Have you heard of any “certified juveniles” in your county lockup? Please send us your information about the experiences of Texas kids in county jails.

Certified means that a person under 17 is accused of a crime too serious for juvie, and the court certifies he/she as an adult, so they can be tried as an adult. Of course that means they are also held in the adult jail– the county jail–while awaiting trial. From 2005 to 2010, Texas courts certified nearly 1,300 youths as adults.

People in the criminal justice field need to know how the kids are treated while they are housed in an adult jail–especially in the Harris County Jail, since Harris County courts certified TWICE as many juvenile offenders as adults as any other county in Texas in those four years.