September 2007 in the News
County wants TYC to build in Atascocita; 09/27/2007
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: County officials are urging the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission to build a $25 million detention facility in Atascocita since local offenders make up at least a quarter of TYC detainees. Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to ask the TYC about building a detention facility in Harris County. "We would discuss this. It certainly would make sense," TYC spokesman Jim Hurley said. "We get a lot of kids from Harris County." The state Legislature this year set aside $25 million to build a TYC facility in a large metropolitan area.
TYC leader says abuse almost eliminated; 09/26/2007
STAR-TELEGRAM: The new head of the troubled Texas Youth Commission said Tuesday that much of the abuse that has plagued the agency has been eliminated but that officials still need to take steps to ensure that the cycle does not repeat itself. "I'm not going to say that [the abuse has] been totally eradicated," said Dimitria Pope, the commission's acting executive director. "I can say the staff-on-youth abuses have been significantly, if not 98 percent [eliminated]."
Youth Commission changes course on older offenders; 09/26/2007
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: After three months of wrangling over the proposed transfer of more than 150 19- and 20-year-old offenders to adult corrections programs, Texas Youth Commission officials on Tuesday said they have decided to keep more than half of them in youth lockups. It was the first public indication that keeping those offenders in Youth Commission lockups was even an option. In May, the Legislature ended the troubled agency's jurisdiction over the older offenders.
Politics, privacy law and publicity combine to delay Youth Commission releases; 09/23/2007
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: It started out with a simple directive: Get 19- and 20-year-old offenders out of Texas Youth Commission custody. But four months after a law took effect requiring that only offenders 18 and younger be incarcerated in Youth Commission prisons, most of the older offenders are still locked up in youth jails as officials wrangle over how to release them and controversy rages about why the public cannot get more information about who is being released, when and where. The criminal justice system has been making such releases for years, so why the uproar? What has changed?.
Springer: Follow the roadmap for reform; 09/21/2007
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature have a rare opportunity to respond to a public scandal in a way that significantly improves public services and saves hard-earned taxpayer money. In April 2007, after reports of widespread sexual abuse of juveniles housed in Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities, the leadership of TYC asked me to serve as chairman of a blue ribbon task force charged with defining a new rehabilitation system for juvenile offenders. I agreed to take on this project, provided that the task force — comprised of two dozen national and regional experts in the field — could examine the juvenile justice issue systemically, in a context that included a look at delinquency prevention, sentencing and community-based care, as well as the needs of juveniles in Youth Commission facilities and those who are on parole.
TYC close to settling two abuse cases; 09/20/2007
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: For the first time, the Texas Youth Commission is settling a claim brought over the agency's abuse scandal, individuals close to the proceedings said, agreeing to pay $30,000 to a former inmate who was brutally beaten by other inmates while in state custody in 2006. Erik Rodriguez celebrated his April release from a Texas Youth Commission facility with his mother, Alice Smith. He said guards weren't at their post when four other inmates beat him. Officials also confirmed they're in final negotiations to settle a separate claim.
Get-tough guy among TYC advisers says: Get smart, too; 09/19/2007
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Granted, it has been a long time, but I wondered if his philosophy had really changed that much. Back in 1993, I wrote a column about the get-tough views of Paul Tracy, a criminologist at the University of Texas at Dallas. He was particularly harsh on programs that coddled young offenders. He advocated something back then that was a little shocking to hear – "juvenile prisons." But then the other day I read on the front page of the newspaper that Dr. Tracy is one of the sharpest critics of the Texas Youth Commission and its heavy reliance on juvenile prisons. "I knew you were going to do that," he said with a wry laugh when we talked yesterday. "
Youth prisons need expert leaders, not refugees; 09/16/2007
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: One size never will fit all for our prison systems. Adults are sent down one road, youths another, and not by accident. More juvenile offenders – in Texas, that means those 10 to 17 years old when they commit crimes – have a chance after incarceration to straighten themselves out and become contributors to, rather than parasites on, society. For that to happen, of course, the Texas Youth Commission needs leadership that understands the difference between adult and juvenile offenders. Troublingly, state officials up to Gov. Rick Perry appear stuck in the past.
New TYC leaders draw concern; 09/16/2007
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Reform advocates and some Texas lawmakers are concerned by what they say is a lack of juvenile justice expertise among the new leaders of the troubled Texas Youth Commission. Since March, 10 former officials from Texas' adult prison system have joined the TYC, a state agency scandalized by physical and sexual abuse of inmates, official cover-ups and mismanagement. One such official is Ed Owens, once the No. 2 official in the adult prison system and now the conservator of the TYC.
Grant will help county to jail fewer youths; 09/14/2007
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Harris County will try to reduce overcrowding at its juvenile detention facilities by jailing only youths who pose a danger or have been accused of serious, violent crimes, officials announced Friday. The announcement comes three months after Commissioners Court discussed whether to ask voters to spend $76 million to renovate the former county jail and turn it into juvenile detention space. Instead, officials have turned to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, based in Baltimore, Md., which has given the county a $300,000 grant to develop ways to cut its juvenile detention Population.
TYC rejects many of own task force's suggestions; 09/13/2007
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The Texas Youth Commission on Thursday rejected many of the findings of its own task force, which called for sweeping changes in the state's juvenile justice system. TYC officials said the advisory group's report was out of step with the current political climate. Task force members said the agency was mired in a failed approach. "We are concerned that TYC is stuck in the past," said panel member Paul Tracy, a University of Texas at Dallas professor. "TYC is out of touch with what most juvenile justice specialists are saying." The 69-page report said juvenile incarceration rates in Texas are too high and harshly criticized TYC's new policy on using pepper spray on inmates.
Suit seeks to ban pepper spray at Texas juvenile prisons; 09/13/2007
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Two advocacy groups on Thursday asked a court to stop the Texas Youth Commission from allowing the use of pepper spray to subdue unruly juvenile prisoners before other forms of restraint. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three 15-year-old incarcerated youths with mental disabilities. One is a boy who has been sprayed three times and suffered skin burns for "self-injurious behavior," the lawsuit claims. The other two are a boy who has been sprayed and a girl who has been threatened with pepper spray.
Youth Commission Pepper Spray Policy Questioned, 09/13/2007
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN: A blue-ribbon panel commissioned in May to redesign Texas' troubled juvenile corrections system is harshly critical of state officials' recent decision to expand the use of pepper spray in state youth lockups. The criticism came as part of sweeping changes the panel is recommending on how Texas should best deal with its teenage offenders. The panel, made up of nearly two dozen national juvenile justice experts, produced a 56- page report that calls for a shift to small, regional treatment centers as a better alternative to large state-run lockups and recommends an increased emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation programs instead of punishment.
Law could send more youths to adult prisons; 09/06/2007
STAR-TELEGRAM: The new law designed to rid the Texas Youth Commission of conditions that led to the widespread abuse of young lawbreakers in state custody is likely to result in more juvenile offenders ending up in jails and prisons where hardened adult criminals are housed, some prosecutors and law enforcement officials say. At issue is a provision in Senate Bill 103, passed this year after a sex-abuse scandal that sparked a top-to-bottom housecleaning of the state agency. The provision forbids the youth commission from keeping offenders in custody past their 19th birthday.
Department working to combat negative light; 09/02/2007
THE FACTS.COM: A string of incidents and citations in a recent state audit at the Brazoria County Juvenile Probation Department are part of a shift in strategy to bring the department in line with state standards, state officials and the local juvenile probation chief said. Some officials, however, are concerned about the recent incidents and hope the department can fix the problems before the next audit. The department, which oversees juvenile detention, juvenile probation and the juvenile justice alternative education program or boot camp, was cited by the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission in December for several standards in non-compliance.