The Attorney General of Texas 

September 9, 1980 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General 

Mr. Ron Jackson 

Executive Director 

Texas Youth Council 

8900 Shoal Creek Boulevard 

Austin, Texas 78766 

Dear Mr. Jackson: 

Opinion No. MI+2 3 7 

Re: Whether Texas Youth Council 

may provide residential care to an 

individual on adult probation 

The Texas Youth Council (TYC) is presently providix residential 

services to three juveniles who were committed to TYC for delinquent 

conduct pursuant to Title 3 of the Family Code and who, because of 

different offenses, are also on adult probation. Two were committed to 

TYC and were then tried as adults, either after discretionary transfer 

pursuant to section 54.02 of the Family Code or for offenses committed 

after becoming seventeen years of age. The third was initially transferred 

pursuant to section 54.02, was convicted and placed on adult probation, and 

was then committed to TYC for delinquent conduct consisting of a felony 

committed prior to the offense for which he was convicted as an adult. 

Your question is whether TYC may provide residential care to, and exercise 

control over, a person who hes been validly committed to TYC for 

delinquent conduct when such person is also on adult probation. 

The Texas Youth Council is governed by the Human Resources Code, 

which became effective September 1, 1979. See section 61.001 et seq. 

Section 61.001(5) of the Code defines a “delinquentchild’ as a “child adjudged 

to be a delinquent child under Section 54.03 of the Family Code,” which 

distinguishes children who engage in “delinquent conduct” from those who 

merely engage in conduct “indicating a need for swervision.” The former 

are &fined in section 51.03 as children who engage in: 

(a) . . .conduct, other than a traffic offense, that 

violates: 

(1) a penal law of this state punishable by 

imprisonment or by confinement in jail; or 

(2) a reasonable and lawful order of a juvenile 

court entered under section 54.04 or 54.05 of this 

code, including an order prohibiting conduct referred 

to in Subsection (b)(4) of this section. 

p. 749 
Mr. Ron Jackson - Page Two (NW-237) 

Pursuant to section 54.04(d) of the Family Code, a court may, following a hearing at 

which it is adjudged that a child hes engaged in delinquent conduct, commit the child 

to the Texas Youth Council. TYC shall, furthermore, “accept a child properly 

committed to it by a juvenile court even though the child may be 17 years of age or 

older at the time of commitment.” Section 54.04(e). 

The Human Resources Code directs TYC to administer the training, diagnostic 

treatment, and supervisory facilities and services of the state for “delinquent children” 

committed to it and authorize TYC to utilize state-owned detention, supervisory, 

educational, correctional and other facilities, institutions, and agencies for this 

purpcee and to enter into agreements with appropriate public or private agencies for 

the separate care and treatment of juveniles under its controL Sections 61.002, 61.032, 

61.036-.040. Delinquent children, assuming they are not released unconditionally, or 

placed on probation or in some institution or agency other than a state training school, 

are to be committed to TYC, sections 61.062-.063, which then determines appropriate 

treatment and placement of the child. Section 61.071 et seq. TYC may release under 

supervision any delinquent child in its custody in accordance with the provisions of 

section 61.081, but in any event “shall discharge from its custody a child not already 

discharged on his or her 18th birthday.” Section 61.084. 

We think it clear from the foregoing provisions that TYC has jurisdiction of and 

control over any child who has been adjudged “delinquent” within the meaning of the 

Human Resources Code and the Family Code and has been properly committed to it 

until such time as the child reaches eighteen years of age or is otherwise released from 

its jurisdiction. We can find nothing that indicates, or even suggests, that TYC 

forfeits its jurisdiction over a delinquent child who has been properly committed to it, 

.and who would otherwise clearly be under its control and eligible for its services, 

merely because the child is placed on adult probation following conviction of some 

other offense. Accordingly, the answer to your question is that TYC may provide 

residential care to, and exercise control over, a child who has been validly committed 

for delinquent conduct, notwithstanding that such child is also on probation as an adult. 

SUMMARY 

The Texas Youth Council may provide residential care to, 

and exercise control over, a person who has been validly 

committed for delinquent conduct, even though the person is 

also on adult probation. 

JOHN W. FAINTER, JR. 

First Assistant Attorney General 

kwNv.ea& 

MARK WHITE 

Attorney General of Texas 

P. 750 
Mr. Ron Jackson - Page Three (MW-237) 

Prepared by Jon Bible 

Assistant Attorney General 

APPROVED: 

OPINION COMMITTEE 

C. Robert Heath, Chairman 

Jon Bible 

Dawn Bruner 

Susan Garrison 

Rick Gilpin 

Bruce Youngblood 

P. 751