Mikulastik: "If I had been paid a million dollars to destroy TYC I could not have done a better job"

On Saturday I ran the first in a series of guest blog posts about reforming the Texas Youth Commission that I hope will add depth and substance to both Grits' coverage and the overall debate about what should happen at that troubled agency.

Anthony Mikulastik is a former TYC employee who was fired for a 35 year old burglary conviction. Anthony is one of two employees identified by the press who tried to report the alleged West Texas sexual abuse in 2003. He worked for TYC more than 11 years, 2 as a correctional officer and 9 as a case worker III. Before coming to TYC, he was a Chaplain for the Bell County Sheriff’s Department and the Temple Police Department for about 10 years. Thanks, Anthony, for participating in this ongoing blog conversation.

TYC's Orientation and Assessment Unit has made the move from Marlin to Mart, Texas. The move cost the agency nearly a hundred employees, most whom are juvenile correctional officers. Approximately 80 correctional officers signed on with TDCJ just before the move. Meanwhile, the number of resignations rises on a daily basis at the Mart facility.

Case Managers who are being forced to work dorms become little more than stand-in correctional officers. They work shifts up to 12 hours due to the shortage of staff at the Mart facility. I wonder how long it will be before another TYC employee is killed in an auto accident driving home after a long shift?

Former Marlin intake employees who want to keep their jobs are being forced to the Mart 2 unit to fill staff shortages. As I predicted months ago, the move to carry one of the most stable employee groups to prop up a failed TYC location is going to cause mass losses among long term experienced TYC employees. The current TYC administration seems focused on disenfranchising themselves from their only hope of survival: their experienced staff. One blunder after another has occurred at the direction of current TYC management.

TYC youth know they cannot be held accountable for negative behavior under the current system. They get a false sense of security, and TYC becomes an Enabler for the youth’s negative behavior. The very thing the youth were placed in TYC for isn't treated. In fact, just the opposite is happening. Youth are taught to be disrespectful and become violent criminals. When the magic birthday comes, too many will be on their way to the adult prison system.

Less-than-desirable TYC management, who have little or no juvenile experience, appear to be on a mission to destroy TYC, which would ultimately mean a move toward contract care. At least, one can only hope there is a hidden agenda being applied by TYC management. I would hate to think the people in charge of a major state agency who were appointed by the governor could be so ill equipped to operate the Texas Youth Commission.

I saw Grits' report that the idea of contracting out the younger youth has resurfaced once again. I knew the contracting of the younger children would be revisited because there is money to be made. Part of my reservation about the true reasons for contracting out social care programs is the historical nature of the majority party in Austin. The Legislature has cut numerous social programs to the point of crippling them just as they did the funding for TYC. Once again the record speaks for itself.

All of the upheaval was mostly due to the acts of a couple of sexual predators. Bill Parker and I told TYC administration in 2003 about the sexual misconduct and were considered bad guys for bringing it to their attention. Numerous people knew about the sexual abuse including people in the Governor’s office. The head of TYC tried to tell Senator Whitmire about the sexual abuse but he cut Mr. Harris off and told him they could discuss it at another time. Then suddenly after the press ran stories about the sexual abuse at West Test State School everyone was so concerned about the poor TYC youth.

The conservator’s first act was to fire TYC employees with prior criminal histories who had nothing to do with the problems at TYC. No TYC employee with a criminal history was tied to any of the misconduct that I am aware of.

People from TDCJ were brought in to manage juveniles which was a bad move from the start due to the vastly different legal and treatment needs of the two populations. Why weren’t the people responsible for the wrong doing and the people who covered up for them be dealt with in a lawful manner instead of the massive destruction of the agency? Also I would like to know how a sex crime is a gross misappropriation of state resources which was required to place TYC under conservatorship.

The on and off mode of policy making that has come from Central Office shows a management team who is in over their head. No sooner than a new policy is announced it is canceled. The evidence speaks for itself; the current TYC administration has no short term plan, much less a long term plan of operation.

The Texas Legislature shares the responsibility for the TYC fiasco. Political grandstanding was the priority for many members of the Texas Legislature. Again I wonder why the sudden great care of the TYC youth when the Legislature cut the TYC budget session after session. The Governor’s selection of the people to run TYC also has made a bad situation worse.

If I had been paid a million dollars to destroy TYC I could not have done a better job than has been done during the past few months. What a mess!