Texas can reclaim justice reform by addressing juvenile justice issues

By allowing young people the opportunity to demonstrate improvement sooner than the 40-year mandatory sentence, taxpayer money could be saved without causing a decrease in public safety.

The best legislative solution to correct this injustice has already been proposed in past sessions. “Raise the Age” legislation would have increased the automatic age of criminal jurisdiction from 17 to 18, meaning that minors would automatically be processed through the juvenile system. It also provided for judicial discretion to transfer youth with the most serious offenses to the adult system on a case-by-case basis.