Tarrant County Commissioners approved two contracts with Collin County that allow local juveniles to be held in out-of-county detention facilities when space runs short in Tarrant County’s own system.
The first contract covers pre-adjudication detention, for youths awaiting court proceedings, while the second covers post-adjudication services, which provide longer-term residential and rehabilitative programs for youth already found delinquent by a judge.
County officials say the agreements are intended as “backstop” to address crowding at the Lynn W. Ross Juvenile Detention Center, not a shift in detention policy.
“We have been close to capacity or overcapacity a number of times in the last six months,” said Riley Shaw, director of Tarrant County Juvenile Services. “This contract gives us the option. It does not require us to use it, and we have not used these services in the last year.”
Some commissioners and members of the public raised concerns about the decision to house minors outside of Tarrant County, where they may be farther from family and legal counsel.
“Fewer parents can drive an hour each way to visit, and fewer attorneys will make that trip, resulting in a further decrease in the quality of legal services," Jeralynn Cox, one of the speakers, said during public comment. “Nothing in the contract addresses any of that. The kids need the support base of their community. A parent, an aunt, an uncle, a neighbor, is an important asset in the rehabilitation of a child."
Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons voted no on both contract agreements as she believes detention should only be used as a “last resort, not the system’s default.”
“Today, over 100 Tarrant County youth are being detained, many for nonviolent offenses; many simply waiting on prolonged court dates,” Simmons said. “Now we’re proposing sending our children, many of them presumed innocent, out of the county.”
Simmons said the daily cost of housing youth in Collin County had increased to $227 per day, up from $175 in 2022, a 30% increase.
Shaw confirmed that the decisions about whether to detain a youth are made by the courts, not by juvenile services.
“The decision to detain a child pre-adjudication is one made by the court,” Shaw said. “While there are programs in the community, that’s apples to oranges depending on the individual child and the circumstances that brought them before the court.”
He added that Tarrant County staff maintain frequent contact with out-of-county facilities and track outcomes for any youth placed in a Collin County detention center.
“We will continue to have an intake officer assigned to each child maintaining contact with that child, the family and the attorney,” Shaw said.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. and Simmons repeatedly questioned whether the county is doing enough to develop alternatives to detention. Miles voted yes on the pre-adjudication contract - later saying he should have voted no - and against the second contract.
Simmons and Manny Ramirez, commissioner for Precinct 4, both pressed for clear plans to reduce reliance on confinement and expand community-based diversion programs.
Shaw said the juvenile services department contracts with My Health My Resources (MHMR) of Tarrant County to provide mental health resources and support for families both inside and outside the detention facility, but that larger systemic changes would have to come from the courts.
The post-adjudication contract allows Tarrant County to send youth to Collin County’s Summit Program, a residential facility that offers education counseling and vocational training. Shaw described the facility as an “in-between step” between community probation and state commitment to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD).
“Typically, youth are there for six to nine months,” Shaw said. “It’s similar to what they would receive through the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, but as an interim or in-between step.”
Ramirez said Tarrant County remains the largest county in Texas without its own post-adjudication facility, which forces the county to rely on agreements like these.
“Tarrant County accounts for about 30% of the entire wait list in the state of Texas,” Ramirez said. “The post facilities are necessary because they provide comprehensive services, a better step than sending them straight to state custody.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jeralynn Cox.
Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is KERA's breaking news reporter. Got a tip? Email Emmanuel at erivas@kera.org.
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