Wednesday, February 06, 2008

By the Numbers: LBB gives budget overview of TYC's difficulties

Here are some notes from the presentation to the House Appropriations Subcommitee on Crimional Justice by Angela Isaac, an LBB Analyst for TYC and juvenile probation. (She had a handout of which I'll try to get a copy.)

TYC has a budget of $452.7 million for the biennium, she said, and $450.7 million of that comes straight from General Revenue. At the moment about TYC incarcerates 3,300 youths, she said, but Isaac's data tells me to expect that figure to decline even further.

Assumptions underlying the agency's current budget anticipated substantial reductions in the inmate population through closures and reduced size of some facilities. Agency is appropriated for a total of 2,292 beds in institutions, 218 in halfway houses, 641 in private facilities, for a total of 3,151 youth. (I've argued that understaffing will cause them to push that figure lower; I don't think enough staff can be hired to keep up a 12-1 ratio for 3,151 youth, particularly if the feds actually force them to meet that ratio without juggling the number.)

Isaac said (publicly for the first time, as far as I know) that this biennial budget imposed funding reductions based on an assumption of a whopping 1,496 decrease in institutional beds and 1,241 FTE reduction - i.e., firing 1,241 workers. Many are already gone, but that still means more staff reductions are planned.

In addition, TYC's total institutional bed count will reduce by another 456 beds because of renovating open bay dorms into single cells..

All this collectively amounts to an estimated 32% reduction in the number of inmates in Texas youth prisons from 2006 levels, and a 36% reduction in the number of JCOs - I'd never understood the new budget anticipated cuts that drastic.

The youth who would have been in TYC in the past just become the counties' problem - counties received some new money for that, but likely not enough to cover as many youth as Ms. Isaac described.

On the JCOs 12-1 staffing ratio: The Lege approved funds for more than 500 new JCO staff, last yeasr, but those remain unfilled. The agency reports they're meeting or nearly meeting staffing levels, but there have been allocations they're counting caseworkers and other non-JCO employees to get to that number.

TYC has 2,238 JCO positions filled, leaving 538 budgeted slots unfilled. Meanwhile the turnover rate for JCOs remained an astonishing 49% in 2007. Rep. McReynolds questioned why the turnover rate was so high, and whether it resulted from SB 103 and the Legislature's changes.

While many Grits readers have been concerned with possible shift to contract care, Isaac reports that TYC budgeted for 641 contract beds, but only leases 303 beds right now.

Here's a story that's not been publicly told before about the lethargic response by the agency to improve health care for youth. The Lege appropriated $44.2 million for health and psychiatric care, said Isaac, however nineteen new FTEs were funded for providing additional oversight for inmate health care, but as of right now none of those positions have been filled.

Next up are conservator Richard Nedelkoff and acting executive director Dimitria Pope. Sylvester Turner tried to pin down Nedelkoff on whether Dimitria Pope would remain executive director, but Nedelkoff said he'd prefer to discuss the matter privately, deflecting the question fairly admirably. Turner made it clear, though, that he'd like see an announcement very soon, and he "doesn't want to spend a lot of time" talking to Dimitria Pope if she won't be there next week. Nedelkoff didn't budge though. Looking at the discussion overall, though, I'd still bet her days are number.

More soon. If you're watching the hearing, let me know your thoughts in the comments.

32 comments:

  1. There is likely to continue to be a real hiring problem in TYC as long as The Pope is in place. I think that Nedelkoff has given people some hope -- it will be interesting to see what happens after the hearing today.

    BTW, didn't Pope announce in August that all of the Youth Rights positions had been filled and those staff were in their positions? That is just not true. How many more non-truths has she told about hiring?

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  2. They need to get Rid of the Pope,and hurry up and come to Mart 1 & 2 before there are no more JCO's left.And see why these kids on D-orm are running the whole campus when they should be on a long term campus instead of being housed and schooled with new kids who are affarid of the kids who have been in the system for 2 to 3 years not trying to go home ,Needelkoff if you can do something about that the staff might start coming to work and staying at T.Y.C.

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  3. Pope is not a candidate for E.D. She stated this for the committee. "I don't even know if I will be here tomorrow"

    Live Feed time 2hrs 40 min.

    Check it out!

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  4. Boy I understand what you are saying Mart 1 and 2, we are having the same problem at Gainesville and our administration does not seem too concerned that if they would treat their staff with respect and give them a little support now and then, we would be better than we are now, but we seem to have supervisors who are making deals with the kids instead of holding them accountable. How can we stop the cycle of crime when our supervisors are just as crooked.....Need help now not later.

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  5. Does anyone know WHERE the 456 beds we are about to lose are located. Sounds like two or more facilities to me!

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  6. 5:49,

    The reduction of 456 beds is the result of converting the open bay dorms, not closing facilities.

    Howard A. Hickman

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  7. Thanks Howard. I was worried there for a minute!

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  8. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't double fence Mart I and II and turn that bad ass over to TDCJ. You can staff it with less Correction Officers than you could with JCO's. I have heard nothing with regard to TDCJ having employee problems at Hamilton. And now San Saba and Marlin are coming up for them. Mart would be very attractive to them because it's well built with the exception of the water utilities. But they could care less about that in the adult system. I've just got a hunch... not meant to advocate for that to happen, but...

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  9. I'll bet a dollar to a donut hole that WTSS is no longer in existance a year from now. Employee pool has vanished with all the oil field activity that pays 3 or 4 times what a jco makes. Probably needs to go anyway just based on its location.

    Plato

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  10. AMEN to the Gainesville comment. We are losing another tenured staff on our dorm, for what??? He said "I've had enough and I'm getting out before someone gets hurt." This is so ridiculous. I too am on my way out--I think it's a shame that most Administrators don't have a clue that without the current teams on most dorms, they would definitely have a major riot on their hands. Hopefully, Neddlekoff will act fast--he is in my prayers because it's going to take a miracle to fix this mess that D'Pope created. I hope he doesn't forget to investigate all the "chronies" she picked for upper management positions. This circus is so out of control.

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  11. Maybe when Haider got punched by that youth yesterday, he got some sense knocked into his head. We can all hope so otherwise we may be sunk with the likes of him and Hawthorne running our place.

    Howard, please run the math for me on converting the open bay dorms to 16 cell ones reducing the bed count by 456. Let's see now, a normal 24 bed dorm changing over to a 16 bed will save 8 beds. So how many dorms would that be. 456/8 is right around 57 isn't it. Please tell me just where there are 57 open bay dorms that are going to be converted to 16 bed single room units.

    I think you might be a little full of poo poo. We'll wait and see, but I'm with the other person that thinks there are some closings that are going to help that number a great deal.

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  12. I don't think it is that hard a number to get to. Al Price, Giddings, Mart, probably pretty close right there.

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  13. Plato, do us a favor and get a job in the oil field and quit knocking WTSS. We are survivors not quitters!

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  14. 8:41
    Crockett’s “96” bed dorm has 16 bunks making the dorm population 128. Even with 16 bunks per side there were youth in “boats” on the floor in the past. There were times the population was at 140. Trying to figure numbers will drive you crazy. The numbers are lower now so go figure.

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  15. It evidently isn't common knowledge that Haider got punched--Most of us don't have any use for him or Hawthorne, but I really do hate that he was assaulted. Does anyone know what the story is behind the assault? That explains why he's been out the last couple of days. It's a shame that even though this happened Gainesville Administration still just doesn't get it and it won't change anything.

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  16. Angela Isaac must be a graduate of the Dementia Pope Institute of Budgetary Prevarication and Misinformation because where I work, the JCO to youth ratio is higher than the stated 1:12.3 she stated for the Appropriations Committee. She must be counting staff out on FMLA, Workman's Comp, suspension, etc. (or maybe even staff who have recently died?) To be more specific, it runs between 1:13 and 1:15 on a daily basis and if you exclude the JCO VI's and V's, it is much higher. Is lying a prerequisite for high paying state jobs?

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  17. It isn't the first time that Haider has been punched. He was punched at least twice at San Saba when he was a JCO.

    His tact has never improved.

    I don't like it that he was hit, but there is a pattern here that Mr. Needelkopf needs to look at.

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  18. Angela Isaac was just relaying the information given to her by TYC. Don't blame her for the numbers.

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  19. 09:15 - WTSS closing is all about location, demographics (for staff) and economics. My comment has nothing to do with the dedication of staff working there.

    Plato

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  20. West Texas:

    1. Location and Demographics - located in a central area of West Texas. There are youth offenders in West Texas. They are not all from the urban areas.

    2. Economics - West Texas has survived several oil booms. The staffing situation is difficult in all areas where TYC is located, not just West Texas. You need to understand the history about oil booms. Believe it or not, a lot of people like working with youth rather than boiling or freezing on an oil rig in the summer and winter. I am confident that many of the staff will return when the leadership is stable. Yes, there were a lot of staff that left this year, but the oil boom was not the reason. Before this mess started, WTSS was down about 12 JCO's, which is not bad. The bad publicity and inept leadership is the reason most of them left this year.

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  21. There are at least 10 96-bed dorms. (at Giddings, Crockett, Al Price, Mart& Evins). 96-64=32 32x10=320. So, the conversion takes care of at least 320 beds, maybe more, if there are more than 10 of those dorms.

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  22. 8:41,

    I suggest if you are so concerned about me being full of "po poo," that you consult Maintenance and Operations at the CO. I sat in a meeting, I believe, in March where the 456 number was mentioned as the loss of beds from the conversion. I generally assume that they know the number of open bay dorms involved and the resulting net loss in beds since they are the ones overseeing the work, but you seem to be the expert on "poo poo."

    Howard A. Hickman

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  23. I'm with you Howard. I'm the one who asked about the 456 beds sounding like a closure of 2 facilities in an earlier comment to this blog string.

    I don't think you are full of "poo-poo." I happen to appreciate your input, thanks.

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  24. I'm not concerned whether you're full of poo poo or not. I said that I thought you might be full of poo poo. I'd guess a lot of people on these blogs are, including me. I'll certainly admit that I am. But if you are starting to believe what the people at C.O. are putting out after being there and watching and listening and participating in the schemeing, I'm thinking even more so. I guess you believe all that poo poo coming out of Pope's mouth yesterday too. You know, I never heard anyone put them under oath so I supposed it's ok to lie. It won't be long and we'll see whether it's you 2 or me. I'll stick with closing some facilities and I'd bet we could all guess which ones. I'm not saying that they are not going to change the numbers by converting the dorms. Certainly they are going to change. However, believe me that my best guess is that facilities will close before they ever get that many beds lost due to renovation. They are going to have to get after those renovations quickly and not mess around if it's going to happen anytime soon. Of course, you would know, wouldn't you, Howard since you attend/attended all those meetings. Were you sworn to secrecy like all the others and sitting by getting ready to watch all those poor employees get the shaft and their families suffer. Or are you willing to let them know. It would be ok to post anonymous once and be a stand up guy and support the ones in the field instead of C.O. I know you were just doing your job when you were closing all those loop holes so C.O. could give them the shaft all the time and I can respect that even if I don't like it, but unless you're still on the payroll, you could give us all a heads up on some things. Oh well, C.O. will finally tell them like they did the other places they closed that they gave them every indication it was going to happen and even put it in print. It's their (the employees) fault if they didn't pay attention to the train when they could hear it coming and just chose to ignore it.....right? Heck they are still talking about closings. Does anyone have any guesses which facilities it's going to be. Oh, never mind, we've been here before. 8:06, all I can tell you is to just watch out who you're listening to. While it's ok to be optimistic, it's a whole different thing to listen to the people who have been biting you in the butt for a long time and then stick your head in the sand. I give up trying to tell them the truth. I'm just going to sit by and watch the train hit them too. You can only warn them so much and then it's time to get out of the way so the debris doesn't hit you as well. Good luck my friends. I feel you're going to really need it.

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  25. 9:08 p.m., After Pope, the hearing, Whitmire and Turner, I just can't take much more. I'm so tired of people speculating about facility closures. If you know something spill the beans and have the guts to say who you are and how you know it! If not, then try to post something positive!! You sound a lot like Timmy Waterlily, is it you??

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  26. 2:21, Howard and all -
    In addition to the 10 large 96-bed open bay dorms, there also smaller open bay dorms at Victory Field. A reduction in the population on these dorms was also part of the original plan for addressing the open bay problem. Even though these smaller open bays could not be physically reconfigured like the large ones, it made no sense to say that 24 youth is too many on the large open bays but leave 24 on the small ones. So we proposed just dropping their number to 16 per pod. The same option was discussed for Marlin and John Shero had they stayed with TYC. If reducing the open bays at Victory Field does not account for the rest of the 456 bed loss, then maybe they didn't properly adjust for taking Marlin and John Shero out of the equation...

    Don Brantley

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  27. I finally got the chance to listen to the recording of the Tuesday hearing. I agree with kudos to Mr. Nedelkoff and Mr. Harrell. I won't comment on Pope. I think the rest of you have captured it already. I do have to comment on their 1:12 JCO staffing report. I'll spare you my critique of their actual calculation formula and just say that their entire approach is wrong. Quoting some agency-wide number is meaningless. My understanding was that the architects of SB103 didn't want an "average" of 1:12, they wanted to make sure that groups of youth larger than 12 weren't left with just one staff (and that staff weren't left alone with more than 12 youth!). TYC already has a lot of dorms that don't divide by 12, just look at the 18-bed dorm sides at Giddings. There will be many more when open bay pods are reduced to 16 youth. If the only measure of SB103 compliance is an agency-wide (or even a facility-wide) average of 1:12, then that means it will remain OK to have one staff alone on one-half of the 18-bed dorms so long as the rest have two staff (i.e. 3 staff for every two dorms or 36 youth = 1:12 average). By their methodology it will also be sufficient to leave one staff alone on two out of three open bays once they are reduced to 16 beds (three 16 bed pod = 48 youth; 4 staff between these pods = 1:12). I know Ms. Pope doesn't understand all this because I tried to explain it to her once and she just glazed over. But surely they have someone left who does understand this. Of course, doing it their way allows them to look like they are accomplishing something. If TYC wants to accurately report SB103 compliance, then they should track anytime any dorm/living group is covered by less than 1 staff per 12 youth. They could record this by the hour and then calculate the percentage of "dorm hours" in compliance. Those of you on the dorms now - wouldn't that sound a lot different than what they reported on Tuesday?

    Don Brantley

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  28. An added thought - maybe they should track those 'dorm-hours' in compliance with a 1:12 ratio seperately for compliance without using overtime and compliance requiring overtime. That would provide a real picture of how compliant they are and what toll it is taking on staff to acheive compliance...

    Don Brantley

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  29. Sly Turner is an idiot. The hearing was supposed to be about appropriations issues and he turned it into a circus with his questioning about whether Dimwitria was going to be around to continue her madness. Mr. Nedelkoff deflected those questions very adeptly. At the end when Sly admonished Mr. Nedelkoff about answering a question when asked, and when they were grilling him about his other job, he should have reminded Sly that he (Sly) has a day job too and that they are both servants to the public. Now, Nedelkoff has resigned his other job and is conservator full time. Let's see if Sly quits his day job.

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  30. The easiest way to determine if there is really a 1:12 ratio is to make some visits to the facilities and actually count the youth on any given dorm and then count the JCO staff that are physcially present. That would not include CW staff, other staff, staff in the infirmary, staff in the cafeteria, etc. I think the agency would be hard pressed to find 1:12 to any where. Besides just do the math if TYC is short 500 JCO staff and then you subtract out all the staff on FMLA, other types of sick leave, administrative leave (paid and unpaid), JCO staff assigned to other posts besides the dorm, training including all the new training, and the list goes on how could you ever meet 1:12. State auditors to get out of your office and check on the numbers you are being given!

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  31. 9:08,

    In all my years with TYC I was never sworn to secrecy at any time. I was obligated to follow certain laws on youth confidentiality and bid evaluation confidentiality but there never was a meeting where people were sworn to secrecy. Don gave a much more detailed explaination of the 456 bed reduction than I thought necessary in my prior response. There are also other factors in the redesign that will result in bed space loss but the fact is that the 456 number has nothing to do with closing facilities. So it is not good evidence that there is some secret plan to close facilities. Facility closures are more likely to occur as a result of the inability of TYC to hire enough staff, rather than an act by the legislature. If you had read the Appropriations Act, you would find that there is authorization and money to build a new facility so at least the legislature had no closure plans other than the transfer of MOAU and John Shero. The real threat is not some super secret closure plan but the inability to hire and retain staff.

    Howard A. Hickman

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  32. Howard: I agree with your threat assessment. BTW I believe the threat has been consummated in TYC and TDCJ.

    ALL programs in TYC and TDCJ (and probably Parole and CJAD) are at best, seriously impaired by lack of adequate staff. Medical, Mental Health, Education and ALL other programs would be considered ludicrous if humanity wasn't the recipient.

    Retired 2004

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