Administrative Services

 

By statute, Tarrant County Juvenile Services (TCJS) is the agency designated to receive law enforcement reports of law violations defined either as delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision allegedly committed by juveniles (children ages 10 through 16).

Delinquent conduct includes Class A & B misdemeanors as well as felony-grade offenses. Conduct indicating a need for supervision includes Class C misdemeanors transferred from a justice or municipal court and include public intoxication, truancy, running away, inhalant abuse, and violation of school disciplinary codes that result in expulsion.
    

Scales of Justice


Services performed include screening and diversion of cases to community resources, presenting objective reports to the court for use at disposition, executing court-ordered treatment and supervision, administering community corrections programs, securing alternative placement and administering collection of court-ordered probation fees. TCJS has developed programs and operations with the goal of diverting youth from the juvenile justice system at the earliest appropriate point, and strives to identify the least restrictive environment for the care and rehabilitation of children while assuring community safety. To this end, TCJS has developed a range of community and home-based programs as options to address the problem of juvenile crime.  

TCJS also operates the Juvenile Detention Center, a 24-hour secure facility for the temporary detention of juveniles for serious law violations. The goal of the center is to provide supervision, activities and counseling that will benefit each child during his/her stay. Services include educational, medical, recreational and life skills training as well as daily written observations of each child for use by the court.

Juvenile Court building