The Texas Juvenile Justice Department approved a county diversion grant at $850 a day — more than the roughly $770 a day it costs to hold a youth in a state lockup — in violation of state law, according to a staff report released Nov. 12 by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, the legislative panel that reviews state agencies. In the following year, the department funded a grant at $1,200 a day.
The report found the agency has not tracked whether its program for keeping young offenders closer to home saves the state money, as the law requires, and cut $200 million in county probation requests from its draft budget proposal. The findings matter for the 164 county juvenile probation departments that handle nearly all of Texas’ youth cases and receive about $242 million a year from the department.
State law requires the department’s Regional Diversion Alternatives grants — money that pays counties to treat youth locally instead of sending them to state facilities — to be paid at a rate that saves the state money compared with the cost of state confinement. The average grant cost about $280 a day in fiscal 2025. But “TJJD violated statute by funding an RDA grant of $850 per day,” higher than the Legislative Budget Board’s estimate of about $770 for a state facility, the report states. In fiscal 2026, the department “exceeded the RDA budget, thereby demonstrating poor financial oversight and a practice of approving RDA applications no matter the cost, which violates statute.”
The department argued that comparing daily rates understates savings because diversion lasts 255 days on average, compared with 387 days in a state facility, and because youth with serious needs would cost more if committed. Sunset staff responded that the agency “has never used detailed cost methodologies” and that in fiscal 2025 and 2026 it “did not track the total cost of each individual RDA grant at all.”
The report also faulted how the department awards money. Staff “found at least a dozen instances in the last two years when TJJD did not award grants to the highest-scoring applicant, but no documentation supporting those decisions exists.” The agency estimated $212.5 million in savings from keeping youth in county programs from fiscal 2017 through 2024, but the report called the figures incomplete and said that “by failing to calculate, much less publish the savings resulting from regionalization for 10 years, TJJD has deprived its board and the Legislature of critical data.”
The cost gap between options is large. In fiscal 2024, commitment to a state facility cost $771 per youth per day, a county facility using diversion money $255, and community-based programs $88, according to the report. Meanwhile, an average of 132 youth a day waited 76 days in county facilities in fiscal 2025 before transfer to a state facility, adding to county burdens.
On budgets, the report says that after developing its appropriations request with counties, the department cut $200 million in probation-related items; its submitted request includes $15 million for probation and $308 million for state-level items. In July the agency said it would hire someone to resume monitoring the $500 million it sends counties each biennium, but as of October the position had not been posted.
The review comes amid turmoil at state facilities. An assault on an employee at Gainesville led the department to lock down all five secure facilities in August, and its executive director “resigned at the end of October 2026 before the publication of this report,” according to the report. The Dispatch reported in August that the agency’s board was directed to trim its own budget request.
Sunset staff recommend updating the statutory cost test, adopting a cost method in rule and setting grant policies; they estimate no significant fiscal impact. The Sunset Commission has tentatively scheduled public testimony on the department for Dec. 15-16, according to its meetings page, before voting on recommendations for the 2027 Legislature.
Key facts
- Sunset staff report on TJJD dated Nov. 12, 2026 (85 pages).
- Report: TJJD “violated statute” by funding an $850-per-day diversion grant vs. ~$770 state-facility cost in FY2025; a $1,200-per-day grant in FY2026.
- TJJD cut $200 million in probation items from its draft budget request; submitted $15 million for probation vs. $308 million state-level.
- Sunset Commission public testimony on TJJD tentatively Dec. 15-16, 2026.