Is the Texas Commission on Jail Standards too cozy with the county jails it regulates because it's "dominated by law enforcement interests"? That's the question posed in a story by Brandi Grissom today at the Texas Tribune. Commissioners affiliated with county jails must abstain when TCJS is evaluating their home facility comes up, notes Executive Director Adan Muñoz, but the bigger issue raised would be whether commissioners are willing to set general standards high enough out of fear their own county might not pass muster.
I don't know whether it has anything to do with the makeup of the Commission so much as the will of the Legislature, but of even greater concern to me, especially among large counties, there's an extent to which TCJS is pretty much all bark and no bite. Violations and variances to regs go on for years without resolution, and their prescriptions are too often taken as good advice instead of something mandatory. Their sanctions have no meaningful teeth short of outright closing a jail, which isn't realistic practically or politically outside of mostly small, rural jurisdictions. And the problems facing Texas' biggest county jails aren't going to be gummed to death.
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6 comments:
Oh come on, we all know they were all over that Montague County business, amirite?
Rage
Every time I heard that Smith County passed its inspection I'd always think how nice it is of the Commission to hire the handicapped: blind inspectors
I have suggested before that this commission was basically useless and was assured by those on this board that it had teeth. Which one is it Grits?
"Thirty-five years after lawmakers created the commission to regulate county jails, advocates are calling for change in its makeup, worried about potential conflicts of interest and a lack of representation from fields outside of law enforcement.
Experts in mental health or drug addiction, for instance, "could bring to bear a larger array of solutions to the many problems jails face,” says Diana Claitor, director of the Texas Jail Project.
Commission Executive Director Adan Muñoz — a former sheriff himself — counters that calls for change are unwarranted. The commission, though dominated by law enforcement interests, remains open to alternative perspectives from the public, he says. “There is no way, shape or form that anyone is deterred from speaking to this group,” Muñoz says. But at least one lawmaker says it may be time for a change."
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IT ONLY TOOK 35 YEARS FOR THEM TO COME UP WITH THIS CONCLUSION? GOD HELP TEXAS! THIS STATE IS SO MIRED IN CRAP...A GOOD OLE BOY AND GAL SYSTEM...THAT IT HAS BECOME INVISIBLE!
Another example of poor leadership and agency waste and abuse. When the TYC board and those above them, allowed TYC to 'go-rogue' for years, it was simply a routine example of wasteful Texas politics. And the show goes on.
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