Four Lessons for Youth Justice Leaders From Harris County

What can youth jus­tice lead­ers do when suc­cess­ful reforms leave cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties half emp­ty? In Har­ris Coun­ty, Texas, lead­ers saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to rethink how these spaces can bet­ter serve young people.

Rather than pre­serve unused deten­tion capac­i­ty, the coun­ty trans­formed a for­mer youth cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty into The Oppor­tu­ni­ty Cen­ter, a com­mu­ni­ty hub offer­ing edu­ca­tion, job train­ing, men­tor­ship and oth­er supports.

The trans­for­ma­tion is doc­u­ment­ed in From Pun­ish­ment to Pos­si­bil­i­ty: Replac­ing Incar­cer­a­tion with Oppor­tu­ni­ty in Har­ris Coun­ty, Texas, a new report from Cat­alyze Jus­tice. The pub­li­ca­tion iden­ti­fies four lessons for youth jus­tice lead­ers seek­ing to reduce incar­cer­a­tion, strength­en com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships and cre­ate bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for young people.

“Every day, com­mu­ni­ties are demon­strat­ing that long-term safe­ty comes from invest­ing in young peo­ple, not lock­ing them up,” said Yumari Mar­tinez, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Cat­alyze Jus­tice. ​“A bet­ter way isn’t just pos­si­ble; it’s already tak­ing shape.”

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion sup­port­ed Har­ris Coun­ty’s reform efforts through fund­ing and strate­gic guid­ance and pro­duced a short video on The Oppor­tu­ni­ty Center.

How Har­ris Coun­ty Cre­at­ed Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Change

Begin­ning in 2018, lead­ers from the Har­ris Coun­ty Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Depart­ment, Dis­trict Attor­ney’s Office and Juve­nile Board worked with advo­cates and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions to expand diver­sion and reduce unnec­es­sary confinement.

The changes pro­duced sig­nif­i­cant results between 2017 and 2020:

• Dai­ly youth deten­tion pop­u­la­tions declined by approx­i­mate­ly 61%, from 320 to 125.
• Deten­tion admis­sions and sys­tem place­ments fell by more than 68%.
• Three youth cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties were oper­at­ing at less than half capac­i­ty by late 2019.

These reduc­tions cre­at­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to redi­rect resources toward com­mu­ni­ty-based support.

The coun­ty con­vert­ed the for­mer Bur­nett-Bay­land Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­ter into The Oppor­tu­ni­ty Cen­ter, replac­ing con­fine­ment spaces with class­rooms, voca­tion­al train­ing labs and wel­com­ing areas designed to sup­port young peo­ple’s growth.

The cen­ter offers GED prepa­ra­tion, job train­ing, cred­i­ble mes­sen­ger men­tor­ing, behav­ioral health ser­vices and assis­tance meet­ing basic needs. Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions help lead pro­gram­ming while pro­ba­tion staff serve as coach­es and mentors.

Four Lessons for Youth Jus­tice Leaders

The Cat­alyze Jus­tice report high­lights four strate­gies that helped Har­ris Coun­ty move from con­fine­ment toward opportunity.

1. Start With a Clear Vision for Youth Justice

Har­ris Coun­ty’s trans­for­ma­tion began when lead­ers rede­fined the pur­pose of the youth jus­tice sys­tem. Rather than focus­ing pri­mar­i­ly on pun­ish­ment and con­fine­ment, they empha­sized pub­lic safe­ty, account­abil­i­ty and cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple to succeed.

That shared vision helped align gov­ern­ment agen­cies, advo­cates and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners around a new approach.

For youth jus­tice lead­ers, the les­son is to estab­lish a clear pur­pose that guides deci­sions about poli­cies, invest­ments and programs.

2. Reduce Youth Incar­cer­a­tion Before Redesign­ing Facilities

Har­ris Coun­ty expand­ed diver­sion and com­mu­ni­ty-based alter­na­tives before trans­form­ing its cor­rec­tion­al facilities.

As few­er young peo­ple entered deten­tion and res­i­den­tial place­ments, the coun­ty found itself oper­at­ing facil­i­ties well below capacity.

Instead of fill­ing unused beds, lead­ers rec­og­nized that the declin­ing pop­u­la­tion cre­at­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to invest in a dif­fer­ent approach.

The report empha­sizes that reduc­ing con­fine­ment can free resources and cre­ate the con­di­tions for broad­er sys­tem transformation.

3. Invest in Com­mu­ni­ties and Share Leadership

Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions were essen­tial to design­ing and oper­at­ing The Oppor­tu­ni­ty Center.

Part­ners brought exper­tise in work­force devel­op­ment, men­tor­ship, behav­ioral health and ser­vices that meet young peo­ple’s basic needs. Their involve­ment helped cre­ate a pro­gram built around sup­port­ive rela­tion­ships and mean­ing­ful path­ways to adulthood.

Har­ris Coun­ty also launched a $4 mil­lion Youth Jus­tice Com­mu­ni­ty Rein­vest­ment Fund in 2021 to sup­port grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions serv­ing neigh­bor­hoods most affect­ed by incarceration.

The les­son for oth­er juris­dic­tions is that com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships should extend beyond ser­vice con­tracts. Com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions can help shape pri­or­i­ties, design pro­grams and lead efforts to sup­port young people.

4. Turn Facil­i­ty Clo­sures Into Opportunities

When Har­ris Coun­ty’s cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties became under­used, lead­ers faced pres­sure to pre­serve the exist­ing infra­struc­ture or make beds avail­able for oth­er purposes.

Instead, they chose to repur­pose one facil­i­ty into a com­mu­ni­ty resource.

Heavy steel doors were removed, class­rooms replaced con­fine­ment spaces and staff roles shift­ed from super­vi­sion toward coach­ing and support.

The report encour­ages youth jus­tice lead­ers to act when oppor­tu­ni­ties for trans­for­ma­tion emerge. Clos­ing a cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ty can cre­ate the foun­da­tion for some­thing more ben­e­fi­cial to young peo­ple and their communities.

“What stands out about Har­ris Coun­ty is that its lead­ers nev­er stop look­ing for oppor­tu­ni­ties to help young peo­ple suc­ceed,” said Danielle Lipow, a senior asso­ciate at the Foun­da­tion. ​“They con­sis­tent­ly ask what they could do dif­fer­ent­ly, they dream big and they work with com­mu­ni­ty part­ners to bring those dreams to life. Their will­ing­ness to rethink how they use their resources offers an impor­tant exam­ple for oth­er jurisdictions.”

Mea­sur­ing Suc­cess Beyond Reduced Incarceration

Har­ris Coun­ty’s trans­for­ma­tion also changed how lead­ers think about youth success.

The Oppor­tu­ni­ty Cen­ter mea­sures progress through edu­ca­tion­al achieve­ments, employ­ment, intern­ships and sup­port­ive rela­tion­ships rather than focus­ing sole­ly on whether young peo­ple return to the jus­tice system.

The cen­ter is now evolv­ing into a career-focused acad­e­my with stronger employ­ment path­ways and mea­sures of hope, rela­tion­ships and eco­nom­ic opportunity.

“If you ask me what our biggest suc­cess is, it’s not the build­ing — it’s the oppor­tu­ni­ty we’ve cre­at­ed for young peo­ple to grow and become tru­ly them­selves,” said Hen­ry Gon­za­les, exec­u­tive direc­tor and chief juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cer of the Har­ris Coun­ty Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion Department.

Har­ris Coun­ty’s expe­ri­ence demon­strates that reduc­ing youth incar­cer­a­tion can be a start­ing point for broad­er trans­for­ma­tion. With a clear vision, com­mu­ni­ty lead­er­ship and a com­mit­ment to rein­vest­ment, juris­dic­tions can turn unused cor­rec­tion­al capac­i­ty into oppor­tu­ni­ties that help young peo­ple thrive.

Read From Pun­ish­ment to Possibility