Exception: A Texas County's Dream for Realizing Juvenile Justice

One of the key premises for creating a separate criminal justice system for juveniles was that juveniles were not the same as adults, and could therefore be rehabilitated. Despite this premise, still largely held today, the rate of recidivism for juveniles is dismal. The history of a supposedly rehabilitative juvenile justice system in the United States is a failed history of incarceration, much like that of adult corrections. Rehabilitation by incarceration has proved to be an ineffective and unsustainable strategy. A robust amount of research shows that treating juveniles closer to home, in fact in their communities, is the most effective tool for rehabilitating juvenile offenders.

This book not only makes an argument for juvenile justice within a young person's community; it provides a model. From the beginning, Tarrant County Juvenile Services has been an exception to the national norm. This book traces the history of Texas's oldest juvenile probation department and the legacy left by the leaders of this agency from its inception. The reader will take away vivid pictures of the leaders who transformed the system and real-life examples of the key concepts underlying an effective and sustainable juvenile justice system, with accountability both for juvenile offenders and for their communities.