there were no injuries in either of two incidents that flared up on Saturday. One was in the cafeteria. The other was in the dorm rooms.I'm glad to see the local news in Edinburg is learning to ask the right questions: Would these incidents have arisen if understaffing wasn't chronic? To me, the use of pepper spray during a "riot" engenders little concern. Of greater import is the agency's failure to adequately staff large facilities.
Now, an internal investigation is underway along with a state review by the Office of the Inspector General into the actions by TYC staffers. Representative [Aaron] Pena says what transpired over the weekend may have been one of those "rare situations" where the pepper spray was warranted.
But Action 4 News asked this: "Is there a difference between a rare situation and perhaps a lack of staff and lack of training?"
Representative Pena answered, "That's what we have to get to the bottom of."
What acting Executive Director Dimitria Pope and Co. attempted to do last year in defiance of the courts with their relaxed use of force policy was use pepper spray as a means of control to compensate for a chronic lack of experienced, qualified staff.
While it's one thing to use OC spray in the "rare" event of a "riot," it's quite another for TYC facilities to be so understaffed that "riots" and use of pepper spray become routine.
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18 comments:
In the newspaper report on the Evins incident, Mr. Hurley stated that there were 201 youth and 29staff at Evins. This comes out to a 7:1 ratio, which is in compliance. What the reporter failed to do is ask whether the 29 staff were all JCO staff or if they were including all staff at the facility at the time of the event. I doubt that the staff was all JCO staff and suspect that Hurley was distorting the facts. He was also attempting to minimize the incident implying that these types of incidents happen all of the time. I can assure you that they do not.
It has been typical of TYC to convert all staff into "JCO" staff for reporting purposes.
Every time I visited Evins, they were understaffed -- and they had less than 200 kids.
Someboody (hurley[?]) is lying.
The paper said 200+ kids and 29 staff? Three shifts, would someone figure out just how many staff were on duty during this riot? Good lord, what were they to do in this situation, get the hell beat out of them or killed, to keep from hurting a kid? I just do not understand this, please someone explain it to me.
How many of those 29 staff are sole supervision qualified? Did they include Cafeteria staff, nursing staff, Maintenance, etc. SOunds like it to me, I doubt that 29 JCOs were on Campus. Someone from Evins give us the facts.
6:06, you've got it exactly right - staff are in a catch 22, but administration lets the s**t run downhill instead of taking responsibility for dangerously understaffed facilities. And 6:26, I'll bet dollars to donuts there's no way there were 29 JCOs on campus.
That's been the crux of the management failure since the scandal broke last year, IMO. They won't increase pay because TYC pay was tied to TDCJ's, and a raise for TDCJ would cost $500 million. So they do nothing, the agency hemorrhages staff, and CO blames front line staff whenever things predictably go wrong.
I'm from Evins. Let's see together if the numbers add up.
2pm to 10pm.
Shift change numbers are not the same at 6:00pm and on. Anyways.
Gatehouse = 2, then 1 staff after 6:00pm.
Security Building = 2 outside, 2 inside and 1 in the control picket.
Total Security personnel on duty = 7.
Dorm 1 = 2 to 3; Dorm 2 = 2 to 3;
Dorm 4 =8+1= 9 and Dorm 3 =8+1= 9. (Not all fully certified, just OJT training for the control picket because they can't be on the floor until completing all of the OJT.
Total JCO's = 24
Campus Supervisor = 1
Infirmary staff = 2.
At time of incident, five (5)Groups out for dinner during the first incident would involve total of 10 JCO's, 2 Outside security staff and 1 campus supervisor. Now this adds to 13. Two groups in Cafe, (40 to 48 youths) 1 at Infirmary area (16 to 24 youths), 1 returning to dorm but stopped (16 to 24 youths) and 1 group at the waiting area to go to infirmary before entering Cafe(16 to 24 youths.)
Now to paint a better picture. There was onjly one way to enter and leave that cafe that day due to the door at the other end was broken. Safety Issue???
Gonzalez, Psycho had been notified of this and directed them to proceed with movements anyway.
At a minimum of 88 youths at one time, all over the place. Remember that two staff with one group, what do they cover, the ones that are involve or the ones that are not. Still if they split up, 1 goes and 1 stays, Don't tell me that this could be taken care of or be under control without the use of pepper spray. Not only were the kids fighting but running around campus as well.
Then again after 8:30 pm with extra staff being called in, not the star team, what star team?
2 dorms having fights and problems or chaos as Stupidtendents want to call it. Vidaurri, stays in the back of Evins but was no where to be found. Gonzalez, seen entering the 2 dorms but standing by the entrance doors with his arms crossed. Not once confronting anyone - staff or especially youths. Just leaves and fights occur again. I may not be making any sense because I am furious. The Stupidtendents held a meeting about decision making and apologizing for having to be rude to everyone . AAAHHH - signs of weakness perhaps! Sorry out there but Evins has not been the same with Bart Caldwell, and even more now!!!! Thanks for allowing to vent.
I forgot and left out Cafe personnel, 3 and never seen them help in this scenarios.
Even if we had 29 staff, 2 control pickets for dorms 3 and 4, 27, 1 gatehouse, 26, 3 cafe staff never being involved before, 23, 2 nursing staff, 21, minus 10 staff needing to monitor the other 5 groups that were on there dorms, 11, and 3 security staff at station II. This would leave 8 for the rest of the campus, including 5 groups out for dinner? Your Right, Someone is lying!!!!!
You were lied to Mr. Hurley or you decided to make things up as well.
Hurley paints a lovely picture from his office . . . the reality is, even if there are 29 staff on a campus with 201 youth, someone has to provide supervision to the youth in the dorms.
7:38 has it right. The pretty picture is a 7:1 ratio; the actual picture is 1 staff to 16-24 kids.
Kids are still getting sprayed all the time at Crockett. Last week, a kid got sprayed because he would not get out of bed. Don't kid yourself thinking it only happens because of a "riot". As long as the documentation is right, people will justify it.
I am sure from what has been reported at Crockett youth getting out of bed is the least of the issues there. What about the youth assaulting staff, each other, telling staff go Fck yourself. Why have they had STAR teams there for the past week and still there today. Crocket is screwed up really bad right now, just as bad a Evins, Mart, and Al Price. But, with that said we need pepper spray, just not used illegally.
Is a staffing roster (commonly called a turnout roster) required for each shift in TYC?
A staffing roster assigns a person, by name, to each post/position on each shift.
Retired 2004
You are a LIAR 9:24 and yes, I know this for a fact did NOT happen. Quit being a part of the problem by spreading gossip. There are plenty of factual problems at Crockett you could help fix.
We call it an assessment sheet, but it is the same as a turnout roster.
The assessment sheet should reflect the staffing ratio during the incident; unless the sheet is being "pencil-whipped".
Retired 2004
Humpster brought the spray and its used dailey. Not just riots but for any command that is not followed. I think they would spray staff for the same reason if they could get away with it.
TYC has never really controlled Evins. We ought to give it to Hidalgo county and let them run it officially, because the local politicos are running it de facto. Right now they have the best of both worlds - they actually control the facility, but when things go wrong they can turn around and blame TYC.
Austin was foolish to ever place anglos at Evins. Both anglo superintendents failed before they even got there. hinojosa complained about the last one before he even drove up to the gate and helped conspire against him from the start. Didn't have a chance. Turn it over to hidalgo county, they are corrupt enough to run it.
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