Adolescent inmates in the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center are allegedly influenced to commit more severe crimes instead of being rehabilitated.
“The way this whole thing has been operating has been the exact opposite of rehabilitation,” said District Attorney John Creuzot, per NBC 5 DFW.
Multiple county officials are demanding that more records be released to accelerate reform efforts.
One report from March evidently revealed roughly two-thirds of those being held at the juvenile detention center should have been released within a few days. However, they were apparently held with other offenders for several months — significantly longer than juvenile offenders are held in other counties.
“When you incarcerate a low-level, low-risk child, with somebody who’s committed armed robbery or murder, the child is more likely to do what? Develop bad habits,” suggested Creuzot, per NBC 5.
County officials pointed to recent armed robberies Dallas police claim were committed by minors as an example of the types of crimes they are working to prevent.
Dallas police arrested four teenagers and one adult on May 31 in connection with a string of armed robberies that took place throughout that month, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“They graduate into this type of crime,” said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, per NBC. “They just don’t get up in the morning and decide we’re going to conduct aggravated robberies throughout the city.”
Creuzot said he knows of multiple cases in which juvenile detainees committed murder after their release and is now seeking records to determine the effectiveness of the county’s juvenile rehabilitation programs.
“When you tell the District Attorney who is responsible for public safety, that these kids are going through the program … to create rehabilitation and public safety and they wind up killing people, that’s not a very good answer to give somebody like me,” he said. “So, that’s a concern.”
Creuzot himself, however, has been criticized for promoting policies that allow crime to persist throughout Dallas County.
For example, he instituted a policy of not prosecuting thefts under $750 but later reversed it after being criticized for potentially encouraging crime, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Dallas County’s Juvenile Department director, Darryl Beatty, has reportedly not responded to media requests for comment.