HOUSTON – You do the crime, you do the time. That’s been the tradition with the Texas Criminal Justice System. But the tide could be changing when it comes to juveniles.
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A Precinct 4 judge is sentencing 9 to 14-year-olds to serve time as scouts.
Staying out of trouble seems to be getting harder for teenagers in Harris County. Last year, nearly 3,000 were involved in everything from theft to sexual assault – more than three times the number just a few years earlier.
The numbers keep rising despite increasingly harsh treatment and hard time for young offenders.
Judge Kent Adams had his doubts about whether the juvenile system in Harris County was working. He decided to try and turn juvenile delinquents into Boy Scouts – literally.
The Precinct 4 judge is sentencing 9 to 14-year-olds to serve time as scouts.
“Usually a kid that gets out of line at school has said something he should not have said – sometimes even pushed a teacher, trespassed on school property,” explained Judge Adams. "These are non-damage personal injury type of violations.
Judge Adams has already placed 125 troubled teens to the Boy Scouts.
David Cavazos is one of them.
“On the bus I wanted to throw stuff because we had a sub,” Cavazos said.
Misbehaving on the bus ended with Cavazos behind bars charged with a Class C misdemeanor.
“The judge told me I had to be in Boy Scouts for six months until I get my rank,” Cavazos said. “I didn’t want to be in Boy Scouts.”
He was sentenced nearly two years ago. Since then, the scouting oath has changed his life.
“It taught me I can do better than I thought I can do before,” Cavazos said. "I want to stay, I like it. It made me more responsible now my grades are better than they were.
Cavazos is a textbook success story. But not all of them turn out this way.
“You are sending a horrific mixed message by telling this child you have to go in there because it’s punishment,” said one mother with a son in the scouts.
She said a boy sentenced by the judge started a fight with another child on a camping trip.
“A situation occurred… child got into a fight. He strangled, supposedly put his hands around the neck,” said the mother who didn’t want to be identified.
Judge Adams, who is also district chairman of the Boy Scouts, believes in the program. Part of the Scouts mission, he says, is to help people.
“In many instances, this is the first and only chance they have to know what it is to be a real man and what it takes to be a real citizen and gentlemen and now exposed to a group of men that give a flip and they respond,” explained the judge.
For those who don’t respond, and the judge admits some don’t, it’s back to probation. The crime stays on their record.
But still, some wonder if the Boy Scouts are equipped to deal with troubled teens who perhaps should be in boot camp or detention centers.
“A child with anger management is not one you want carrying a knife,” said the scout’s mother. “You don’t know what will trip his trigger.”
Judge Adams believes scout laws – to be helpful, friendly and loyal – will help keep troubled kids from becoming repeat offenders.
The judge says there are no numbers to show us yet on the success rate of this program. It’s only in its second year.
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