TYC Staff:
I am happy to inform you that Texas Governor Rick Perry has appointed Debbie Unruh of Amarillo as the new Independent Ombudsman for the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). This appointment is effective November 1st.
Ms. Unruh is captain and jail administrator for the Randall County Sherriff’s Office, a former instructor for Amarillo College, and a past director of the Amarillo Bail Bond Board. She is a member of the Texas Jail Association, Sherriff’s Association of Texas, Texas Crime Victims Institute Advisory Council, and Region XVI Adult Education Advisory Board. She is director of the Prepare Inc. Prisoner Re-Entry Project, and a volunteer for Amarillo Family Support Services, Sharing Hope Ministries and Amarillo March of Dimes. She is also a licensed Master Peace Officer, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education instructor, internal affairs investigator, K-9 handler and private investigator.
Ms. Unruh received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wayland Baptist University, a bachelor’s degree in human behavior from Newport Beach University, and received peace officers and corrections officers certifications from Amarillo College.
I look forward to meeting and working with Ms. Unruh. I am certain she will quickly become a valuable partner in our efforts to treat, educate and rehabilitate the youth in our care. Please join me in welcoming her to the Texas Youth Commission.
Cherie
Cheryln "Cherie" K. Townsend
Executive Director
Texas Youth Commission
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
New TYC Ombudsman appointed
Perhaps the fourth time will be the charm. Via a letter from the executive director on TYC's website, we learn that a new Ombudsman has been appointed at the agency: Debbie Unruh, a jail administrator from Amarillo. Here's the text of the letter:
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28 comments:
Any bets on how long it will take for the TYC culture to contaminate and destroy her position? Three months.
I can't even imagine how many calls in the political world of buddies the Gov operates in...it took to get all the way to Armadillo Texas.
You know Perry first had to check all over Travis County, then Williamson. Then he had to go to the big counties and check donor list, then check donor list sons and daughters looking for work.
By any conservative guess she is at least in the 100 to 125 on the list of who turned it down before Perry got that far north!
A new Ombudsman every year or so. That's the beauty of sending in a fresh faced player every year or two to take on the old team. They don't have a chance. The old team is in it for life and the Om temp budsman is using this job as a brief stepping stone to a better job. Gone before she even gets everyone's name straight.
The beauty is that it allows the old guard to run their show undetected just the way they have been for 20-30 years. Central Office is in way over their heads.
That’s too bad I really wanted that job. Now I guess I’m just going to have to vote for the democrat running for governor. I wonder if I can get my campaign contribution back.
Just looking at her credentials from Townsend letter I think she comes pre contaminated with the Texas criminal justice culture and should fit right in at tyc. Siding against the children and favoring the atrocities committed against them by the tyc playa’s. I had really hoped that the next tyc Ombudsman would be more about child advocacy. Someone who hasn’t been tainted with the ignorance of Texas’ mass incarceration war cry, the stupidity of a lock um up forever attitude that demonstrates such poor financial responsibility on our leaders and gullibility to fear mongering on tax payers.
Sheldon tyc#47333 II c/s
Try googling Newport Beach University. Interesting credential
Ba ba bump bump bump...another one bites the dust...
How can a DOG get this type job? Perry feeds them to grow.....like Ms B from TYC, that covered the sex child abuses
ROFLMAO!!! Good luck!
If there was ever a useless position in TYC, this is it. Actually, there seem to be several useless positions that stay filled in Austin.
I see the enlightened crowd has turned out as usual.
So your comments indicate you like the abuse and ill leadership? You are of the old guard, huh? Don't like the truth to come out? Go back to your ool and find something to corrupt.
Scott, why do you even publish TYC blogs? All you get is the usual bunch of idiots throwing stones at each other. I read all of your blogs, and the TYC ones are the most useless. At least with only 11 posts so far, it shows that only a small number of hard-core partisan idiots are still following TYC blogs.
The ombudsman's position is useless because any complaint goes back down to the OIG officer at the local unit. If he decides to do nothing, then nothing will be done. And, we definitely have some "do nothing" OIG personnel.
There's a reason we are the "enlightened crowd." It is because we are there, firsthand, and have already tested the system.
0227: Still on the night shift? Only place they will allow you to work? Says a lot about you. You are so envious that you must take shots at folks you disagree with you. You need to stay on the last shift...less folks to upset you and less danger to others. Sleep well near your state-owned and misused computer. Who is watching the kids?
The Public Employees Union spends $87.5 million supporting Democrats
The 1.6 million-member AFSCME is spending a total of $87.5 million on the elections after tapping into a $16 million emergency account to help fortify the Democrats’ hold on Congress. Last week, AFSCME dug deeper, taking out a $2 million loan to fund its push.
02:27:00am You just called yourself a hard-core idiot, since you are following the posts. You must work for the state and you are correct - you are an idiot.
When WH came in as the first OIO, it was under the new SB 103 law which created the position. The political firestorm that resulted in his departure, broke the back of the OIO program and turned it into just another external advocacy group. The OIO has never been well defined by the Legislature or well supported by them or by the TYC. They would be better off merged into the independant Office of Inspector General, much as the Grievance system was. The problem with that however is that the OIO system (staff) and the OIG system,(also created by SB 103) were and apparently still are, at each other's throats from the beginning. TYC has no real use for either of them. It would take a re-write of SB 103 to fix the problem so that these two new and theoretically "TYC Independent" goups have any real clout. TYC Administration would fight any such change for obvious reasons. Any integration of the two departments by Legislative action would have to result in a change of personnel because of their history of conflict. That said, there have been some good staff and bad staff as well as positive and negative impacts on the old dysfunctional TYC by both organizations, but the fact remains that the OIG so far has proven to be the more respected and the more necessary of the two. The new Ombudsman will inherit impossible challenges that she will need a great deal of wisdom and political clout to navigate. We wish her sucssess.
OIO and OIG are the biggest problem at this time. Because of their arrogance and inability to work together, abuse goes on and corruption continues in TYC. Abolish both units and TYC and start with fresh, unbiased people.
When Will was named the Ombudsman, Bruce Toney was the Inspector General. There was some effort by those two parties to work together. Some of the problems got worse when the grievance system was placed under the OIG. There were not enough people hired or willing to take the job to do the grievances.
The OIG has managed to create a system where complaints are often not investigated by their own staff, but rather farmed out to the residential staff to look into because of the backlog, but these people have no authority to document or even make sure things get recitified. Some of the complaints are even ones that should have been abuse cases. I have reported things myself to the hotline and the OIG sent in residential staff to look into them. If you ask why, the answer is always that they are too over worked to get to everything.
When Cherie came on board the system was broken down, but the problem has still not been fixed, its just worse, because now there is no watchdog at all seeing what is going on with the agency.
I remember clearly watching the hearings on the day that Cherie came into TYC and Will's office looked like chumps in that hearing. Then at the end of it as Grits reported a report went to Whitmire where there were in fact over 1000 grievances that were past due for being investigated by TYC at that time. What is that number now? Has anyone even looked? How many of the AMIs are sitting out there? Why does the OIG still farm out any investigations to Smith's staff rather than investigate them on their own? It seems like the OIG is farming out some of these investigations because they don't want to deal with them or else they just can't keep up.
When the report came out that Moore quit the Dallas News that the OIO had only done 19 facility visits in 6 months. Well there where three staff - Moore, Tish Elliott-Wilkins and Shalonda Grant. That would have averaged out to like one per month each. What have they even been doing in the OIO? After Will left it was clear that the office just laid down. The OIO does not even have any quarterly reports on their website since Will left. What the hell are they doing in there? Even the OIG has numbers on their website of arrests, crimes, etc. The OIO hired some other guy and now a new Ombudsman has been picked by the idiot governor. What investigations have the OIO done considering that Advocacy Inc, Appleseed, and the other groups went to the DOJ, how could the OIO not know what was going on at these units? When Will first came to see kids at Giddings, a lot of us thought he was a real a**hole to the staff, and he was too easy on the kids. The thing is though, at least he came to the facility on a regular basis and the kids believed in him. He was on their side. My concern with the new one they have hired is that she is also from corrections and will not be on the kids' side. Every TYC kid who has reported abuse is not a liar. Kids do get beat up and some are afraid. TDCJ staff and kids do not mix well. There is no way that the OIO will ever do any real investigations any more. 10:08 is right, it goes to the OIG staff and many of them will just sit there and look the other way.
I wish the new lady luck, but she will need some new staff in that office if she wants to make changes.
Could they not at least find an attorney to be the Ombudsman? What assurance is there that this person will "protect the rights of those committed to TYC including those on parole?" She ran a jail. She may well be a nice person, but she will always be more inclined to side on the staff side than on the kids. Obviously the kids in TYC are not angels, but the staff aren't either - look at how many abuses have happened there.
When Will came in as Ombudsman he wanted to get things accomplished and to have a positive impact on the situation at the facilities. He had projects in mind. To accomplish these projects, he quickly made a deal with the members of the old guard. If they would not interfere with his projects he would not rock their boat.
He made a lot of flattering remarks to some of the most corrupt members of the old guard and praised them in open meetings. In return, they let him do what he wanted to do. Unfortunately, he gave his stamp of approval on this crowd and gave them a sense of legitimacy.
What Old Guard do you speak of, curious minds would like to know?
No one respects the 'old guard', but the bosses are afraid to confront them since they too have so many skeletons that could come out to the public. Keep your mouth shut and play the TYC game, if you want to keep you job.
I thought the old guard were gone way back when, really do not know what old guard you are referring too?
If you must ask, then you are part of the problem!
If your gonna post then put up, these posts get redundant when people come here and make blogs about old guards. But when you look at the current landscape of TYC all of the positions are held by those from other states. The programs that have been put in place where I work did not come from this state and we are not allowed to say the "R" word on campus...... Resocialization
Good! That program ruined more youths lives than you will ever know.
Does anyone know of a loser that that doesn't work for TYC? No winners...so youth lose....lose...lose...
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