1997 Special Legislative Issue
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STATE BAR SECTION REPORT VOL. 11, NO. 3 JUVENILE LAW AUGUST 1997 SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE ISSUE OFFICERS Chair: Scott Stevens P.O. Box 727 Belton, Texas 76513 (254) 939-9393 Chair-Elect: Lisa Capers TSPC P.O. Box 13547 Austin, TX 78711 (512) 424-6672 Treasurer: Emily Helm TYC P.O. Box 4260 Austin, Texas 78765 (512) 483-5181 Secretary: Darlene A. Whitten Judge, County Court-At-Law No. 1 210 S. Woodow Lane Denton, Texas 76205 (817) 898-5870 Immediate Past Chair: E. Kent Ellis Judge, 315th District Court 1115 Congress Houston, Texas 77002 (713) 755-6480 COUNCIL Terms Expire 1998 Terms Expire 1999 Barbara Berrera Brownsville Vaughn Bailey Fort Worth Pat Garza San Antonio Robin Sage Longview James Bethke Austin Teana Watson Richmond Terms Expire 2000 Rebecca Erb Belton Kerry Piper Lubbock Carol Weir San Antonio Newsletter Editor: Robert O. Dawson Newsletter Secretary: Debbie Steed University of Texas School of Law University of Texas 727 E. 26th Street School of Law Austin, Texas 78705 (512) 471-1150; Fax: (512) 471-6988 [email protected] Copyright 1997 by Robert O. Dawson on behalf of the Juvenile Law Section. All rights reserved. 2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chair's Message ........................................................................................................................ 3 Editor’s Foreword .................................................................................................................... 3 Legislative Appropriations to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and Juvenile Probation Issues in the 75th Texas Legislature, Vicki Spriggs-Wright .............. 5 Texas Youth Commission--75th Legislative Session, Steve Robinson ..................................... 9 Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services: Funding Related to Juvenile Justice, Thomas Chapmond ............................................................................... 10 Juvenile Justice in the 75th Legislative Session, Robert O. Dawson ..................................... 11 1. Title 3 and Related Provisions ................................................................................... 13 2. Alcohol Violations by Minors .................................................................................... 45 3. Education and Juvenile Justice .................................................................................. 65 4. Sex Offender Legislation ........................................................................................... 87 5. Prosecution of Juveniles in Municipal and Justice Courts ....................................... 103 6. Selected Texas Youth Commission Provisions ....................................................... 110 7. Selected Texas Juvenile Probation Commission Provisions ................................... 117 8. Selected Department of Protective and Regulatory Services Provisions ................. 126 9. Miscellaneous Provisions ......................................................................................... 127 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 3 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ CHAIR'S MESSAGE by Scott K. Stevens I would like to take this opportunity in my first communication to the whole membership of the Juvenile Section to first thank the Honorable Kent Ellis for the fine leadership he exhibited in setting and pursuing high goals for the Juvenile Section. Judge Ellis set goals of expanding membership and moving towards achieving recognition of a specialty in Juvenile Law. We now have the highest membership ever. The last Annual Juve- nile Law Conference had the highest attendance of any to date. As of the June State Bar Convention, the Board of Legal Specialization was considering our request for a recognized specialty and I fully expect that by the next time I write for a newsletter we will have at least a preliminary answer. In keeping with Judge Ellis’s example, I wish to set two major goals. The first is to continue the efforts to establish a recognized specialty in Juvenile Law. Each member of the section needs to contact their Juve- nile Judge or Judges and ask them to write a letter to the Board of Legal Specialization recommending estab- lishment of a recognized specialty. The second goal is a thorough update or even a complete revision of our section bylaws. There are changes being contemplated by the State Bar of Texas in the way the State organization relates to Sections and Committees. One of those changes is to allow Sections to hold their annual business meetings at their own convenience rather than at the State Bar Convention. Since the Juvenile Law Section routinely holds its annual conference in February, this would allow the annual business meeting to occur at the conference and to include many more members in the actual running of the section. There are an number of other changes that are housekeeping changes and updating to include mandatory provisions required by the State Bar that are not currently implemented. As always, we will continue to provide the normal perquisites of membership, including this Legislative Special Issue of the newsletter, and strive to better the practice and practitioners of Juvenile law. Lastly, I would like to thank Professor Robert Dawson, Howard Baldwin, Jim Bethke, Lisa Capers and Neil Nichols, along with all the others who have contributed to the preparation of this issue of the newsletter, for their faithful and tireless efforts at presenting this issue to us in time for our membership to remain the best informed juvenile practitioners in the State. EDITOR'S FOREWORD by Robert O. Dawson Special Legislative Issue. This is only the second Special Legislative Issue of the Juvenile Law Sec- tion Newsletter ever to be published. It contains articles about the 75th legislature, the text of each amendment to juvenile law and commentaries on those amendments. This is a fifth--bonus--issue of the Newsletter for 1997. Our September and December issues will come out as usual. Recognition of the Juvenile Law Section. The June 23, 1997 issue of Texas Lawyer contained a sur- vey of the sections of the State Bar of Texas, ranking them in three categories based on the quantity and quali- ty of their activities. The Juvenile Law Section was one of only nine sections to be ranked in ”Tier 1: Setting the Standard.” Our Section was praised for its Annual Conference and for this Newsletter. The Council and Section members should feel proud. Recognition of Toby Goodman. Once again, Representative Toby Goodman, Chairman of the House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee, proved himself to be the man of the session for juvenile justice. 4 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ By his tireless and intelligent leadership, Representative Goodman once again focused the Texas legislature on juvenile justice legal and financial issues and once again produced positive results on both scores. On June 17, the Texas Probation Association honored Representative Goodman with a special reception and award during the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission’s Post-Legislative Conference in Austin. The recognition is certainly merited. At about the same time, Texas Monthly magazine named Representative Goodman to be one of the ten best legislators of the session. This is a recognition many of us believed he should have also received for his work in the 74th legislature in 1995; certainly, considering his work during both sessions, it would have been unthinkable if he had not been so recognized. Recognition of Neil Nichols. On June 1, at the Texas Corrections Association’ annual conference in El Paso, Neil Nichols was given the Association’s Clarence Stevenson Award. The Award is presented annually to the professional who most exemplifies the traits of fairness, integrity and honor. Neil is General Counsel to the TYC and has long been active in the juvenile field--making substantial contributions to juvenile law and practice. The award is certainly well deserved. Contributors to this Issue. I was fortunate to have assistance from three excellent lawyers in writing the Special Legislative Issue for 1995. I am pleased that Howard Baldwin, Director of Governmental Rela- tions at the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, Lisa Capers, General Counsel to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, and Neil Nichols, General Counsel and Assistant Executive Director for Pro- fessional Services at the Texas Youth Commission have agreed each to do an encore performance. This time, Lisa recruited assistance in her daunting assignment from Wesley Shackelford, Staff Attorney for TJPC, Lin- da Brooke, Director of Education Related Services at TJPC, and Patrick Powers, Legal Assistant at TJPC. In addition to Howard, Lisa and Neil, I was able to recruit Jim Bethke, General Counsel at the Texas Munici- pal Courts Education Center, to write commentaries that particularly affect municipal and justice courts. In addition to those who wrote or contributed to writing the section-by-section commentaries, three per- sons contributed special articles. Vicki Spriggs-Wright, Executive Director of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, contributed an article on the legislative appropriation process and its impact on the system. Ste- ve Robinson, Executive Director of the Texas