Sunday, February 17, 2008

Whitmire still angry over D'Pope's dismissal but the deed is done

The Dallas News this morning has a long feature on Texas Youth Commission woes that indicates Sen. John Whitmire is still on the warpath against the new conservator, Richard Nedelkoff. Whitmire intends to use a hearing scheduled on Friday to call Mr. N on the carpet for his decision to fire Dimitria Pope, the senator's long-time close friend. Reported Doug Swanson:

"I don't know who's on first base, and I'm not sure Nedelkoff knows what inning we're in," Mr. Whitmire said. "I don't have confidence that he knows what's going on."

Mr. Whitmire co-chairs the special joint legislative committee on TYC, which convenes Friday in Austin. He and other legislators say they will direct Mr. Nedelkoff – who in December became the agency's third conservator in nine months – to bring some desperately needed calm and purpose to the agency.

"It's awful," Mr. Whitmire said. "We need stability."

Apparently, Whitmire said, Pope misled the Legislature last year when she told them TYC was making good progress, telling him behind the scenes things were worse than ever:

Ms. Pope, who spent eight months as acting executive director, did not reply to several requests for comment. In December, she declared that TYC's progress toward reform was excellent. Behind the scenes, however, a different conversation was occurring.

"Ms. Pope's gone, but the problems still exist," Mr. Whitmire said last week. "She told me last month that things are a lot worse at TYC than anyone knows."

But inexplicably, the Senator is not angry at Ms. Pope for concealing these problems in her testimony before his committee on numerous occasions, but at the new conservator for recognizing she was covering up a big mess and getting rid of her. How much sense does that make?

Meanwhile, new concerns revealed at recent visits by the Ombudsman and Harris County's TYC liaison to the McFadden Ranch halfway house in Denton typify a slew of unresolved difficulties facing the new conservator:

Privately, senior TYC officials talk now of "hitting the reset button" on the agency for another rebuilding effort in many crucial areas. Among them: replacing failed therapy programs, finding qualified correctional officers to hire and maintaining order at isolated and outmoded youth prisons.

Recent reports by two independent inspectors found some of the old problems persisting. The reports, by TYC's independent ombudsman and Harris County's TYC liaison, were released to The Dallas Morning News by the ombudsman after a request under the Texas Public Information Act.

Both sets of findings were issued after unannounced visits to TYC's McFadden Ranch halfway house at Roanoke in Denton County. They detail repeated instances of failure to provide timely medical treatment to sick or injured youths.

One boy reported waiting weeks to see a doctor for a torn tendon in his wrist. Others complained of long delays in treatment for serious cuts, broken bones and breathing problems.

Several said they had not complained about medical treatment before because they were afraid of retaliation by staff.

The grievance procedures – by which youths file complaints – received strong criticism in the reports. Juveniles at McFadden "have consistently reported that they do not file grievances because it only makes their situation worse," the Harris County liaison wrote. "Youth report they are often singled out and ... the staff the grievance was filed against becomes angry and ridicules the youth by calling them 'snitch.' "

You can't say Pope or the Committee didn't know about McFadden Ranch's woes. Sen. Whitmire's joint committee was told about medical-related abuses there last August, and Ms. Pope told them she would immediately follow up. But here we are. (The comment string on the post about that committee's McFadden Ranch discussion is the longest ever in Grits' history - currently at 676 comments - including many other first-hand problematic allegations.)

Sen. Whitmire may well put the conservator through the ringer on Friday, but it won't matter. The deed is done. Hopefully other committee members will prefer to look toward the future.

One final note, apparently you really could tell who were the Grits readers at TYC after Dimitria Pope's firing. Swanson lede declares:
After Dimitria Pope's forced resignation from the Texas Youth Commission last week, some TYC employees began singing, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead," from The Wizard of Oz.
What Doug didn't mention was that those singing had all heard the tune as a result of its posting in Grits' comments soon after her departure was announced. So guess what, guys, you made the paper!

232 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Thats a GREAT idea!!!

Anonymous said...

Too bad there isn't some auto ban feature to make the likes of you be gone.


*poof*

Anonymous said...

Yeah, because everybody wants your stupid comments like that on here.

If you don't have anything productive to say....oop's forgot you are from the "Ranch" you don't know what productive means!

Anonymous said...

watch the threats Hetrick...

Anonymous said...

Didn't you get the message?? Its not Hetrick, its somebody from CO that is really interested in Green's court case and who knows everything that occurs at McFadden!! :-)


Besides, Hetrick is probably on his second case of mountain dew by now so he can push his piece of shit car to his apartment.

Anonymous said...

I would like to know how many of these posts came about while McFadden employee's were on the clock and the state computer!

Anonymous said...

PLEASE STOP! YOU ARE MAKING EVERYONE LOOK BAD. TAKE THIS GARBAGE TO MYSPACE OR SOMETHING

Anonymous said...

Go back to the old threads and stay there!

Anonymous said...

Hetrick is home! How was work...dude?


Just proved it was you.

Anonymous said...

Making YOU look bad? Thats a joke right? YOU are your crew of idiots are making the STATE look horrible! YOU are putting McFadden on the front page of newspapers, or is that somebody else's fault too?

Anonymous said...

nah, he ain't home - they got them working 12 hours now cuz their understaffed.

Anonymous said...

I got an idea, Call Grits again and ask him if he can make the people who are bothering you stop, okay?

You got beat up alot as a kid, didn't you?

Anonymous said...

his lazy ass...He is home.

Anonymous said...

maybe he is on his way to your house Green! He did travel all the way from Austin to Denton to get your court records and he plans on being there to see whats going on!

You do know if he even contacts you, you call the police! Got that?

Anonymous said...

Lets get back to the subject at hand. McFadden Ranch and their awful treatment of staff and youth.

You can't call people "disgruntled" when grievance after grievance continued to be filed about the treatment there. BEFORE THE TERMINATION.

If people started complaining AFTER they were fired, then they are disgruntled.
We were retaliated against!

Anonymous said...

The youth will not voluntarily approach investigators because they are to afraid of retaliation. The investigators will have to bring a number of youth in for individual and random interviews.

If the invtestigators look as the medical files or grievances they will find plenty. Compare the grievance that have been filed to what the youth have carbon copies of filing.

Anonymous said...

10:59 thanks for making an effort to bring this thread back to the original post. I agree with you.

Investigators, do you really think that the youth are going to be honest when they fear retaliation?

Please use other data to reach your conclusions. Whatever you use, please offer a resolution. Don't let this chaotic mess at Mcfadden continue another day.

Anonymous said...

My motivation in this whole situation is the children involved. They may have chosen a bad path in life, they may be criminals, but THEY are human beings.Doesn't that earn them some respect? Doesn't that earn them medical attention when needed?

They all have parents, loved ones who care for them. How would YOU feel if somebody you loved was sick or injured and instead of proper medical treatment, they were handed some "home remedy" and then made fun of??? You know how you would feel.
The state of Texas has become a joke in this matter. The abuse, neglect and exploitation of the youth at McFadden Ranch has gone on for over a year at this point to my knowledge. When will it end? When will somebody step in and say, "You might be putting a show on, but we are not buying it" because as soon as the spotlight leaves Mcfadden Ranch, it will occur again....Because the staff that remains there only knows one way to do it, the WRONG way. They can only pretend for so long. This whole situation reminds me of the case of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.He was in the middle of torturing and attempting to murder a young man, when the young man escaped and ran to police to help him...instead, after believing Dahmer's song and dance, the young man was returned to Dahmer, and Dahmer murdered him. How many times do these McFadden kids need to wait to be rescued, before its too late for them. Cooke feels invincible. She feels she can't be touched. People who lied to investigators have been arrested (Parsee comes to mind) Why is he different from Lisa Cooke? She has proven time and time again, she is incompetent and has NO control over her staff. She allowed them to put bleach on an open wound for god's sake! Somebody do something soon. Please. Those children can't wait.

Anonymous said...

I agree. If Cooke had remained suspended. The whole bleach incident would never have happened.
That kid was in some serious pain. It could have been prevented. I hope his family sues now that he is out. I will testify for him.

Anonymous said...

I have personally seen Cooke in action. My guess is that she never lets those investigators near any problem. I know she pushed a couple of releases up or made sure youth were off grounds during some of the scheduled vists by investigators. I also know that Lashbrook gives her plenty of notice of impending visits, and a good investigator should know this.
Thats why I think Will Harrell is great! He saw right through her!

Call former youth and staff. They will tell you! That place is a mess!

Anonymous said...

You people must work for TYC or Whitmire. You have the ability of slandering and defamation of character perfected.

Anonymous said...

This is to 2/21/08, 7:04 pm..First off, the comment before is not agreeing with the dismissal of the super from Tamayo. You need to read better. The program at Tamayo was excellent, staff were happy, kids were happy, the turnover rate was nothing. Sen Whitmire, Sen Hinojosa, Mr. N, look at what Tamayo House was with that super and where it is now. The super that was there wants to return, was unjustly dismissed, for one Fed Ex package from over a year ago, not when they suspended her, but a year before. I live in the Valley, and that facility was known for it's community service work, the kids were polite, the staff were proud. Look at the statistics from her time there. Look at the accomplishments, this was a program that is being advocated by not only legislature, but also by Mr. Nedelkoff.

My question is what is being done about her boss. We, members of the community, have tried to deal with this woman and it is impossible. She is arrogant and rude. Mr. N, Will Harrel, talk to the staff, talk to the kids there now, talk to some of us from the community, we will tell you. Talk to the teachers there, they will tell you. As for the community, we hope that TYC does the right thing and brings her back to Tamayo House.

Anonymous said...

Want to know the difference between Parsee and Cooke? He is a BLACK MAN and she is a WHITE WOMAN!

CALL THE NAACP and we might see some action in this matter!

Anonymous said...

The black kids are treated different at McFadden too. So are the black staff members. We complained for months about sexual misconduct of a staff member, but nothing was done about it until a white woman complained. The black kids who get into trouble at Mcfadden are shipped off the same day, that does NOT happen to the white kids.

Anonymous said...

oh for shits sake, will you shut up already.

Anonymous said...

Don't listen to the idiot trying to damage control for McFadden...they are afraid they will close down if the stay on the radar.

You go away..

Anonymous said...

9:19, you need some anger management. You shouldn't be disturbed because comments are being made about a facility that probably won't see summer.

Anonymous said...

OMG... not this McFadden Ranch crap again...

If you were terminated, it was approved by Legal. Be sure you know how the process works and what happened...

If there was an allegation on abuse of youth, it's always reported to OIG, they investigate and give the green light to return people back... Lashbrook and HR had nothing to do with bringing Lisa back. HIGHER MGT made that decision.

GET YOUR STORIES STRAIGHT. There were probably other reasons why these people were terminated.

Anonymous said...

yeah...thats it, Lisa is "innocent"

Sure...and I have some beach front property to sell ya.

You give it a break, If Lisa was such a great Supt. She wouldn't be making headlines in the DMN, now would she.

Anonymous said...

Has McFadden been investigated again yet? Any word on findings if they have? My guess is the same result as all the other times.....NOTHING WILL HAPPEN ! It is a never-ending cycle of allegations followed by investigations followed by NOTHING. How long has this been going on and how long will it continue?

Anonymous said...

It needs to be investigated fully this time!!!! No more taking Cooke's word for it! Don't listen to just those certain few staff she throws your way!! Go talk to Jordan, Wilson, Green, Washington. Brock, Brittain....Find out the TRUTH for once and for all! Contact all youth released between 11/06 to 10/07...DIG DEEPER and UNCOVER the TRUTH!

Anonymous said...

Don't Forget Roy Toney....he will set you straight, he was retired military police, he didn't put up with Cooke for very long before he moved on.

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