Texas House Passes Bill To Raise Legal Age To Be Tried As Adult To 18

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A bill to raise the legal age to be tried as an adult to 18 has passes in the Texas House. Texas is only one of 6 states that still holds 17-year-olds criminally responsible as adults.

Thursday’s vote sends the proposal by Houston Democratic Rep. Harold Dutton and several bipartisan co-sponsors to the state Senate. A Senate version of the bill is pending in committee but hasn’t yet cleared committee there.

Dutton’s bill isn’t expected to cost the state money in its 2018-2019 budget, but eventually could cost $35-million-plus annually.

Past efforts to “raise the age” stalled in Texas, which leads the nation in executions and relishes its tough-on-crime reputation.

But this session’s House bill passed relatively easily, endorsed by youth organizations and criminal justice reform groups, as well as conservatives who want Texas to cut the costs of its prisons.

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