On July 19, 2024, following accounts from a whistle-blower documenting horrific conditions in Henry Wade and a press conference held by a group of Dallas clergy and community members, Daryl Beatty, the Executive Director of Dallas County’s Juvenile Department, resigned. After Beatty denied the facility’s conditions, a surprise state inspection exposed the extremely poor and unsafe conditions faced by incarcerated children in Dallas. Beatty’s resignation prompted the Dallas County Juvenile Board to discuss new leadership in a July 22, 2024 meeting. The board determined the first step would be to hire an interim director from outside the department, former Texas Juvenile Justice Department Executive Director and former Dallas County Juvenile Department Executive Director Mike Griffiths. The board envisions this as an opportunity for Dallas’ youth justice system to embrace a more rehabilitative approach, with a greater focus on the well-being of the children. Watch the clergy and community leaders’ press conference and read Fox’s coverage of Beatty’s resignation below. The shifts continued on August 16, 2024, as the Deputy Director resigned. LSJA is watching these developments closely and continues to advocate for safe, constitutional conditions in all youth facilities.
Project Partners
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Through our Youth Sentencing Project, we provide direct strategic litigation on behalf of youth who were tried in the adult criminal legal system and given extremely long prison sentences, particularly those sentenced to life without parole.
Youth should be held accountable for their wrongdoing in developmentally appropriate ways that consider their age, individual characteristics, and specific circumstances of their cases.
Our staff litigators take the lead on a limited number of cases every year, selecting those that have the potential to influence system-wide change. Last year, LSJA was involved in 13 cases challenging the transfer of youth (either as lead counsel or in a technical support role) and won 12 of these cases.
