If a J.D. is released from TYC on parole until "age 21," and he commits violent felonies after he turns 17, does Juvenile Parole ever get around to revoking his parole?

They declined to ever issue a blue warrant on such a defendant in my jurisdiction, and he went on to organize several home invasions which, in addition to terrorizing the victims involved, resulted in two women being raped, before a jury finally convicted him.

In this case, my crook was charged with evading arrest in a motor vehicle, a SJF. About a week later, he and another thug robbed a man at an ATM at gunpoint. His compadre shot the victim twice, leaving the man paralyzed for life. The next day, at 3 am this 17-year-old TYC parolee broke into a woman's house in one of my counties. Luckily she was up with a sick child, and surprised him rather than vice versa. He ran from her house, and at 4:15 a.m. broke into a second woman's house, found her sleeping, and raped her.

We charged this man with 2 indictments of 1st deg. burg. of a hab with intent to committ sexual asslt., and one indictment of 2nd deg. sexual assault. San Pat County charged him with 1st deg. armed robbery.

Juvenile parole sat on its hands and never bothered to issue a blue warrant.

He was tried in San Pat County, along with his co-defendant. His co-defendant, the gunman, was convicted and got 20 years TDC. My def. was acquitted, even tho the evidence was overwhelming. About 2 weeks later we tried him for the burg. of a hab for the 1st break-in. This jury likewise acquitted. With the 2 acquittals, his total bond dropped to around $150K, and he was eventually able to make bond.

And still Juvenile Parole did nothing.

We tried him for sexual asslt. last Oct., resulting in a hung jury, so he remained out on bond.

Again, Juvenile Parole sat and waited.

But there were no flys on my crook, who's been dangerous and cunning since he was 12. He quickly recruited two others to rob houses and firecracker stands in Nueces County. They would dress in black, wear ski masks, and armed with firearms, broke into several houses. They tied up the people, and threatened them with their lives if they should ever report them. After sacking their home, they would steal their vehicles and leave. On 2 occassions one of his group--with his agreement--raped a victim.

The case broke when security at Dillards caught him and one of his followers roaming a Dillard's with 9 mm pistols. One of the pistols was stolen during an armed robbery of a fireworks stand.

He was now back under arrest for these home invasions, armed robberies, and rapes, and still Juvenile Parole did nothing.

We then tried him for the 3rd time, a re-trial of his rape case, and the jury convicted in 5 minutes. The judge gave him 20 years. Last week he was tried for one of the home invasions in Corpus, and the judge gave him 60 years and stacked.

Now Juvenile Parole is irrelevant. But had they acted sooner, 2 women would not have been raped, and a lot of other people would not have been robbed at gun point.

Is this lack of interest typical of juvenile parole, or was this just an institutional equivalent of a Bad Hair Day?

[This message was edited by Terry Breen on 06-21-04 at .]

Same frustrations here. Our juv. prob folks are considering supervising the parolees themselves. I think, but not sure, that every local juv. prob.
dept gets first dibs on whether to supervise juvenile parolees. What's sad is the juvenile parole people get paid a good amount to supervise kids ($X per day for each kid "on the ground"). Talk to your juv. chief for more info.

In our experience, the juv parole people are anxious for the adult system to kick in and for the juv to get adult probation, or county jail time, then they can close out their case.

Very frustrating, especially when the parole officer does not live in your county, and lives 100+ miles away

Our juvie parole officer is one of my JPOs - the Intensive Supervision Officer (which works well as he gets them before & after committment). He and I have worked together on many of these kids, sometimes revoking, sometimes continuing on parole, sometimes finding parole placements. Being part of our local office, he answers to the chief hired by our board before anyone in Austin, and only has responsibility for the kids in our district.