Governor Perry has named the new board of the Texas Youth Commisison, which met on Tuesday for the first time and whose first act was to permanently hire Cherie Townsend as executive director.
Here's the press release announcing the appointments. The new board chair and another member are ministers. The Grayson County DA is on the board, as is the executive director of the Permian Basin MHMR from Midland, a district judge from Cameron County and a doctor from Beaumont.
For some unexplained reason, Perry only appointed six members to the board, including the chair, but the Sunset bill says it should have seven. So we can probably expect another appointment to come in the near future.
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26 comments:
It looks like a group of very qualified individuals. However, if Mr. Brown thinks that the current leadership has created an increase in morale, he needs to get out and visit a few of the facilities. Right now, the morale at most TYC facilities is the lowest I have ever seen in almost 20 years with the agency. On the plus side, there are still a lot of veteran employees at all levels who desperately want to see TYC work. Old Salty
It is apparent that Townsend is out of touch with what is happening in the units. There is also more housecleaning that needs to be done in Austin in education. The lack of staff to service the special ed and mental health needs of the youth is worse than ever. What vetran employees there are left are leaving in droves. There are almost no teachers left at Ron Jackson, and many other units are so short-staffed they cannot hold school. Scheduling problems appear to be insurmountable at some locations, and with the mandates coming down from Austin, one has to wonder if anyone in TYCs Austin education office has even bothered to have a look at education law.
Mr. Brown has been out to Gainesville as well as visited with staff
Look at the lists of employees. The big increase in JCO IIs just months after a RIF isn't due to great moral. A fifty percent jump in assaults on staff in 3 months isn't likely to improve moral( we now average more than one a day). I didn't see anyone that has ever worked a hall-nothing as blissful as ignorance. Oh yeah, it's still a 1,000 mile round trip from El Paso to Brownwood; I'm sure it'll decrease by Sept 2010.
Do not go gentle into that good night TYC!
Well it seems the TYC saga continues on. The stats on the new board looks good but I do not think they can save TYC. The deck is stacked against them in so many ways. The many well meaning people who know nothing about the true nature of the average TYC youth are a big problem. Political correctness is another major problem that plagues society and it impacts TYC in the worst way possible. TYC has lost a host of quality employees at the local level which appears not to be slowing.
TYC reminds me of a friend who died of cancer. He was given six months to live when the cancer was first detected. He lasted just over two years. Much of the two years was one last shot treatment after another. In the end it was all for naught. He gave it a hard fight and lasted four times longer than expected but in the end he lost the fight. I firmly believe TYC will succumb to its cancer.
I noticed that the two guys charged in West Texas have not gone to trial. The delay was blamed on a local judge so another judge was appointed to hear the case in July. July came and went and no trials! I seriously doubt there will ever be a trial for any of the people arrested. The wrong doing must go way up for the cases not to come to trial. I am surprised the guys are still alive considering the information they must have on other people. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand the sex perverts could not have operated as they did without cover from high. The only thing punitive to come from the TYC scandal was the firing of a few people with criminal records who apparently had nothing to do with the sexual abuse.
Maybe the new board will launch their own investigation to determine what went wrong and who was really responsible. An investigation by the new board would give them a good look at the many problems TYC faces today as well as answering some old questions. I expect a new investigation by the board about as much as I expect a pig to fly by!
Trial for Brookins starts in December - it'll be held in Ector county. The trial for Hernandez has been put on hold until the Brookins' trial is over.
What does this mean??? "Oh yeah, it's still a 1,000 mile round trip from El Paso to Brownwood; I'm sure it'll decrease by Sept 2010."
"TYC reminds me of a friend who died of cancer. He was given six months to live when the cancer was first detected. He lasted just over two years. Much of the two years was one last shot treatment after another. In the end it was all for naught. He gave it a hard fight and lasted four times longer than expected but in the end he lost the fight. I firmly believe TYC will succumb to its cancer."
Our cancer begins and ends with this type of attitude. But, you know, if you're not on board, just leave and find something else to do. We'll rebuild just fine. Just move on.
4:45 PM A very good analogy, but I'm more optimistic, mainly because I can't think of an alternative to juvenile corrections that could be significantly different. Even if it's broken up into dozens of local entities, the basics will be the same, probably with less accountability and certainly less uniformity. If the state inspectors decide that conditions at Bexar county are unacceptable and want to close it down (like Coke county) do they force another county to take the kids or send in state troopers to run it(at salaries 50% higher than JCOs)? Pyote is scheduled to close Sept. 2010, then the closest facility to El Paso will be Brownwood. We are having a parent meeting on Sunday. It will take the parents from El Paso 3 hours to get here. After we are closed it'll take them about 9 hours to get to a meeting, they could be back home by 1AM Monday morning.
PS If they're driving an 80s model pickup that gets 10 miles to the gallon it'll cost them $125.00 for gas each way.
I don't think anyone wants to really look at the connection between the old TYC higher-ups and the two who were charged. That connection is the key to understanding how TYC got to be the way it was (and still is at the local level). TYC has it's own way of thinking and acting and I don't think it will ever change. The bosses in Austin still don't seem to understand the culture or realize how pervasive it is.
Many who were involved were properly terminated or forced to resign. Many others also were involved and turned their heads away. Now, for those who chose to help cover up, take your self serving justice to the bank and stop the complaining...you were part of the problem and still are.
Do you think he is saving that last spot for the anti dildo lady? He just wants to slip her in quietly after a little while so that nobody will notice?
I have to say this TYC banter about old stuff is tiresome.
I was initially impressed with Ms. Townsend but as time goes by I am often wondering how much attention she pays the the people immediately below her. She has a director of treatment that doesn't believe in treatment and a director of residential services who has absolutely no positive leadership ability and doesn't really know what he is doing. we have adopted a new suicide policy, recommendations from an "expert" who has absolutely no juvenile corrections clinical crisis experience. We are implementing a treatment model that is best utilized in facilities with much smaller populations than that of Giddings and Gainesville. We are forcing youth with all types of academic difficulties to sit in classes for nearly 6 hours a day.
Most of these kids have already demonstrated difficulty doing this in public schools. I am all for education but the high school diploma is not a realistic goal for most TYC youth.
After all that has been exposed about the corrupt TYC, if YOU are stupid enough to continue to work for TYC, then you deserve to continue to be craped on by the system. Look in the mirror....you are dumb, if you work for TYC; saving kids is a bunch of crap too, so stop the excuses.
9:31 Are you going to stop locking up juvenile felons, stop hiring people to supervise them, or perhaps you're going to keep them in solitary confinement for their entire sentence so they can't hurt each other or be abused by staff? Get rid of TYC? A rose by any other name, fool.
Ms. Townsend did not select the Treatment lady nor did she select the Residential Services guy, but both seem to have a good understanding of child care practices, just let them tell you about their experience in this field and that should be more than enough to impress you.
Anonymous 9/06/2009 09:20:00 PM said:
"We are forcing youth with all types of academic difficulties to sit in classes for nearly 6 hours a day."
Make that seven hours a day according to the new mandate, even though the law requires much less. Yes, this will fix it. Even though there is no credit recovery, no credit by exam, no GED prep, no RTI program as required by law, a new reading program with no teachers no training and no curriculum, no working replacement for the sceduling and grading program (it's all being done manually right now.) The Austin TYC administration has taken TYC back 50 years in the technology. Not to mention, they appear to have no clue as to how to run an education department. Yeah, this will fix it.
Anonymous 9/06/2009 09:31:00 PM said:
"After all that has been exposed about the corrupt TYC, if YOU are stupid enough to continue to work for TYC, then you deserve to continue to be craped on by the system."
Beleive me, there are many TYC employees that are only hanging in there until they can move to another job without losing there well-earned retirement. Once they find one, they are out of there.
Do ya think these new Board members will do any good???? I say the old system is alive and well expecially in Brownwood.. They have another cover up in our little town and its making several people a little less trusting of the new TYC.... Looks like they had a student try to strangle a Staff in School Oops thats another cover up isnt it? I asked the Brownwood DA what the status is with that and He didnt even know about the incident ,,,Hmmmmm if they can cover that up what else can they cover up???? I see many good Staff leaving the Brownwood Units and I see more stupid coverups happening its sad as I feel the Youth are paying for this one.. I hope the new Board will do something but I really doubt it!!!!!!!!
no cover up, SPU has the case, you should know that if you are going to blog here. everything is turned into the reporting center, the case is presented to SPU not Brown county, they wouldn't of even held the girl in prison. hopefully she will be certified to stand trial as an adult but that is all up to the prosecutor.
Covering up has been a way of life at TYC for so long and most of us are used to it. You can't survive at TYC unless you keep your mouth shut and look the other way. They will never come out and confront you but they will make your life hell if you don't go along.
Even with the so-called reforms - the employees and youth continue to be "Raped by The State".
Just for your 43, C. Townsend, down south at Evins. So is DOJ.
Shouldn't the post be "Old Youth Commission Board Reappointed."
I do work for TYC, not because I am stupid but because I do believe that it is people, rather than programs, that help kids. If all the people who care leave, what will they be left with?
8:55 They need to realize that when you use people to accomplish anything you get some bad with the good. We have people that are compassionate, caring, encouraging, and dedicated. We also have people with fragile egos, short tempers, burnt out from being cussed out for trying to enforce rules; really heinous stuff like bed times and TV restrictions. The non-hackers don't last long so the unacceptable responses by staff should be self eliminating to some extent. It isn't because the turnover rate is pushing 50%. The staff are fed up with being constantly abused by the kids and the public and the legislature, and apparently ignored or forgotten by the people in Austin that are supposed to be improving working conditions and not just pounding us about making a system work that is unworkable on 10% of our kids.
This will not actually have effect, I think so.
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