A Brief History of the Relationship Between the

Texas Justice Court Training Center and the

Texas Justices of the Peace and Constables Association, Inc.

            Article 27.005 of the Texas Government Code and rules promulgated thereunder by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals require all justices of the peace to attend an eighty-hour course of training within one year of taking office and a twenty-hour course each year thereafter.

            The Justices of the Peace and Constables Association of Texas, Inc. (JPCA) has been involved in providing judicial education since 1958.  In those early years, participating justices of the peace paid their own training expenses (training was voluntary), and the only source of justice of the peace education in Texas was the Texas A & M University Police Academy in College Station.  Using pass-through federal funds, the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor’s Office awarded JPCA a grant in 1971 to fund the administration of its judicial education program and the Texas Justice Court Training Center was born.  JPCA then hired an Executive Director to oversee the program and contracted with Lamar Tech University in Beaumont to house and administer the grant.

            The Governor’s Office ceased judicial training grant funding in 1985; at that time, the Texas Supreme Court was put in charge of making grants from the judicial and court personnel training program fund.  The Supreme Court handled the program until 1993 at which time the Legislature moved the grant funding to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

            The JPCA program has received State-financed grant funding every year since its inception.  Over the years, ancillary courses for clerks of the justice courts and constables have been developed by JPCA and the Training Center to enhance the training judges receive.  In 1986, additional funding was obtained by JPCA to provide civil process training for constables and procedural training for justice court clerks.  These seminars satisfy mandatory educational requirements for constables who serve civil process issued by the justice courts, as well as provide up-to-date information concerning laws and procedures applicable to court personnel duties. 

            After spending its first year at Lamar Tech, the program moved to Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos (now, Texas State University – San Marcos).  Today the Texas Justice Court Training Center is still located at TSU, where the program represents the longest-running University/grant relationship, as well as one of  the largest grants on the TSU campus.  JPCA contracts with the University for financial and programmatic administration; thus, Training Center employees are employees of the University. Day-to-day program operations are subject also to the Conditions of Grant issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals.  The Court is responsible for monitoring judicial training grant programs for quality and effectiveness, for performing annual financial audits, and for reporting on the grants to the Legislature.