|
Other Related Links
Texas Juvenile Probation Commission
State of Texas
Texas Youth
Commission (TYC)
| |
Matagorda County Juvenile
Probation Department
Dennis Davis - Chief Juvenile
Probation Officer
Hundreds of juveniles are referred to the Matagorda
County Juvenile Probation Department each year for every imaginable type of
offense.
   Laws that affect juveniles
differ from those that affect adults. Juvenile Laws are outlined in the Texas
Family Code. This web page was designed to assist and provide the residents of
Matagorda County with a better understanding of the process and a basic roadmap
of how the Juvenile
system works.
To get you started, there are some basic
facts to understand:
 |
A juvenile is a person 10 years of age or
older, and younger than 17 years of age.
|
|
A person cannot be arrested before the age
of 10.
|
|
If a person commits a crime before their 17th birthday, they may
be placed on probation until their 18th birthday.
|
|
If a person commits a crime after their
17th birthday, they are handled in adult Court.
|
There are several different agencies involved in the juvenile
process. Listed below are some of these agencies.
| Law Enforcement
All referrals begin with the Law Enforcement Agency. When Law
Enforcement receives a call, they must first assess the situation.
Based on the initial assessment, the officer must determine which
course of action to take. The officer will then do one of the following:
counsel at the scene, issue a citation and send it to Municipal or Justice Court,
make a report and send it to Juvenile Probation, or arrest at the scene and
transport to Juvenile Detention. If the situation requires an arrest, the
officer will first contact the on-call juvenile probation officer. The on-call
probation officer will determine whether the juvenile needs to go to detention or is
released back into his/her parents custody. Matagorda County does not have
their own juvenile detention facility. When a juvenile is detained they will
transported to a juvenile detention facility in another county. |
| Justice of the Peace and Municipal Courts
-
 When a juvenile
is filed on by their school for excessive absences, commits a Class C Misdemeanor offense,
or receives a
citation from a law enforcement agency, he/she is required to appear before the
Justice of the Peace or the Municipal Court Judge. The Justice of the Peace or
Municipal Court Judge will assess the referral by looking at the juvenile's
history in their court, family involvement, school recommendations and the
attitude of the juvenile when they appear in court. The judge can dispose of the
case in many ways. The Judge may counsel and release, issue a fine
to the parents, order the juvenile to do community service, order the juvenile
to attend the
Motivation Day program, order the juvenile into counseling, or waive
jurisdiction and refer on to Juvenile Court. |
| Juvenile Probation Intake
-
 The intake officer is the investigative agent in the juvenile probation
system. He/she is the person who receives the referral and determines, with the
Assistant District Attorney, what course of action will be taken on any charge.
To make this recommendation to the Court, the officer has to consider the nature of the
referral, the juvenile's past history, school performance and their family
situation. The child and parent will normally be scheduled and report for an
office visit.
 The office visit is not for the purpose of investigating the
crime but to find out information about the juvenile and the family. Along
with a standard assessment questionnaire, the intake officer will conduct a
series of interviews with the child, the family, the school and anyone else
with significant ties to the juvenile. |
| Court
- Once a recommendation is made, the juvenile is referred to the Court for
disposition. The court will
issue summons for the juvenile and his/her parents. The purpose of the summons
is to tell them what they are being charged with and when they have to report for court. If the juvenile and/or
parents do not show up for court, they can be found in Contempt of Court by the
Judge. Once in Court, the Judge will determine whether an attorney will be
appointed or whether the parent will have to hire an attorney. ALL juveniles
must be represented by an attorney. The juvenile will then meet with the
attorney to discuss his/her case. The juvenile's attorney will then meet
with the District Attorney to reach an agreement in the disposition of the case.
The case will then be presented to the Judge. If an agreement is not made, the juvenile will then have the option of a bench
trial or a jury trial to determine the disposition of his/her case. |
| Deferred Prosecution
is an agreement between the juvenile, the Probation Department, and
the Court. This agreement states that if the juvenile follows a set of
rules designated by the Court for a specific period of time, the case against
this juvenile will be dismissed. A juvenile can be on deferred prosecution
for no longer than six months. While on deferred prosecution, the juvenile
will have a curfew, be required report to a probation officer and may be assigned specific programs. Some of the programs the
juvenile may be required to attend or participate in are Community Service
Restitution, Operation
(prison) Outreach, drug assessments and drug education classes, anger management
classes,
parent and teen coping program,
Motivation Day,
and Team Challenge.
|
|
Formal Probation is a period of time
designated by the Court in which the juvenile is required to follow Court
ordered rules. Examples of some of the Court ordered rules are Curfew
 ,
Drug Testing, regular school attendance and not associating with other people on
probation. A probation officer is assigned to supervise the juvenile during this
time period to make sure they follow the rules. If a juvenile fails to
follow the rules of probation, he/she may have to spend time in detention, or
possibly go back to Court. The Court may determine to modify the
juvenile's conditions of probation to a stricter level of supervision, place the
juvenile outside the home, or send the juvenile to the
Texas Youth
Commission. Just like Deferred Prosecution, while on Probation, the juvenile may be required to attend
specific programs. Some of the programs the juvenile may be required to
attend or participate in are Community Service Restitution, Operation (prison) Outreach, drug
assessments and drug education classes, anger management, parent and teen coping
program, Boot Camp,
Motivation Day,
and Team Challenge. |
This is a basic outline of the Juvenile system and process. If you have any
questions
 regarding this information, please feel free to call the Matagorda
County Juvenile Probation Department.
|
