TYC will expand use of contract youth prisons after Coke County scandal

I went to a press conference this morning held by Texas Youth Commission Executive Director Dimitria Pope at the TYC headquarters in Austin. Ms. Pope's main purpose for calling the event was to release an "audit" of the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, which she decided to close earlier this week. (The text of the report has mercifully been placed online; the pdf version includes photos from the facility.)

I arrived a few minutes after Pope began her public statement. Frequently speaking of herself in the third person, she dismissed her "critics" (Pssst ... I think she may mean us, readers). She said she'd fired everyone associated with the Coke County fiasco, and she has "zero tolerance for abuse of children." (And no, before somebody asks, I didn't get a chance to ask her about McFadden Ranch in light of that statement.)

Then, in an awkward and bizarre moment, when she finished the prepared statement Ms. Pope quickly gathered the papers in front of her, turned heel, and strode rapidly out of the room, leaving spokesman Jim Hurley to answer reporters' questions. The first question: Who did she mean by her critics? The newspapers? The Blue Ribbon Task Force? Who was she talking about? Hurley couldn't say: Just Google TYC and read what's being said, he declared.

Nobody was satisfied with that answer, so I piped up from the peanut gallery to ask, "Why don't you see if she'll come back in here and answer questions so we won't have to guess what she meant?" The gathered reporters murmured with approbation, so Hurley left the room, returning a minute or two later with Pope in tow. I thought that was appropriate - after all, she called the press conference!

So who were the unnamed critics she's unhappy with, reporters wanted to know? To give some indication, Pope said she had canceled her subscription to the Austin American Statesman because reporters weren't checking their facts. Oddly, she went out of her way to say her beef wasn't with Mike Ward, who was in the room and who she said was doing his job, but he's been the primary Statesman reporter assigned to the story for many months.

Her two chief complaints, she said, were people questioning her leadership ability and comments made about the Coke County closure. (I'm guessing from her first stated reason for frustration that she's not a big fan of Grits, either.) Even when pressed, she would give no more detail about whose criticisms she considered unfair.

Pope said she "wouldn't put my own dog" in the Coke County faility. She hasn't talked to either the fired TYC employees or officials from the Geo Group, and doesn't plan to do so. The Geo folks had been calling, she said, but she refuses to take their phone calls! The only person she discussed the decision with before making it was the Governor; the conservator apparently was out of the loop.

Mike Ward from the Statesman pointed out that UTMB had recently said there were "no significant problems" at the Coke facility, and despite the concerns about fire safety, it passed a fire inspection in September. Were none of these people doing their job? "Hell no," Pope fired back, "no one was doing their job."

In response to the Coke County fiasco, it's already been reported this morning that TYC had sent out teams to audit all contract facilities and Sen. John Whitmire wants to hold hearings to assess the Geo Group's contracts with the state of Texas, developments Pope discussed in some detail.

But the biggest news of the press conference, to me, was an announcement in response to a question by yours truly that TYC still plans to expand use of contract care in the wake of the Coke County revelations. A bidders conference has already been held, she said, regarding contracts to house 10-13 year olds and some older boys, and the agency plans to move ahead despite these revelations moving youth into contract facilities, possibly in Kerr County.

Have we learned nothing from the Coke County experience? Will TYC blindly move forward putting MORE kids in private youth prisons when we're not satisfied the ones there now are safe? Is that really putting "youth first," which Pope says is her "battle cry"? Surely this incident should give TYC administrators pause about the wisdom of such actions?

When Sen. Whitmire holds hearings on the Geo Group, I hope they also take testimony about the wisdom of using private prisons for young people in the first place. After this unseemly episode with the Geo Group, I don't see how Texas' leaders can say in good faith that that's a good idea.

MORE: See Doug Swanson's account in the Dallas News, just posted, and an exasperated Austin Statesman editorial. Here's the Statesman's coverage of the press conference, and the Houston Chronicle believed Pope's comments about critics were aimed at House Corrections Chair Jerry Madden. See also Texas Prison Bidness on the Geo closing.