New TYC executive director hired

According to an email sent out by the conservator today to all Texas Youth Commission staff, TYC has finally hired a permanent executive director. Wrote Richard Nedelkoff:

I am pleased that I am able to tell you today that I have hired Cherie Townsend as the agency’s new Executive Director. While she officially comes on board October 1, Cherie will be attending some agency functions prior to that time.

Cherie brings a wealth of background and expertise in juvenile justice, having established a national reputation as an agent of change. I’m pleased someone of her caliber is joining us at TYC to help lead the agency forward, and I feel very strongly that she will provide the agency with the leadership needed to complete our reform efforts.

Cherie’s experience in juvenile justice spans more than three decades, including 18 years in previous positions at TYC. Most recently she served as director of the Clark County Juvenile Court Services in Las Vegas, NV where she was responsible for the leadership, planning, management and delivery of court services in one of the fastest growing counties in the United States. Prior to that, she served as director of Juvenile Court Services for the Superior Court of Arizona’s Juvenile Court Center in Maricopa County.

During Cherie’s 18-year tenure at TYC, she served as director of community services where she developed and updated programs to meet the changing needs of youth and families and to improve results and better manage at-risk youth in communities.

I know nothing about Ms. Townsend, but before her gig in Nevada, according to this brief bio:

Ms. Townsend served as Director of Juvenile Court Services in Maricopa County, Arizona. She has worked for the Texas Youth Commission in various capacities, including Director of Community Services. She also served as Director of Victim-Witness Services for the Travis County District Attorney in Texas. Ms. Townsend has earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Southern Methodist University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas.

Her past experience with TYC may help some; certainly you wouldn't want someone with no Texas experience at all leading the agency through the Sunset process at the lege next year. But otherwise it's hard to say from this information whether they've selected the right long-term leader for the troubled agency. I hope so. Time will tell.

UPDATE: See TYC's press release on the announcement.

Mental health spending, TYC 'regionalization' highlight juvie corrections budgets for 2010-11

Let's point out a few highlights in recently issued agency proposals for state juvie corrections budgets that will surely frame legislative discussions in 2009. (For readers who may be interested in this level of detail, see the Texas Youth Commission's legislative appropriation request [LAR] for 2010-2011, and this LAR for the Juvenile Probation Commission.)

Right off the bat, in TYC's exceptional items (pdf) the agency proposes reducing staff size by 172 positions compared to the current budget, most of which can likely be accomplished through attrition. TYC also proposed pay raises for JCOs in its LAR, but not of sufficient magnitude to match what's been proposed in the adult system which currently has identical pay scales.

I was also glad to see the agency intends to continue requesting more funds for mental health services. According to the base budget request (pdf), after receiving a more than 200% increase in mental health services in 2009, from $1,143,556 to $3,513,862, TYC has requested another 20% bump to $4,536,707.

Indeed, IMO it would behoove the state to expand mental health spending across the board much earlier in the process. According to the Juvenile Probation Commission's LAR (p. 6 of the pdf), "According to TJPC data, approximately 26.5% of youth under supervision (19,567 youth) have a diagnosable mental health disorder These juveniles recidivate at a rate almost 50% higher than juveniles that are not mentally ill."

Juvenile probation budgets for mental health services are much smaller, though probation serves perhaps 97+% of juvenile offenders, not TYC. TJPC asked for a modest "increase of $6.5 million (over two years) to conduct mental health assessments, provide mental health services to youth referred to juvenile probation departments or placed in secure facilities." I'm glad to see it, but for my money even that figure should be increased - TYC's mental health services need and deserve the funding boost they've requested, but a truly coherent public policy would invest more heavily in juvie probation departments on the front end to keep kids out of a youth prisons in the first place. The same could be said for so-called alternative disciplinary systems in schools.

The biggest decision over the Youth Commission's next biennial budget will inevitably be what the Lege decides to do with the conservator's "regionalization plan." See the various options laid out here. The conservator and TYC administration favor Option 2, described as follows:

Construct 8 non-secure 24-bed Community Transitional Centers at $1.7 million per site:

• Houston area (3 sites)
• Dallas area (1 site)
• Amarillo area (1 site)
• San Antonio area (1 site)
• Austin area (1 site)
• Tyler area(1 site)

Acquire and renovate a secure 48-bed facility in Kerr County at an estimated cost of $6 million.

Acquire and renovate a 48-bed facility in Terry County at an estimated cost of $4-6 million.

Inevitably this strategy will mean downsizing or shutting down some existing TYC facilities, but the use of smaller halfway house style units and the shift to smaller settings closer to the students families in and of itself is a good idea.

In addition to that proposed new capacity, TYC just approved a 2-year contract with a Florida based company, Youth Services International (YSI), for just over $17 million to lease 132 beds in Colorado County at an old TYC unit at Eagle Lake 65 miles from Houston. The recently re-opened unit was shut down after its own bout with sex abuse scandals several years ago after Colorado County DA "Ken Sparks got a 2005 conviction against a female worker for improper sexual conduct with an inmate at a contract boot camp in Eagle Lake. He said the woman, who performed oral sex on the youth, received a sentence of three years of deferred adjudication, meaning she served no prison time," the Houston Chronicle reported last year. The same company that received the contract to run Eagle Lake, YSI, operated the boot camp at the time.

The regionalization plan has already become a source of contentious debate. In order to implement anything besides option one, TYC would need permission from the Legislature to go outside the scope of its bond authority, which authorized only construction of one 150 bed unit in Harris County, not several new, smaller units. Of the four options proposed, I agree with the conservator number two makes the most sense. But because so much funding is involved, the choice is a political decision, not one the conservator can make on the way out the door and expect it to stick.

Those interested in these agency budgets should look through their LARs for yourself and let us know in the comments if you find any interesting tidbits.

Ombudsman: Public schools failed many TYC youth

TYC independent ombudsman Will Harrell yesterday presented a copy of his office's recent report on education services (pdf) at the Youth Commission to an interim hearing of the Texas Senate Education Committtee. (See prior Grits coverage.) In his written testimony, Harrell said TYC's education difficulties originated in the public schools:

The Texas Youth Commission bears a great burden that can be traced back to failures of local school districts. But that is a challenge that the TYC must meet for the sake of public safety.

In broad terms, the OIO has the following major concerns about education in TYC:

• Inadequate intake, assessment and accountability.
• Inconsistent general education programs across TYC facilities.
• Disruption of education by punitive culture and policy which is compounded by race and special educational need.
• Inadequate special education services.

These issues, which are fully discussed in the attached report, are critical for two important but distinct reasons. First, as we point out in the attached report, educational attainment is one of the most effective means for reducing recidivism among delinquent youth. However, the population of students at the TYC does not represent the population of the typical Texas public school. The TYC is charged with providing education and special education services to a population of students comprised of approximately 40% special education students, and a majority of youth who are substantially behind their peers in all academic areas. The population of students at the TYC is not typical of an ordinary Texas public school, and the TYC requires a substantially different level of support than a typical public school district. Despite the fact that many of the youth committed to the TYC arrive with poor academic histories, the TYC education program can improve the basic academic skills of these youth and significantly improve their chances of successful reentry into their schools and / or communities. Providing these youth with essential skills in reading and mathematics, opportunities to obtain a diploma or GED, and vocational skills is critical for helping these youth to become responsible, civic-minded taxpaying citizens. Not only do these outcomes result in improved outcomes for delinquent youth, they also improve public safety.

Second, the youth at the TYC are coming from Texas public school systems, and most should be returning to these schools after release. However, many of the TYC youth have not been adequately supported by their public schools. Most do not have sufficient reading skills to access the high school curriculum, and many do not even have the requisite skills to read or complete a basic job application. Additionally, many of these youth have been repeatedly suspended or expelled, or have officially or unofficially dropped out of school. Furthermore, most delinquent youth both nationally and in Texas come from impoverished communities with schools that lack the financial and professional support necessary to adequately educate these youth. If the State is going to successfully rehabilitate these youth, the Texas leadership must identify and implement innovative and responsive public education programs to support these vulnerable schools and ultimately reduce the numbers of youth involved in the juvenile justice system.

Last week, Grits identified what I think would be a huge step toward discouraging schools from dumping kids with learning disabilities and behavioral problems into the juvenile justice system - charging schools the full cost of educating kids they send to so-called alternative schools for discipline. But as Harrell says, a lot more than that bureaucratic fix is needed. In addition to more resources for special ed programming, substantial investments to identify and teach kids with dyslexia would reduce crime, as would extra focus on ensuring the academic success for children of incarcerated parents. Spending extra resources to help kids succeed on the front end aimed at these special populations makes a lot more sense than waiting to incarcerate them on the back end, which costs far more and from which society derives far fewer benefits.

SEE ALSO: An interview with Harrell from KHOU and these documents related to TYC education services:

• Review of Education Programs for Students in Texas Youth Commission State Schools
• Ombudsman's Statement Regarding the Education Review (pdf)
• Review of Education Programs for Students in Texas Youth Commission State Schools (pdf)
• Conservator Richard Nedelkoff's Response Letter (pdf)

NY Times: Texas not providing federally guaranteed education to disabled kids in TYC

"Texas has both a moral and legal obligation to remake a system that is crippling, then writing off, the state’s most vulnerable children," the New York Times editorialized yesterday in reaction to the recent Ombudsman's report (pdf) on carceral education at the Texas Youth Commission, analyzed earlier by Grits here. Noting that "more than 40 percent of the students in custody have been identified as having disabilities that make them eligible for services and protections under the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act," the Times opined that:

The State Legislature will need to do at least two things if it hopes to correct these problems. First, it needs to require localities to provide disabled children with the school services they are entitled to under federal law, instead of just dumping them onto streets. Then lawmakers must strengthen the educational programs within the juvenile system itself by hiring better-trained employees and providing stronger central oversight.

The point about holding public schools accountable as well as TYC is a good one. TYC will be rightfully blamed for longstanding failures in education once kids are incarcerated - particularly the fact that, as the Times said, "Children are routinely asked to essentially teach themselves through “self-directed reading” — even though a substantial percentage have limited reading skills." But those kids were already many grade levels behind their peers in school before they got to the Youth Commission. Too often, as the Times put it, school districts are "dumping" their problems rather than beefing up services for disabled or emotionally disturbed kids.

The Dallas News earlier this year reached the same conclusion, editorializing that Texas had "inadvertently constructed a pipeline to youth prison." They argued that:

An increased investment in our schools, especially at the elementary level, can pay huge dividends further down the road because it's in those formative years when things start to go wrong, experts say. An upfront investment in prevention can ultimately reap huge savings – and salvage lives – down the line.

Instead, Texas favors a disciplinary-referral program that targets children – even in pre-kindergarten – to be removed from classrooms for misbehaving. A 2005 Texas A&M study found that the single most important predictor of future involvement with juvenile justice is a history of disciplinary referrals in school.

The Texas system puts certain kids – particularly blacks and Hispanics – on a fast track for disciplinary referrals. Since 2003, Texas school districts have isolated thousands of students in disciplinary referral, including 500 pre-K and kindergarteners, and 2,100 first-graders. Are we setting these kids up for shame, inferior education, failure and a possible life of crime?

So the mechanisms by which kids are functionally ousted from school at increasingly early ages, and for increasingly less serious offenses, had already been identified and been the subject of vocal criticism. The new Ombudsman's report, as the Times rightly points out, builds on that critique to add that disabled and emotionally disturbed kids predominate among those "dumped" by the schools into alternative disciplinary programs and ultimately into the juvenile justice system.

Whether such systemic flaws violate individual kids' federally guaranteed right to education, I don't know, but the Times is right the Ombudsman's report raises the possibility that they could. Certainly TYC isn't meeting those minimum standards, but something tells me that, for the most part, the school district these kids came from weren't doing so, either.

Legislators critique TYC restructuring plan, demand new spending audit

State Senator John Whitmire and Rep. Jerry Madden want the state auditor to take another crack at analyzing the Texas Youth Commission's problems, the Austin Statesman reports ("Audit demanded, Nedelkoff off," Aug. 7):

A day after blasting the Texas Youth Commission for continued financial mismanagement, two key legislative leaders this afternoon requested a full state audit of all spending by the still-troubled agency.

“The Texas Youth Commission is continuing a pattern of, what appears to us, a willful disregard for the spending parameters set by the Legislature,” Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, said in the letter to Auditor John Keel.

“TYC was placed into Conservatorship due to gross fiscal mismanagement. We want to ensure that gross fiscal mismanagement is not continuing.

The letter continues: “Instead of spending money retaining and attracting new JCO’s, TYC has chosen to increase central office personnel. In addition, we have seen evidence that large salary increases are being given to executive staff members. Yet today, our juvenile correctional system sits without a functional classification system or proven treatment and educational programs.

“We understand that they are continuing to spend millions of dollars worth of capital improvements on facilities that were recommended for closure by your office utilizing funds to continue their operations that were not appropriated for that purpose.”

While Sen. Whitmire criticized TYC for "spending money out there like a drunken sailor," the Statesman editorial board today offered a more measured analysis of the situation with which I mostly agree:

This week, the agency released a proposed "regionalization" plan that would shrink, but not close, several units, while opening new lockups and halfway houses. The plan includes a major facility, costing as much as $25 million, to be built in the Houston area and to house 150 youths.

As Nedelkoff reasonably points out, "A significant number of youth and their families live in or near large urban areas. However, TYC facilities are rarely located within reasonable traveling distance from those urban areas."

Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, criticized the plan with a pointed remark: "Twenty-two percent of their beds are vacant right now, and they're proposing to build a bunch of new units run by the state? That's crazy."

The commission, Whitmire said, should have recommended closing some units in "remote, rundown rural areas" and put more emphasis on developing community-based programs rather than locking up youths.

It's going to take legislators, though, to take on the job of actually closing Youth Commission units in rural areas. They are there because some lawmakers over the years pushed to get them to provide at least some state job opportunities for constituents in high unemployment areas.

Nedelkoff is right to want youths whose offenses are serious enough to lock them up kept closer to home — even if society is quite willing to ship them to the wilds of West Texas. It's one thing to give up on a 35-year-old lifelong criminal. We shouldn't quit on a 15-year-old yet.

Still, the agency and the Legislature remain too much at odds. The worst abuses done to offenders may have been stopped, but reform is a long way from complete.

Here's the bottom line: TYC isn't using all its capacity, but if it actually shifted to a regionalized system with smaller facilities, it would still require new building. TYC has lots of capacity but nearly all of it's designed on the adult prison model that the Legislature has been urged to move away from.

So when Nedelkoff speaks of building 8 new halfway houses, for example, that to me doesn't seem inconsistent with expert advice the Lege received from other states and Governor Perry's blue-ribbon panel on TYC reform last year. I'm less convinced of the need for building larger lockups, like a proposed 150-person facility. If new money will be spent on construction it should go to build the types of smaller units we want to move toward in the future.

Even if responsibility for these youth ultimately shifts to the counties, new construction of smaller, regional facilities will be necessary because they just don't have capacity at the moment to handle the load. So I don't necessarily think Nedelkoff is moving entirely in the wrong direction, though I don't agree with all of the plan. But it's painfully obvious he's not done the legwork necessary to convince the legislative leadership they need to undertake this shift. Since Mr. Nedelkoff will be leaving soon, that Sysiphian struggle will fall to someone else.

TYC tries to move forward, but history's anchor still drags down agency

A couple of stories in the Dallas News this morning will pique the interest of readers following the Texas Youth Commission drama.

How long for TYC conservatorship?
First off ("Texas Youth Commission will lose another top official," July 31), TYC is about to lose their 6th top official in two years when conservator Richard Nedelkoff leaves the agency:

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to name a new agency chief — either an executive commissioner, as Mr. Nedelkoff recommends, or a new conservator — this month. A spokesman in Mr. Perry’s office said the governor had not yet decided which position it should be or who should fill it. Mr. Nedelkoff said he’s not setting a timeline for leaving, but acknowledged it could be the end of August.

Nedelkoff had recommended to the Governor that conservatorship end yesterday on July 31 and a permanent Commissioner be hired. His predecessor as conservator, Ed Owens, also recommended ending conservatorship last year, but the agency clearly hadn't finished the required reforms. As evidenced by the report on education put out by the Ombudsman this week, there are still many problems to address.

That said, it's unclear to me, however, that a conservator would have any greater power to fix problems than would a permanent commissioner. I expect changes required by the Sunset Commission will have more impact on the direction of reforms than who's leading the agency or what is their title.

I spoke to Nedelkoff earlier this week and he told me that he'd not heard back from the Governor on the recommendation, but also said he'd not completed all the requisite tasks the report said must be finished before conservatorship could end. (The News reports Nedelkoff said those reforms are "days or hours" away from being finished.) He said he understood possible permanent replacements had been identified and interviews had already begun.

TYC topped national list for sexual assault in '05, '06
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department yesterday issued a report analyzing data (pdf) on sexual assaults in juvenile detention facilities that placed TYC at the top of the list nationally in confirmed incidents for 2005 and 2006 ("Texas juvenile prisons led nation in sexual violence," July 31):

A survey by the U.S. Department of Justice found that Texas juvenile prisons led the nation in incidents of sexual violence during 2005 and 2006.

The department's Bureau of Justice Statistics cautioned that the survey was "not designed to rank systems" but provides "an understanding of what corrections officials know [and] what information is recorded."

The survey was released Thursday. It said Texas reported 21 substantiated allegations of staff sexual misconduct with youths in 2005 and 2006. No other state reported more than nine.

Also, Texas reported 26 substantiated allegations of "youth on youth nonconsensual sexual acts." The next highest was Wisconsin, with nine.

Texas accounted for 29 percent of such substantiated allegations nationwide, though the state's share of youth incarcerated was only 11 percent of the national total.

A few long-timers at TYC have taken the position in comments on this blog that allegations of sexual assault at the agency were overblown by the media last year and didn't really happen despite all evidence to the contrary. If the mountains of media investigation didn't convince such folks, I doubt this information will either. But for the rest of us it's pretty clear confirmation that Texas DID have a sexual assault problem before entering conservatorship. I don't support everything that's been done since then in the name of cleaning up the mess, but these data put the lie to claims that there wasn't a problem with kids in custody being victimized, both by staff and other youth.

Self-paced learning at TYC the "least effective" approach

Though it's a long and substantive document, anyone interested in an inside look at what's going on with education services at the Texas Youth Commission should consider the new report (pdf) from the Ombudsman's office a must-read. (I'm particularly hoping the Sunset Commission staffers are paying close attention.)

Bottom line, based on interviews with dozens of students, teachers and staff as well as analyzing agency-generated data, UT-Austin Professor Michael Krezmien depicts a completely dysfunctional education system at TYC, with the few bright spots dragged down by overall organizational failure and an utter lack of focus on educational services.

While the contents of the report could and likely will fill up several posts, I wanted to provide an overview of the main points, particularly since initial news coverage so far hasn't delved too deep into the substance. This harsh conclusory paragraph sums up the main flaws with TYC's approach to education services:

Despite the fact that a substantial percentage of the youth have reading and learning deficiencies, these students are expected to learn through a process of independent reading. Despite the fact that a substantial percentage of the youth have limited reading comprehension skills, they are expected to acquire new information primarily through self‐directed reading. The current model of educational practices at the TYC is basically devoid of what current educational research has consistently identified as “best practices” for instruction. There is little to no direct instruction and little to no classroom discussions. Students are not exposed to new knowledge in multiple ways, nor are they provided with instructional approaches that are interesting or engaging. Students have limited engagement with teachers, and the classes typically lack direct instruction, questioning, and discussion. Students are seldom given opportunities to respond to new information or to questions about newly learned information. Students are seldom provided opportunities to relate newly learned information to the world or to their own prior knowledge. Student engagement was poor across settings and classrooms. Although there were instances of excellent teaching and innovative instructional approaches, the primary instruction practice (“self‐paced” independent desk work) is the least effective instructional approach available.

In addition, the education TYC offers to special ed kids and students with disabilities, according to Professor Krezmien, is out of compliance with federal law. He reports that TYC has identified 40.4% of students as having a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, however these students' "transitional plans were generic and inadequate. Generally, a majority of special education students did not receive special education services in accordance with the IDEA."

The Professor's data shows how TYC has become a dumping ground for the illiterate and the mentally ill just like happens with adult prisons. TYC has four times as many special ed students as a typical public school, three times the number with learning disabilities, and 18 times as many students with emotional disturbances.

TYC uses only two educational outcome measures, says Krezmien: Scores on a standardized test upon entry and exit, and the number of students who get GEDs. He found the standardized test inadequate for assessing students with so many particularized special needs and learning disabilities. Most kids who get GEDs do so within 9 months of arriving at TYC, which Krezmien says indicates they likely entered TYC with sufficient skills to pass the test.

Meanwhile, many students cannot reasonably be expected to ever get a GED and there's a lack of outcome measures to track their progress or that values choices, e.g., to enter vocational programs. Speaking of which, the report heaped praise on TYC's vocational programs, but lamented that only about 10% of students were eligible.

Moving youth during the school day requires adequate JCO staffing or else cuts into instruction time, according to the report. "We observed instances where the movement of youth took as long as 30 minutes, despite an allocation of only 5 minutes to movement. ... We observed numberous instances of decreased access to education as a consequence of youth movement practices."

Krezmien's overall assessment of educational quality was poor, as expressed in these excerpts:

"We found classes that were typically organized based on correctional needs, which resulted in classrooms with students of different ages, different academic abilities, and in different courses. The scheduling practices negatively impact the educational program and limit instructional opportunities. We found the instructional practices to be generally poor. We found inconsistent curricula across facilities, and sometimes within a facility."

"The absence of a unified curriculum aligned with the State standards, and flexible to meet the needs of high and low performing students as well as students with disabilities is inappropriate. ... Students frequently move across facilities that have different curricula that are not integrated. This negatively impacts student learning, student credit accrual, and teacher responsibilities as they attempt to match a student’s transcript to programs with different curricula."

"The primary instructional practice observed at TYC education programs was broadly considered “self‐paced” and individualized instruction. This usually consisted of students working in worksheet packets independently or students working with paper assignment sheets and in text books independently. There was no direct instruction in most classes, and limited opportunities for student‐teacher engagement.

"Many of the observations revealed a lack of instructional activities whatsoever. There were numerous instances of teachers working at the computer while students slept, talked with each other, or worked independently."

"The 'self‐paced' model of TYC facilities is an ineffective approach to education. There is no empirical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of the practices implemented. The approach is not appropriate to the TYC population of learners."

"[N]one of the education programs in the security setting met the TYC education standards."

"We found the staff at the TYC institutions to be one of the strongest assets of the TYC education programs. However, we found that school cultures varied greatly across the facilities. In most facilities, teacher morale was low."

Overall Krezmien has produced an incredibly damning portrayal of the agency, made more so by his use of TYC's own written standards, outcome measures and federal law as evaluation benchmarks.

Today was the day Richard Nedelkoff originally proposed to the Governor the agency should come out of conservatorship, but that's clearly not going to happen. This publication evidences stunning levels of dysfunctionality at one of the agency's core missions - educating youth in its charge.

Kudos to Ombudsman Will Harrell for pursuing this evaluation and to Professor Krezmien for an outstandingly thorough and detailed assessment (including 75 specific recommendations). They've provided a much needed window for state leaders and the public on a critical and under-emphasized topic.

Offer online comments to the Sunset Commission on TYC, juvenile probation, and jail standards commission

Once every 12 years Texas state agencies undergo what's known as a "Sunset" review where the Legislature evaluates the agency as a whole and decides whether it still serves a function or deserves to be eliminated. Most agencies are routinely continued, though some agencies are permanently "sunsetted," or eliminated. But the Sunset bill that must pass to continue the agency frequently becomes a vehicle for substantial reforms and adjustments identified through the evaluation process.

Agencies submit their own staff reports, then the Sunset Commission staff prepares its own report with input from the public and ultimately a public hearing before the members of the bicameral commission.

The public input period ends on July 31 (this Thursday) for three criminal justice agencies undergoing Sunset evaluations this year: The Youth Commission, the Juvenile Probation Commission, and the Commission on Jail Standards.

Here's an easy to use online form for providing comments to the Sunset Commission. I encourage anyone with specific concerns about an agency under review to use it. You can access agencies self evaluation reports for more background; they're quite informative and may answer some of your questions or at least give you the agency's position on issues you care about.

Deadlines for comments for the Department of Public Safety and the Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education has already passed, but Sunset staffs' final report has not bee issued so if you had any specific suggestions for them, it couldn't hurt to submit it anyway.

For more information see the Sunset Advisory Commission's website.

Reform commission urges abolition of California youth prisons, shifting juvie justice to counties

Earlier this year Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire urged "abolishing" the Texas Youth Commission and moving most juvenile justice functions to the counties. His proposal enjoyed a mixed reception, largely because the political will seems lacking to pay for adequately beefing up capacity at the counties.

So I was particularly interested to see that in California, the "Little Hoover" commission this week endorsed exactly that approach - essentially abolishing California's juvie prisons and forcing counties to carry the entire load. California already moved all but 1,500 or so juvenile offenders back to the counties in response to a court decree in 2007. (See the report.) From the commission's letter to the Governor:

In shifting responsibility to the counties for hundreds of California’s youth offenders, the state recognized that its juvenile justice system cannot be reformed without radical change.

Though prompted by cost concerns, the realignment of responsibilities to the counties was the right policy move, one previously recommended by this Commission and others. Many counties have demonstrated that they can provide programs and treatment to youth offenders who need to turn their lives around in settings that allow them to reintegrate more successfully into their communities.

Once realignment is complete, the number of youth offenders in state hands will shrink to fewer than 1,500. The annual cost of providing services to each ward, however, next year will rise to $252,000. This startling figure reflects the overhead expenses of a system built to serve a far larger population, the cost of reforms required under a court-supervised consent decree and the complex needs of these seriously troubled youth. Californians may fairly ask what they are getting for this outlay and whether other strategies can better deliver public safety and youth rehabilitation. The state has made slow, yet undeniable, progress. Still, advocates for youth offenders, frustrated by the pace of reform, have asked a court to place the juvenile justice system in receivership.

Whatever the court’s decision, the state’s costs per ward likely will increase as juvenile programming and treatment services are expanded and its crumbling facilities continue to age. The state’s master plan for renovating or replacing its juvenile facilities, promised to legislators, is long overdue. The delay may mean that the cost of bringing California’s facilities in line with current programming requirements or replacing them is unaffordable, particularly in light of the current budget deficit.

The prospect of ever-higher outlays for an ever-smaller juvenile population in state custody should prompt policy-makers to extend realignment to completion. The Commission recommends that the state begin planning now to ultimately eliminate its juvenile justice operations and create regional rehabilitative facilities for high-risk, high-need offenders to be leased to and run by the counties.

California is using block grants to counties to enforce use of best practices via contract, in much the same way the Texas Legislature made new money available to adult probation departments through grants that must be used for progressive sanctions and diversion tactics. That's worked surprisingly well in Texas, with a few notable exceptions. But in neither state are counties prepared to take on the offenders currently housed in state lockups. According to the Little Hoover report:

County probation departments are in no position to immediately take on the remaining serious, violent and older youth offender population, as they are still adjusting to the abrupt implementation of the 2007 realignment legislation as well as the uncertainty of state funding given California’s estimated $15 billion deficit for 2008-09.12 Counties could, however, take on this responsibility, given time and resources to plan, develop and contract for programs; adequate time to establish regionally based facilities; and, given a dedicated source of money to pay for these programs and facilities.

The commission suggested that, with assistance, counties could be prepared to take over all incarceration duties for juveniles by 2011.

Texas faces a similar problem to California in terms of its skyrocketing cost per youth, though California's costs are so high ($250,000 per year per kid) they sound like a caricature. The last I heard, TYC's cost per youth had risen to around $60-65K per year. By reducing the number of youth but slightly increasing the amount of overhead (because of new oversight), Texas like California has seen its cost per kid soar since TYC entered conservatorship, a fact which Sen. Whitmire and others have cited as a reason to get rid of the agency entirely.

If Texas is serious about heading down this road, we should all be paying attention to California's experiment. They're already shifting juvie justice responsibilities downstream to the counties and where they find trouble, there's a good chance Texas will run into some, too.

See related coverage from AP and the Sacramento Bee, via Sentencing Law & Policy.

Should inspector-general model be expanded to other Texas state agencies?

Will more Texas state agencies in the future have an Office of Inspector General modeled on the ones at TYC and in the adult prison system? The House Committee on Government Reform today focused on the role of inspectors general and issues of independence from the agency they're monitoring. I didn't get to watch the hearing, but may go back later to listen to what was said. Reported the Statesman:

State Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, who is pushing for more independent inspectors general, said it helps to have them embedded in agencies so they're familiar with how things work but said inspectors general should report to someone outside the agency.

"I have serious concerns about whether or not an inspector general can actually do their job when they have to answer to or pass things through the agency which they're supposed to be having oversight of," Gattis said.

Gattis and fellow Central Texas House members Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, and Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, were among several lawmakers who tried last year to give more independence to offices of inspector general.

"Clearly, there was opposition from the agencies," Dukes said. They will always "have concerns that you're going to have a new sheriff that's going to come to town."

Opponents of creating a state office of inspector general say the state auditor's office performs many of the same functions.

Inspectors general are typically in the executive branch of state government; a state auditor is in the legislative branch.

"There is probably a turf battle between what does an (office of inspector general) do to what does our auditor do," Gattis said. "It's really a different function."

Gattis put it this way: getting investigated by the state auditor's office is like a visit from your accountant. An inspector general investigation "is more like the Texas Rangers walking in."

Melinda Miguel, Florida's chief inspector general, said she and the state's auditor general avoid duplicating each other's work.

"I find it works very well," she said.

Video of today's hearing is archived here.

UPDATE: The Statesman's editorial board weighs in on the subject.

Galveston ISD wonders why West Texas school district will provide correctional educational services for island boot camp

Galveston ISD never cared much about correctional educational services until the tiny Iraan-Sheffield ISD from West Texas bid to provide them at the Seaborne ChalleNGe Corps, "a military-style program for troubled teens" operated by the Texas National Guard on the island. But locals wonder "why the Galveston public school district was not offered opportunity to teach students in its own jurisdiction." According to the Galveston Daily News ("Seaborne, West Texas district deal strike nerve," July 15):

Michael Blalock, deputy executive director of the adjutant general’s office, which oversees all the state military forces including the corps, said the West Texas school district was chosen because it has experience teaching troubled teens in a Texas Youth Commission facility in Sheffield. He said the state did not give other school districts the opportunity to bid on the job. ...

Blalock was exploring the idea of opening a second Seaborne ChalleNGe Corps in the empty Sheffield building and asked the West Texas school district officials to provide the same kind of instruction they gave to Texas Youth Commission teens.

Iraan-Sheffield officials said they were interested in providing instruction in Sheffield and in Galveston. District officials and the adjutant general’s staff inked an agreement in June allowing Iraan-Sheffield public school teachers to teach students English, social studies, science and math. It’s the first time corps cadets will have a chance to earn a diploma.

Mytelka said some of his constituents have questioned why the West Texas district was offered a chance to earn state funding by teaching island cadets when the island public school district is facing a budget crunch.

Predicting a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, Galveston public school district officials are considering laying off more than 20 employees.

Arnold Proctor, assistant superintendent of business and operations, has said the district might not have benefitted from an agreement to teach the cadets. He said the cost to educate at-risk teens could outweigh the benefit of increased state funding.

This is bascially fallout from the recent closure of the Sheffield unit in West Texas, showing how economically reliant some rural communities have come on TYC facilities (and for that matter, adult prisons).

I still want to learn more about the scenario. For starters, why does the National Guard operate youth camps for delinquents, anyway? According to their website, this is a nationwide program for the Guard begun in the early '90s, but not all states participate. And should the Guard really be expanding boot camps right now? The National Institute of Justice categorizes military style juvie corrections as a strategy that "doesn't work," and nationally the concept has been under fire after a series of abuse allegations and untimely deaths at wilderness and boot camps.

The treatment portion of the ChalleNge program was designed in the '90s by that stalwart leader in juvenile corrections, the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

I don't have any particular stake in who provides education services for the ChalleNge program, but it's a bit unseemly to see school districts fighting over table scraps like this. Juvie corrections are usually seen as a necessary if unwelcome obligation by local school districts, but the economics of "Robin Hood" now send districts scurrying for any scheme to add students to the rolls. If the Legislature ever fixed the school finance fiasco, I have to wonder if Iraan-Sheffield ISD wouldn't be looking to drop this contract like a hot potato?

In like a lion, out like a lamb: Proposal to end TYC conservatorship draws media yawns

After the absolute media frenzy surrounding the Texas Youth Commission's every foible over the last year, can anybody explain why there's been no MSM coverage of last week's recommendation to the Governor to end the agency's conservatorship and appoint a new executive commissioner? I expected to see coverage this weekend, but so far, nada. (The Abilene Reporter News had a TYC-related feature on Saturday, but didn't mention the recommendation and focused mostly on local and regional concerns.)

Perhaps it's because, like me, reporters haven't had time to thoroughly vet the 120-page reform plan (pdf) released by the conservator on Friday detailing the steps TYC has taken and should take toward ending its limbo status.

TYC's fundamental problems haven't changed much. Texas runs large youth prisons with hundreds of kids in the biggest facilities, mostly located in rural areas where it's difficult to find quality staff. Indeed, the shortage of quality workers for these large units is rapidly becoming critical. According to the reform plan (p. 7), even using extensive staff overtime TYC facilities are in compliance with minimum staffing requirements just 72.5% of the time. And as problems at large facilities get worse, it becomes harder and harder to recruit.

Juvie best practices aimed at reducing recidivism would use smaller, regional facilities like those recommended last year by the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel. However, those recommendations were largely ignored and the reform plan does not describe such a transformation, instead spending new construction funds to renovate current facilities to create cells instead of open bay dorms. That's an improvement from a staff and youth safety perspective, but it's a long way from the rehabilitative model really needed at the agency.

If this is all the reform we get out of the conservatorship process, it will have been a missed opportunity. One hopes the Sunset Commission will more radically reorganize the agency into smaller, regional facilities, and if I had my druthers the conservatorship should continue until that process was complete.

TYC reform plan proposes ending conservatorship July 31

TYC Conservator Richard Nedelkoff this week forwarded a reform plan (pdf), an extensive 120 page publication I've only just received, to the Governor which included a recommendation for ending his conservatorship at the end of July 2008 (!) at which time he also anticipates hiring a permanent executive director. Here' the text of Nedelkoff's most recent email to employees:

Last week, I sent to the Governor’s Office and Legislature the TYC ‘Reform Plan,’ which documents the steps that have been taken in reforming TYC as well as the actions that remain to be completed before the agency meets all of the requirements laid out in SB 103. The plan is comprehensive and covers: hiring professional staff, training, revision of policies and procedures, youth classification and assessment, rehabilitation and treatment programming for our youth, use of force, and dormitory reconstruction.

Please note that while this plan includes a recommendation that conservatorship be ended July 31, 2008, the decision is ultimately up to Governor Perry and legislative leaders.

I hope you will take the time to read the Reform Plan. Each of you has done your part to move this agency forward. I hope you will all be as proud of our accomplishments as I am.

My bests,

Richard

TYC and juvie corrections folks in particular are strongly encouraged to give the document a read (or at least a skim) and let me know what jumps out at you in the comments. I'll try to examine the reform plan in more detail on Grits in the coming days, but am equally curious to hear what others think.

Also, let's just pose the question straight up: Is the agency ready to come out of conservatorship? Are there any benefits to conservatorship that couldn't be equally realized under a permanent executive director?

Criminal Justice Agencies Under Sunset Review

The Sunset process (a once every 12 year evaluation of individual state agencies) is in full swing this year for a handful of Texas criminal justice related agencies, including:

• Department of Public Safety (staff report) (sunset recommendations) (public comments)
• Jail Standards Commission (staff report)
  
• Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (staff report)
• Juvenile Probation Commission (staff report)
• Youth Commission (staff report)

DPS, obviously, is furthest along in the process, having already held a hearing a couple of weeks back to discuss the staff evaluation. (See Austin Statesman coverage of the hearing). The TCLEOSE review should be nearing completion, while the reviews of the Jail Standards Commission, TYC, and the Juvenile Probation Commission began in May and will conclude in the fall.

TYC is an unusual case, having gone through the Sunset process last year. They were required to endure the vetting again because of the hoopla over sex abuse allegations in West Texas and the resulting political fallout and legislative reforms.

I'll take a look through some of this material myself in the coming days and perhaps highlight some of the major items that jump out. Until then, here's a good summary for how the public can get involved from the Sunset Commission website:

How Can the Public Participate in Sunset?

Members of the public who participate in the review process can provide valuable information to the Sunset Commission about how well or poorly an agency performs its functions. Individuals and organizations usually participate by identifying potential issues for study and by commenting on proposed changes to the agency. The public can participate in the review of an agency by:

• Input with Staff. The staff seeks input during the review at which time interested persons and organizations may voice their concerns about the agency. Please submit your input on the feedback form and send us your comments.
• Reviewing Sunset Documents. Sunset documents, including reports and decision materials, are made available to the public on a regular basis to keep the public informed on the progress of the review.
• Testifying at Public Hearings. The Commission holds public hearings on each agency under review. These hearings offer the public an opportunity to testify on the agency and related recommendations. Multiple agencies are considered within one meeting and many interest groups, professional trade associations, and members of the public may attend and provide testimony to the Commission. If you would like to testify before the Commission, witness affirmation forms are available at the meeting.
• Taking Part in the Legislative Session. Generally, if an agency is to be continued, a bill must be passed by the Legislature. The public can participate in the same way as with any other legislation.

US Attorney should prosecute TYC abuse cases Hidalgo DA eschewed

The Texas Youth Commission sex abuse debacle last year left the battered agency languishing in conservatorship after the press revealed that the local DA failed to prosecute allegations that a West Texas State School supervisor sexually assaulted male prisoners under his charge. The Legislature reacted by creating new infrastructure to investigate abuses at TYC, but if local DAs and grand juries won't pursue charges, that doesn't help much. According to AP (June 28):

Grand juries in Hidalgo County have opted against indictments in several cases of alleged criminal abuse at Evins Regional Juvenile Center, two years after investigators uncovered systemic civil rights violations at the facility.

Of the eight cases of alleged staff-on-youth violence considered by grand jurors in the past year, none have resulted in criminal indictments, The (McAllen) Monitor reported in a story for its Sunday editions.

At the same time, the panels have green-lighted cases against nearly all the inmates accused of breaking the law, according to statistics provided by the Texas Youth Commission, the agency charged with overseeing Evins and the state's other youth prisons.

"We may have just reached a point where people think these teens aren't in prison because they sang too loud in the choir," TYC Inspector General Bruce Toney said. "But we have to remember they can be victims too." ...

Inmate riots and repeated allegations of abuse drew U.S. Department of Justice investigators to Evins in 2006.

Youths reported incidents in which guards bound them, threw them face-down into flower gardens, used their bodies as battering rams to open doors and hit them against concrete poles. The guards have said they did what was needed to protect themselves and other youths from harm.

But federal investigators saw it differently.

"Certain conditions at Evins violate the constitutional rights of the youth residents," their final report said. "In particular, we find that children confined (there) are not adequately protected from harm."

Since then, state legislators have overhauled the prison and its parent agency to address safety concerns. Lawmakers created the independent Office of the Inspector General to review youth reports and designated a special prosecution unit to try criminal cases stemming from them.

Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg in May suggested that grand jury members may be personally too close to facility employees, but my guess is the DA's office is the common thread. Typically if a prosecutor actually wants to get indictments, they don't go zero for eight!

Basically the law enforcement community in Hidalgo is taking care of its own, and as the original West Texas case shows that's how things work in many parts of the state. It's too politically dicey for local DAs to consistently prosecute police, deputies, prison guards, probation officers, or juvie authorities without facing backlash from interests who are core constituencies. Some DAs have the cojones to do the right thing in that environment, and clearly some do not.

In TYC's case, the Lege actually created a special prosecutor but the law forces her to defer to local DA's decisions about who will try the case. That's clearly creating problems and the law should be changed next year to let the special prosecutor present the cases personally to a grand jury.

I've long believed the state needed a special prosecutor's office to avoid even the appearance of conflict when making decisions about charging folks in law enforcement, but this example shows the idea won't work if it's a voluntary arrangement. In 2003, then state-representative and current Democratic US Senate candidate Rick Noriega filed HB 414 which would have required appointment of a special prosecutor when any peace officer was prosecuted. Noriega's bill would have had local judges appoint special prosecutors when peace officers in their jurisdiction were accused:

The attorney for the state or an attorney employed by the office of the attorney for the state may not represent the state in the prosecution of a felony or Class A misdemeanor charge filed against a peace officer serving an area also served by the attorney and the office of the attorney. After a disqualification required by this subsection, a court who appoints an attorney pro tem under Article 2.07 may not appoint a person who has prosecuted cases before the court in the five years preceding the appointment.

If it had passed, the bill might actually have created a demand for "prosecutors for hire"! But in retrospect given the volume of such cases, it might be better to create an independent special prosecutor, perhaps a division in the Attorney General's office. That possibility remains far off in the future, though, and it's certain expanding the idea beyond TYC would be bitterly opposed by institutional players at the Lege like police unions and DAs, as it was in 2003.

A more immediate solution would be for the TYC Inspector General to take Hidalgo County cases straight to the US Attorney and ask him to press charges. The Evins Unit is already the subject of an Agreed Order with the US Justice Department over allegations of longstanding civil rights abuses. If the Hidalgo DA won't aggressively pursue legitimate allegations of staff on youth abuse, the Inspector General should do everything possible to move the action directly into federal court.

Mental health and school finance implicated in TYC policies

Two otherwise unrelated stories about the Texas Youth Commission show how interconnected the agency and its facilities are at a fundamental level both with other social service agencies and the communities they serve.

First, the Texas Observer blog wonders if the Texas Youth Commission can ever be fixed as long as it remains a dumping ground for the failures of schools and the indigent mental health system.

Perhaps the agency has been so hard to rehabilitate because its problems extend beyond a handful of troubled facilities or a flawed approach to juvenile justice. Mental health advocates blame public officials’ failure to recognize the importance of early intervention programs within the mental health system statewide as a key culprit.

“If we addressed these problems early on, with community and school-based programs, these kids wouldn’t end up at TYC,” says Jodie Smith, public policy director of Texans Care for Children.

But, in Texas, a state ranked 49th in the nation for mental health funding, kids in need often don’t get any psychiatric help until they are already deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system. ...

The fact remains, however, 38 percent of its youth have serious mental health problems, and another 72 percent come from “chronically chaotic households” (a condition often linked to later development of PTSD, depression and addiction)—shifting the culture and practices of the agency to meet such a large need takes money, resources and time.

Meanwhile in a bizarre TYC-related development, a tiny West Texas school district struggling to make up lost revenue when TYC closed the Sheffield unit has contracted to provide educational services in Galveston for the "Seaborne ChalleNGe Corps, a military-style program for troubled teens based in Galveston" operated by the Texas National Guard.

The Iraan-Sheffield school district pursued the arrangements because of revenue lost when the Sheffield unit closed earlier this year, hoping to generate revenue entrepreneurially to make up for TYC's past subsidies to local programming.

Though there's nothing wrong with it per se, this strikes me as an unusual arrangement. I don't know of any other school district providing contract correctional education services outside their own jurisdiction, nor was I previously aware the National Guard ran youth camps. Live and learn.

Isett: TYC could be 'sunsetted'

Not much detail in the article, but the Lubbock Avalanche Journal reports that Sunset Commission Chair Carl Isett says the Texas Youth Commission may be either "phased out or restructured," as well as the Texas Transportation Commission.

Sen. John Whitmire has been proposing to "abolish TYC," but like Isett hasn't given precise details what that might mean other than to shift responsibility for managing most delinquent youth to the counties, presumably funded from the state budget. By the end of the year, however, Isett's Sunset Commission will make suggestions that are much more concrete which will lead directly to legislation in 2009.

ACLU lawsuit challenges strip searches, punitive isolation of girls at TYC Brownwood unit

ACLU's national women's project and the ACLU of Texas filed suit today over use of solitary confinement and strip searching among girls housed at the Brownwood unit, according this press announcement :

a class action lawsuit [filed] today on behalf of five girls – all of whom have histories of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse – held in the Brownwood State School. Brownwood is a “high security” youth prison located in central Texas and operated by the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), the state’s juvenile corrections agency. The ACLU charges that TYC subjects the girls to unwarranted solitary confinement, routine strip searches and brutal physical force.

“Throwing children into cold, bare solitary confinement cells is profoundly damaging, especially to children who previously have been abused," said Mie Lewis, staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “The ACLU has closely monitored developments in the Texas Youth Commission over the last year, and although we see some improvements, TYC’s reliance on solitary confinement has to stop.”

The ACLU charges that the treatment the girls have suffered violates their constitutional rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments as well as international standards protecting children from abuse and prohibiting torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

“We are optimistic that we can meet with the defendants soon and come to an amicable solution,” said Lenora Lapidus, Director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “It’s in the interests of both the children and TYC to stop these practices.”

Brownwood State School serves as the reception site for all girls committed to TYC custody and nearly all girls in custody in Texas are held there. Brownwood holds approximately 150 girls who have been sent there for offenses ranging from school-related disciplinary infractions to minor property offenses and more serious offenses.

Girls at Brownwood are regularly placed in punitive solitary confinement in oppressively cold, concrete cells, empty except for a metal slab intended to be used as a bed. Solitary confinement is imposed for minor misbehavior, for self-harm or for expressing a desire to commit self-harm. Terms of solitary confinement can be brief or can last for days, weeks and even months.

Upon entering or exiting solitary confinement and on other occasions when they have not left the facility - for example, when they finish a work assignment within the prison - girls are subject to invasive strip searches. When girls resist, guards regularly use physical force, pepper spray, handcuffs and leather straps to force them to comply. These tactics are also used on girls already in solitary confinement in response to self-harm, shouting, and banging on the wall. Girls subjected to this treatment report suffering flashbacks to childhood rapes and feeling degraded, humiliated and afraid.

“The link between psychological trauma and delinquent behavior is well established,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. “Instead of helping girls learn to cope with their experiences, TYC is re-traumatizing them through the use of solitary confinement and strip searches. TYC must do better, for the sake of our clients and all children in the state's custody."

Attorneys on the lawsuit, K.C. et. al v. Nedelkoff et. al, include Lewis and Lapidus from the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, Graybill from the ACLU of Texas, Steven M. Watt from the ACLU Human Rights Program and Elizabeth Alexander from the ACLU National Prison Project.

The complaint is available online here.

The motion for class certification and memorandum in support of motion for class certification are available online here.

Some of the complaints in the press release echo those set forth by national ACLU's women's rights project in their report last year proposing reforms aimed at girls housed at TYC. A cursory review of the complaint reveals the crux of ACLU's lawsuit appears to oppose "punitive solitary confinement and routine strip searches," particularly for girls housed the Brownwood unit

Perhaps relatedly (?), TYC recently stopped using long-term isolation as part of their "aggression management" program, but ACLU's allegations appear to be aimed at the BMP ("Behavioral Management Program") which is the euphemism used to describe more routine use of solitary confinement on individual campuses.

UPDATE: See initial coverage from the Abilene Reporter News, the Houston Chronicle, AP, and a profile of ACLU's 5 plaintiffs.

TYC ending practice of long-term isolation as "aggression management"

The Texas Youth Commission will end its "aggression management" program in which violent youth were kept in individual cells for months on end, a welcome move away from the use of adult corrections techniques imposed by the agency's last conservator.

TYC eliminated the program because extensive use of isolation did not reflect national best practices, said spokesman Jim Hurley, and also to alleviate staffing shortages at the Mart 1 unit. According to the Waco Tribune Herald ("TYC violent youth program scrapped," June 6), "The program was housed at one of the two TYC units in Mart, with youths being sent there from juvenile prisons all over the state, Hurley said. It had the capacity for 24 youths and required 40 staff members." Reported the Tribune Herald:

As TYC has continued to examine its practices in light of an abuse scandal that rocked the agency last year, it has the agency last year, it has determined the program does not reflect national best practices in dealing with youth offenders, Hurley said. So the state decided to discontinue it.

To fill the gap, TYC is revamping its “behavior management program, which is conducted at all TYC facilities, Hurley said. It will be called Redirect and will revolve around a specialized treatment curriculum designed to manage aggressive youths.

The revamped program will focus on getting inmates to recognize what triggers their violent behavior so they can stop it, Hurley said. He added that it will operate on a privilege system, rather than a punitive one.

Each facility will continue to have so-called security cells where violent youths can be isolated if necessary, Hurley said. However, the cells will be used only for short periods of time.

“It won’t be sticking a kid in there for months on end,” he said.

The 40 staff members who worked for the discontinued program will be transferred to other areas of Unit I at Mart, Hurley said. Since the facility has a shortage of juvenile corrections officers, the shift should ease understaffing there, he said.

Foundation backed juvie program in Indianapolis may hold clues for near-term reforms in Dallas and Houston

Via CrimProf Blog I noticed this article about the Annie Casey Foundation-inspired reforms to the local juvenile justice system in Indianapolis ("Transforming juvenile justice: Effort has cut numbers in lockup," Indianapolis Star, May 27).

I'm interested in learning more about what they're doing because the Annie Casey Foundation is also working with courts in Dallas and Houston to reform their juvie systems, and Indiannapolis appears to be several steps further along in the process. Reported the Star:

Far fewer youths file into Marion County's juvenile lockup each day, a key result of a reform effort that has reduced crowding and diverted thousands of children into programs outside the center's walls.

But architects of the overhaul of the juvenile justice system see the changes as only a starting point. In the third year of a program fueled by a national advocacy group, officials are aiming at ending racial disparities in punishment and transforming a system that many see as perpetuating delinquency rather than healing it.
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Changes have come quickly. The county's juvenile court judge and magistrates reject more delinquency cases submitted by prosecutors or schools. Some get resolved short of court by involving offenders' families in the case.

And a reception center screens youths more stringently, sending more lower-risk offenders home before trial instead of locking them up.

That might sound like a way to promote crime rather than stop it. But juvenile court Judge Marilyn Moores says data collected through the project have helped earn police support for the approa