By Lauren McGaughy
Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN — In Texas, you have to be 21 to apply for a concealed handgun permit, and, in many cities, 18 to buy an e-cigarette. In the eyes of the criminal justice system, however, you are considered an adult at age 17, a nearly century-old law juvenile justice advocates and law enforcement increasingly agree is out of step with national norms.

Texas is one of only nine states with an age of adulthood under 18. The cutoff long has raised the hackles of advocates who say 17-year-olds are not mature enough to be tried, sentenced and incarcerated alongside adults. Now, some agreement is coalescing around the idea of upping the age to 18 as Texas seeks to comply with newly instituted federal standards for jails and prisons.

“We support it,” Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia recently said. Four lawmakers already have filed bills ahead of the 2015 session to up the adulthood age to 18. “We’ll all be challenged by it, but I think we’re smart enough to deal with that.”

Read the rest of this article at Corrections One.