By Nathan McDaniel, Chief of Staff
The Legislature once again made massive investments in TJJD and the juvenile justice system at large.
Here are some of the key bills that passed during the 89th Legislature:
Staff investments
SB 1: General Appropriations Bill includes a 15% salary increase for TJJD direct care staff. These salary increases are allocated for JCOs, Team Leads, Case Managers, Case Manager Supervisors, Cooks, and Food Service Managers. The people in these jobs, particularly the JCOs, are the backbone of what TJJD is about and make up over 50% of the agency’s staff. None of us can do our jobs well without JCOs managing youth. And, if we are able to hire, train, and retain more JCOs, then that puts less of a stress on everyone else.
The legislature funding salaries to this level makes them comparable to the national average. When Shandra Carter joined TJJD as Executive Director in 2018, JCO starting salaries were just under $32,000/year. See the chart below to see the recent salary increases.
| JCO Starting Pay | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiscal Year | Pay | % Increase from Previous Year | % Increase from 2022 |
| 2018 | $31,512 | 15% | |
| 2019 | $36,238 | 15% | |
| 2020 | $36,238 | 0% | |
| 2021 | $36,238 | 0% | |
| 2022 | $36,238 | 0% | |
| 2023 | $41,674 | 15% | 15% |
| 2024 | $44,674 | 7% | 23% |
| 2025 | $47,674 | 7% | 32% |
| 2026 | $54,825 | 15% | 51% |
For reference, here are the average salary ranges for the largest categories of employees in TJJD facilities:
| Teachers | $87,840 |
| MHP | $86,002 |
| Team Lead | $76,646 |
| Parole Officer | $60,263 |
| Case Manager | $58,443 |
| JCO | $53,022 |
| Food Service | $40,457 |
SB 1737: This will enable almost all of TJJD’s facility staff to be eligible for the LECO retirement system. This helpful video describes how this retirement benefit works, but essentially, in addition to your current retirement, the state will match you 3 to 1 after 20 years of service. Unfortunately, current staff will have to buy into this retirement package, so it may not be feasible for everyone, but state and agency leadership hope this salary increase coupled with the LECO retirement benefit will help us recruit and retain top talent in our facilities. This is huge for TJJD.
Investments in TJJD
New Builds – The legislature fully funded two new builds and approved Ellis and Brazoria Counties as their locations. These facilities will each house 104 youth. One will serve violent offenders (VIC) and the other will serve youth with the most severe mental health needs.
Over the last several weeks, TJJD leadership has been working with an architectural firm to design modern facilities that will best serve the youth in the state’s care. The current timeline is to break ground in early 2026 and have these completed and online in 2028.
Application Modernization – TJJD is currently using fairly old technology (in some cases very old). Some technology is so old there are no longer people who even know how to work on it. We currently have 21 applications running on legacy technology. This session the legislature funded enough for us to modernize 7 applications. We are prepared to ask the legislature for funding the remaining 14 applications over the next two sessions. We only want to ask for what we can accomplish in a two-year timeframe.
Vehicle Refresh – Similar to the section above, we have some vehicles that are old and outdated, making them unsafe. We are excited to spruce up our fleet and hopefully bring some new vehicles online.
OIG investments
OIG’s budget nearly doubled — they went from around $8M to $16M!
SB 1171: OIG Schedule C: This investment will support maintaining peace officer salaries and improve recruitment and retention of experienced peace officers in OIG. This is another example of right-sizing, as OIG are the only law enforcement entity in the state that deals with felony conduct that was not on Schedule C.
The remaining OIG investment was for FTEs (just over 40 new positions) in a variety of mission critical roles, rebuilding OIG’s K-9 contraband detection unit at each of the five secure facilities, and enhancing training capabilities
OIO investments
The funding provided by the 89th Legislature will allow the Office of the Independent Ombudsman (OIO) to add two additional Senior Ombudsman positions which will allow the OIO to respond and investigate complaints in a more immediate and efficient manner. Additionally, adding a new Data Analyst position will allow the OIO to examine patterns and trends in TJJD data to determine if systemic issues are occurring. Finally, funding for training will allow the employees of the OIO to receive curriculum that is essential to the mission of protecting the rights of youth in the custody of TJJD.
The OIO’s budget also increased dramatically — from $1M to $1.6M.
Credible messengers
HB 1988 / SB 2776: This will help us develop and expand the use of the Credible Messenger programs. This is exciting because we know youth benefit by hearing former TJJD youth’s stories and how they’ve applied the lessons they learned while in TJJD’s custody to build a life worth living when they’re released. TJJD thanks Senator Adam Hinojosa and Representative John Lujan for their leadership on this issue!
Other funding
- Probation Funding
- Body Scanners
- PREA Compliance Analyst
- Nurse pay increase
- Computer refresh
- Uniforms for JCOs
- CTE Enhancements
- Special Education
Staff, youth, and community safety continues to be TJJD’s top priority.
The 90th Legislative Session begins on January 12, 2027 (only about 475 days away!). If you have any ideas about ways to improve the agency of the juvenile justice system through legislative action, please contact TJJD Chief of Staff Nathan McDaniel at nathan.mcdaniel@tjjd.texas.gov.