Never thought there was a "minimum" time for a determinate sentence, but came across another juvi prosecutor's petition and jury charge that says:

"order that the child be committed to TYC for a determinate period not less than one year or more than 40..."

Anyone else use this language or know where it comes from ?

looks like an indeterminate sentence to me.

All the language throughout is determinate language except for this "more than one year".
I thought maybe I was missing a statutory minimum time somewhere in the code.

Stacey, I thought you were the resident expert. Only been in Georgetown a week and already having problems?

Seriously, although your juvenile experience is much more extensive than mine, I believe you are right on the no minimum. When I was doing juvi prosecution they were all sex offenders and I did determinate sentencing on all of them. Never used a minimum.

Since normally they would stay locked up in TYC until 18 and then we would have a hearing to determine whether to hold them over for adult prison, seems like you couldn't do a minimum.

I agree there is no minimum with a determinate sentence. Another one of the differences that really confuses our prosecutors coming in from adult courts. In our jury charges we include the range is from no disposition to whatever the maximum is for the offense.

I am confused as well...In Prof. Dawson's TX Juv. Law - 6th Ed., it references a Determinate Sentence miminum length of stay in Chapter 12 on p. 211. That reference says see Chap. 21 - Determinate Sentences. In Chapt. 21 (p. 435) there is a section that discusses "Sentence Length." About halfway through this section (on the next page) there is a sentence that says "The jury should also be instructed that the respondent will become eligible for release on parole in the discretion of the TYC after he or she has served one, two, three or ten years in the TYC, depending upon the offense adjudicated."

I interpret Dawson's section on this matter to mean there is a minimum length of stay before a child is considered for parole under a determinate sentence. Is that incorrect?

Also - I just found in the Human Resources Code a section that talks about TYC parole - look at Sec. 61.081 HRC. THis may be it - or I may just be off topic.

You are correct regarding the TYC minimum lengths of stay discussed by Dawson. They refer to a juvenile committed to TYC whether it is a determinate or non-determinate offense. In a determinate offense, the minimums apply if the length of commitment ordered by the jury is longer than the minimum length of stay.

Thanks for the help! My guess is that their confusion came in with the TYC MLOS (1yr, 2yr, 3yr).