“There are just over 1,400 youths left — about the size of a middle school in Austin — and yet the budget is $250 million, the central office staff remains large, the recidivism is still high … the cost of caring for each youth is $120,000 a year — an amazing amount,” Whitmire said.Given that the Legislature declined a merger last session and Sunset Commission staff recommended against it this time around, under normal circumstances I'd consider it unlikely the agencies would be merged next spring. But the yawning budget gap throws that calculus into question. From a pure process perspective one wouldn't suspect it, but when we get to the point next year when legislators are busting up the furniture for kindling, certainly anything is possible, and a merger would clearly be Sen. Whitmire's preference.
“There are much less expensive ways to more appropriately deal with these youths … in community settings where they can receive appropriate programs, not incarcerated out in the middle of nowhere.”
Two advocacy groups that two years ago had lobbied against a merger — the Texas Appleseed Project and Advocacy Inc. — today endorsed merging the Youth Commission into a new juvenile justice agency that could better treat and rehabilitate Texas’ most troubled youths.
Expressing exasperation about problems that continue to plague the Youth Commission, almost four years after the scandal broke to trigger sweeping reforms, Whitmire at one point told Cherie Townsend, the agency’s executive director, that change is coming.
“If you can’t see that, you should,” he said, claiming that legislative leaders who are in charge of writing the state’s new budget seem to agree with his position.
MORE: From Laura Burke at the Texas Observer.
Whitmire is an empty suit...Just look at all the were gonna be tough on prisoners that have cell phones in prison.. That lasted for about a month after the statewide lockdown..Nothing will change.
ReplyDeleteThere's not one person on TJPC's current staff that knows the first thing about running institutions and sadly, its become apparent over recent years that TYC doesn't know either.
ReplyDeleteMerger would be the blind leading the blind.
Any comments from anyone on the riot this week in Brownwood? Did it come up at the hearing?
Oh don't tell me, let me guess. Cherie Townsend just stood there and took this on the chin again. That's fine if she likes the abuse. The problem is, it effects hundreds below her. How weak. TYC needs a leader, not some introverted, shy, stand-down coward. Someone needs to stand up for that agency, but it aint going to be Townsend - that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe state of Texas can no longer afford the expensive TYC with its abuses and excessive waste. Void the agency and give its funds to the counties for youth care. TYC has proven it cannot control youth and it certainly can't provide proper care and treatment. How many Texas families would love the 100,000 plus per year for each TYC kid, that they could use to support their four and five member families? Too much waste to continue this monstor that cannot be fullfilled. Pitiful situation with poor staffers and ripoff management.
ReplyDeleteWe can not continue to treat the offense and not the offender. There has to be a facility to send the most harden juvenile so that the public is safe. The state is going to spend the money at the probation level or the state level. It takes lots of money to buy treatment and to house offenders in secure facilities.
ReplyDelete303: It also takes lots of money to warehouse youth and abuse them. No more excuses that waste state money and funds criminals that run TYC. You probably work in Austin and want assurances to continue your get rick path in TYC.
ReplyDeleteI can remember back in the 90s when the rumor was that TYC was going to take over TJPC, and we had to fight long and hard to make sure that didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteStart with the valley then move North. Evins should be the first place closed with all the others to follow soon there after. Stop wasting our tax dollars. Evins has failed repeatedly to pass inspection and cannot get past the DOJ oversight.
ReplyDeleteHow many superintendents, regional directors and DOJ liasons will it take? No one seems to know. JCOs with little or no work ethic, PA staff unwilling to do their jobs and unwilling to step up and take responsibility to do a job, caseworkers that can't seem to separate themselves from the youth they work with and teachers who are simply unemplyable in any regular school district do not make for a viable entity.
Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater and damage a good agency (TJPC) by shackling it to a bad one. Simply close TYC, give the kids and the money to the local counties and give the facilities either to TDCJ or to the local junior college.
It seems that this agency has spent millions and millons of tax payer dollars on programs that were ineffective in the treatment and care of TYC youth. Can't comprehend why someone would be naive enough to think TYC should be defended. The writing on the wall is very clear. RIP TYC.
ReplyDeleteWith TYC's new treatment program "Conextions" we should just wait and see what results we get. I am sure those that put this program together has the knowledge and expertise to take this agency to the next level, just look at the results.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Brad Livingston sees a potential opportunity in all of this? After all, TDCJ may be able to save jobs by making an aquisition play to take over TYC. They would certainly have the correctional expertise to deal with the types of youths that will be getting incarcerated in the next two years, when the "worst of the worst" juveniles finally percolate through the courts and probation programs into institutions of some type. The legislature could close down all but two or three TYC institutions and give TDCJ the rest to "harden up." TDCJ could give current correctional officers the opportunity to transfer over to the new Juvenile Division of TDCJ. The legislature gets to save money be eliminating the TYC management structure and closing some of the institutions. TDCJ maintains its' major function of incarceration, saves some of its' employees jobs, and has a new and better reason to maintain a lion's share of the state budget. It's a win-win-lose proposition, with TDCJ and the Legislature as the winners and TYC, the youths, and their families as the loser. But PLEASE, PLEASE don't suggest this farsical idea to anyone in the legislature. Let them come up with their own comprehensive solution over the next few months before they adjourn for another two years. Let us pray....
ReplyDeleteIt all boils down to the top leader and goes down hill after that, and someone should throw a pie in Rick Perry's face for agreeing with Richard Nedlekoff's decision to bring in Cherie Townsend.
ReplyDeleteLets have a pie fight. What position (don't name) needs a pie in the face from TYC's executive leaders and who needs it from the ledge (name them).
Heres' mine:
1. Executive director
2. John Whitmire - D
8:23's comments about the proposed TYC-TJPC merger are similar to the written testimony I submitted to the Sunset panel a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteWhen TYC was originally created in 1949, it was tasked with overseeing the statewide facilities and with assisting local communities with probation and prevention programs.
Within 5 years, the "youth prisons" pushed out everything else, the legislature eagerly defunded the community-based work, and TYC became exclusively an agency that oversaw institutions.
I fear that something similar could result from a merger. Maybe not now, but the next time we have a panic over a few violent youth crimes.
Bill B.
Bill Bullshit!
ReplyDeleteIf Whitmire is an empty suit, then you are an empty head. A TYC empty head.
ReplyDeleteEditorial: Open-records madness
ReplyDeleteDallas Morning news
05:30 PM CST on Monday, December 6, 2010
The [Dallas Morning] News rooted out the truth that both the Dallas school district and the Texas Youth Commission employed large numbers of people with criminal records. Birth dates were important to establishing airtight matches in comparing criminal and payroll records.
I didn't know that TYC, "employed large numbers of people with criminal records." I suppose that was before 2008.
I don't quite care enough to figure this out - but, what would it cost for any child per year if you include the cost of clothing, food, education (their % of the school budget), housing, 24 hour supervision, medication & medical appointments, psychologist appointments, psychiatrist appointments, and some kind of groups therapy (& maybe more?)??
ReplyDeleteAnother TYC employees attempting to justify their illegal salary and stupid activities around youth in TYC. ENOUGH. Cose this monstor and fire all these users of youth.
ReplyDeleteClosure of MOST of TYC is a viable option. Get rid of the older facilities, right-size the staff, provide good evidence based services to treat the child, dump parole to the counties and fix the kids. A merger with TJPC would be feasible but not with the current leadership of either agency. One sits back and takes her lumps while the other has no clue what her own smaller agency is doing let alone having the skills to run a larger combined agency.
ReplyDeleteSenator Whitmire is on the right track and I hope this can be accomplished but PLEASE listen to the field. The county departments and the officers working at the TYC units could tell you more about what needs to be done to correct this situation than some advocacy group who has never worked in the field. Get to the nuts and bolts, not philosophy.
Why has Sunset staff flipfloped on the merger issue??? I think it was a great idea last session until the House muddled it up and I think it is a great idea this session. Stop talking about it and just do it. But, like a previous post implied, start off a merged agency with 1 top administrator, maybe leaving the 2 current adminiatrators on as deputy directors over their area of expertise. Create a a good working board of directors (what ever happened to the chief's on the board idea??? brushed over by TJPC again?) one that can make informed decisions.
ReplyDeleteLess staff, better quality hands on approach to rehabilitation of juveniles, closure of ancient units.... all makes sense but not putting it under TJPC, which has it's own issues. Heck, overhaul both at 1 time. Gov Perry is fighting for less federal oversight, the county juvenile probation departments need to fight for less STATE government oversight.
ReplyDelete10:23 has the right plan. Cut out the BS and let us spend time working with kids, not paperwork to CYA.
ReplyDelete12/18/2010 08:56 that was a pathetic attempt at deflecting a historical fact.
ReplyDeleteWith tyc being nothing more than staffing and protecting incorrigible pedophiles, molesters of state property, and mismanagement of resources it would be in the best interest of teens and their families as well as the tax payers of this great state to abolish this agency all together. Judge Justice missed his chance and the agency spread its corruption and became worse than what it was prior. Local counties are doing all they can to help youth reform and prevent worsening their lot by subjecting them to tyc. In some cases sending kids out of state to avoid sending them to tyc. The tyc leadership continues denying and deflecting any negative facts intended to help improve the agency from its depraved culture. How can the tyc improve if they won’t accept responsibility? There is a reason tyc cant keep an ombudsmen and the ED keeps shamefully quite. The tyc investigators know what’s going on and yet they deflect. Even the board members seem out of touch, or are they? If tyc was a kid in tyc’s custody they would never get paroled.
Here is what needs to happen.
TDCJ create a youth correction division to house the incorrigible and take a share of tyc’s budget dollars.
TJPC continue doing what it can to reform these kids at the local level with a share of tyc’s budget. These guys are doing a great job and could do so much more with a larger budget.
Prosecute these ass clown play’az in tyc who call themselves employees. You don’t want these job corps minded child predators moving onto the TDCJ payroll.
It’s a win for the tax payers, a win for the troubled kids and their families, and a win for juvenile justice in Texas. I think the project could be called “Operation Mercy Flush”
Sheldon
Yes, cut the BS. However, the CYA has to remain, since TYC is so full of abusive staffers and experts at state corruption.
ReplyDeleteIf you put TYC in with TDCJ then the advocacy groups will raise caine stating we are sending youth to big boy prison even we know they would be held seperate from the adults. I like the idea of that scenario better than a merger with TJPC but what will the public opinion be if the naysayers get started.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a previous post that both TYC and TJPC should undergo a administration overhaul. THC is so top heavy and TJPC is so scared of litigation that they put out too many senseless regulations and expect the county departments to take them seriously.
Advocacy groups carry a lot of weight but for no reason, most are political blowhards with no real experience in the issues at hand. Let them come run a facility. They couldn't last an hour in a detention facility setting like ours. Too many kids and too many issues. Just like TJPC, everyone has a idea how to regulate the real world yet they live in a fantasy world full of ideas to solve everyones problems when there aren't any real problems.
ReplyDeleteYou're saying TYC has no real problems? Then YOU are the problem, for being an idiot.
ReplyDeleteMost of the folks in TYC are uninformed, misguided or simply don't care. Please close the whole agency. Help the state. Help the public. Bury this dead agency. Place some staffers and administrators in the state jails to justify their existence. Merry Christmas.
ReplyDelete