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Juvenile Justice - Advocacy, Prevention & Fair Defense
Texas Appleseed has historically been involved in a range of juvenile justice issues – from helping raise
the bar for legal representation of juveniles, to monitoring their treatment in Texas Youth Commission facilities,
to exploring ways to prevent today’s school discipline problems from becoming tomorrow’s prison population.
Texas Appleseed publishes guidebooks for attorneys and families, in both English and Spanish, to help them provide
or assist in a high quality defense of juvenile defendants.
Latest News
Texas Appleseed is active in efforts to curtail the overuse of pepper spray against juveniles incarcerated in Texas
Youth Commission facilities. For the latest update, click
here.
Texas Appleseed has released its report
“Texas School-to-Prison Pipeline, Dropout to Incarceration: The Impact of School Discipline and Zero Tolerance.”
For the latest update, click here.
Project Background
Texas Appleseed’s October 2000 report,"Selling Justice Short", described a broken system in which low income juvenile
defendants rarely went to trial, but instead plead guilty to criminal charges soon after arrest. This report, part
of a larger fair defense report, set the groundwork for the Fair Defense Act (passed September 2001) overhauling the
way lawyers are appointed to indigent adults and juveniles charged with crimes in Texas.
This act requires that each county’s juvenile board adopt a plan for the appointment of counsel to juveniles whose
families are unable to pay. The law also requires qualification standards for attorneys representing juveniles.
Texas Appleseed went one more step—producing handbooks and assisting in training of attorneys representing juveniles,
and distributing a second handbook to the families of these young defendants to help them better navigate the juvenile
justice system. Thousands of these handbooks, available in both English and Spanish, have been distributed through
Continuing Legal Education classes, legal organizations such as the National Juvenile Defender Center, youth centers,
and family organizations.
Texas Appleseed’s initial interest in securing fair defense for indigent juveniles has expanded to include monitoring
their treatment during incarceration in Texas Youth Commission facilities and researching how schools and state agencies
could intervene to try to prevent the future incarceration of disruptive, at-risk youth.
Funders & Collaborators
Texas Appleseed is grateful to Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and to Houston Endowment and the Meadows Foundation
for their generous support of the juvenile handbook project. We also appreciate the work of our collaborator on this
project, the Southwest Regional Juvenile Defender Center at the University of Houston Law School. Visit the Texas Youth
Commission and School-to-Prison Pipeline project pages for a list of funders, pro bono partners and collaborators on those efforts.
2007 Major Accomplishments:
Texas Appleseed successfully used litigation and advocacy to halt the escalated use of pepper spray in TYC facilities.
The TYC is reviewing its use of force policy. For more accomplishments on this project, click here.
Howard University, Houston ISD and Austin ISD have asked Texas Appleseed representatives to share their School-to-Prison Pipeline
research and recommendations for reforming school discipline programs to intervene earlier in the lives of troubled youth. For more
accomplishments on this project, click here.
Reports & Publications
Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline, Dropout to Incarceration: The Impact of School Discipline and Zero Tolerance Report
Selling Justice Short: Juvenile Indigent Defense in Texas. Texas Appleseed, 2000
Fair Defense Act: Juvenile Implementation
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, LLP Amicus Brief
Media Coverage
For latest press on Texas Youth Commission developments, click here.
For latest press on Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline, click here.
“Their Last
Good Chance Just Got Better.”
Texas Monthly, November 2003
"Child or
Adult?"
The Dallas Morning News,
December 21, 2003
Links
Supreme Court Case In the Matter of J.P., a Juvenile 
Texans Care for Children
Southwest Regional Juvenile Defender Center
Children's Defense Fund
3 Back to Projects
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