The past decade has seen tumultuous scandal followed by improvements in the juvenile justice system in Texas. Although the abuses in the system were discovered in 2007, they had been occurring for several years. The news that some staff were sexually assaulting children in the system while others ignored the reports broke shortly before the 80th Legislature met (Levin and Moll, 1). The Legislature took immediate corrective action to prevent this sort of tragedy from ever reoccurring. However, the reforms did not end there. Instead, the government continued to remedy systemic problems, making Texas a benchmark for juvenile justice across the country.
Too many Houston crimes go unsolved. Here’s how to change that.
The latest HPD scandal underscores a national problem. Commit a crime, get caught and go to jail — directly to jail. It’s the justice lesson we learned growing up, but it’s far from reality in cities across the nation, where clearance rates are abominably low. News out of Houston is compounding the issue of unsolved crimes after the Houston...