus, more programs, training and counseling are provided to help them avoid further criminal activity.

Proponents say that while the initial costs are higher, the state will save money in the long run by treating 17-year-olds as juveniles because the recidivism rate will be much less, and in the end many of these youngsters will be taxpayers rather than a drain on society.

Texas has made some strides in improving its juvenile justice system by creating more community-based programs and facilities. And Whitmire has authored legislation that makes another positive step by locating confined juveniles in facilities closer to their homes.

Although age limits in defining youths and adults can seem arbitrary, they are necessary for a workable the law.

What lawmakers must consider, as they wrestle with deciding whether to raise the adult age to 18, is what will be best for the child and, as a result, what will be best for society as a whole.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "17-year-olds shouldn’t go to prison."