Do any of you doing juvenile cases routinely (ever?) review a case as a prelude to the subject being placed in juvenile detention? I see the ABA standards for juvenile justice state that the case must be reviewed by a prosecutor who should determine whether there is sufficient evidence to place the subject in juvenile detention. In our district, the probation people call all the shots, and we have had subjects spend 3 or 4 days in juvenile detention without any legal review of their case at all. Is this normal for Texas?

If our peace officers do not release the child to his or her parents, the resposibility to decide whether to release or detain shifts to juvenile probation.

If juvenile probation detains, the FC 54.01(o) requires a magistrate to determine probable cause within 48 hours, including weekends and holidays.

Case law states that pc can be determined through witnesses with direct knowledge, hearsay statements from prosecutors or probation officers or review of an offense report. No particular formality is required and I believe it can even be done over the phone.

That only comes into play on weekends or holidays because normally we have a full-blown detention hearing within 24 hours the rest of the time.

Dawson's book has a good explaination beginning on page 71.

Occasionally the Juvenile Probation Department will contact me prior to a detention. However, in most cases, the detaining officer has a phone call with the on-duty Juvenile Probation Officer and the decision is made without any input from our office.

We do always conduct the hearing not later than the second business day after the detention as required by the Family Code. At that point in time, I have the offense report and have been able to get a feel for the family. At that point in time, our office will make the decision on further detention or a conditional release.

There should never be an occasion where someone sits in a juvenile detention facility for more than a day or two without you knowing about it.