Tarrant County recently sent more kids to state youth prisons than any other Texas county, contributing to a booming waitlist for beds in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s five secured facilities.

Tarrant transferred 103 kids to state custody in the 2025 fiscal year that ended in August, jumping 63% from the period prior, according to preliminary TJJD data obtained by the Texas Tribune. That’s also nearly twice the number of youth sent from Harris County, the state’s most populous county.

And while this is not the first time Tarrant has led Texas on this issue, the county is on track to send the highest number of kids to state youth prisons this calendar year since at least 2011 .

State District Judge Alex Kim, a Republican who has led the county’s juvenile court since 2019, p

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