Monday, March 21, 2011

TYC begins public meetings presaging facility closures

The Texas Youth Commission has begun holding local community meetings (go here for meeting dates) through which its management has said it will determine which units to close. See coverage of a meeting planned in Brownwood, and a local TV station reported from the meeting in Mart that:
More than 100 local facility employees, members of the public, volunteers, and youth advocates showed up to the meeting to voice their concerns. Elected officials such as McLennan County Judge, Jim Lewis, and District 22 State Senator, Brian Birdwell also came to show their support.

"I have not seen this kind of turnout at a public community meeting on a Saturday morning. It's very rare, so it shows the passion of the local community the level of participation by elected officials your County Judge, State Senator, State Representative. I think that just speaks powerfully of the community commitment to this facility," said Scott Fisher, TYC Board Chairman.

Fisher says the TYC will have to cut $116 million and that means closing three of their secure facilities, along with several district offices and possibly a halfway house by September 1, 2011.
According to this email to employees from Executive Director Cherie Townsend, TYC's board will make the decision on unit closures at their June 2011 meeting. Under the current House and Senate budgets, TYC would need to close three facilities and the central office insists they have no prejudice as to which ones are most likely to get the axe - hence their request for input at community meetings.

I suppose then, these meetings are their version of a Hillary-Clinton style "listening tour" to soften the impact, presumably, on the day when the fatal blows finally fall. I can see seeking such input on where to place new facilities, but I don't see why they're needed when contemplating closure, other than as a cathartic exercise for locals who want to speak their piece - a motivation which, while seemingly trivial, shouldn't be completely discounted. People take bad news better if they feel that first you've heard them out. But I suspect that TYC management right now has a pretty good idea of which units it makes sense to keep open and which ones are more trouble than they're worth. And I wonder how much could possibly change between now and June as a result of having received public testimony.

75 comments:

  1. Bet they are very well managed and controlled. Because we are all pretty pissed about this whole crappy situation. After never listening to the people that actualy work with the youth you want to tour the shambles in some thoughtful dog and pony show.
    For Gods sake just man-up, stop stringing peoples lives along. You know what your going to do! Half of this is to hopefully impress who ever picks the new leader for the new agency. I'm sure someone there will impressed with you boldly went into face of the storm.
    I'm betting your 100K + a year travel friends get time and half off while your travel around the state with your Saturday meetings to help us understand how we lost our jobs!

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  2. Seriously, we need your input to help us determine which facilities to close? How about, it makes us better to feel your pain, so on with the show.

    The matrix is a tool that could be utilized to help make these decisions, but will not withstand the practicality of the following facilities that will remain open;

    North- Gainesville
    South- Evins
    West-Ron Jackson I
    East-Al Price
    Central- Giddings and one Mart facility

    I know I should add one more facility, but this is where you pull the old dart board out to choose(Crockett, Corsicana, one of the Mart or Ron Jackson facilities).

    Now that this has been settled can we begin the next step in the process, RIF.

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  3. Anybody hear who is going to be named the new juvenile corrections czar?

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  4. It will probably be YOU. Now, stop being bitter and pack your bags. The free rides are over for many of you. Man-up, or woman-up...

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  5. Why keep Evins and Al Price when they spend hundreds of thousands moving the kids out every time it threatens a hurricane? Start the RIF at $50,000 a year salary and work UP--these are those that don't even see much less work with the youth including the top paid (quarter-million a yr) "doctor". Why make places for supervisors when their supervisees are RIF'd --we had to Make Room for supervisors from San Saba, West Texas and other locations when they were closed. Brownwood II Asst Supt for example (makes more than the Superintendent of Both Units and does nothing to Earn it) West Regional supervisors (facility and HR) housed at Brownwood. Brownwood is the ONLY facility in the West Region? Dorm Supervisors (not needed --Dorms have always been run by JCO VIs but now have a Supervisor for the dorm who only watches DVRs trying to catch staff making mistakes.(That is ALL most of them do) After SB 103 they hired lots of TRAINERS --then 6 months later fired them. Make up positions to put supervisors in who should have been retired out or fired (schedulers?). Rehiring a Supervisor after he retired and everything worked fine for a year before he was "needed so bad" they re-hired him. Chip Walters needs to "retire" himself for that stunt. And they wonder why morale is so low TYC wide?

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  6. Crockett has great difficulty staffing the campus as it is right now. More often than not, JCO staff have to work 12 hour shifts. If you close other schools and send the youth to Crockett they won't be able to make the staff ratio needed to open other dorms.

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  7. Austin should be ashamed of themselves for putting on this dog and pony show. Such a waste of tax payer dollars!!

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  8. The select few in CO already know what they want and which facilities will close. This is a game to them and we are pawns. We should just leave now and let them handle this mess with no staff.

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  9. 7:03pm- I saw the pool for the position you refer too, Walters had no choice but to bring this staff back, the others were lacking in basic skills, honesty, integrity, GED, etc. Just because you were not selected for a position is no reason to slam others.

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  10. They better close the "CoNextions" treatment program as well because it's the biggest joke i've ever seen-the youth aren't being taught anything other than you can do as you please with no consequences-sound like our culture which has been created by the left wing idiots-poor little Johnny- you can't spank him- hmmmm-- then he ends up in TYC-hmmm- then he ends up victimizing YOUR community

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  11. Could someone post the schedule to the dog and pony shows. I’d like to go, because its sound like a real gas.

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  12. There is nothing wrong with the Conextion Concept.What hurt this program is that the treatment team never trained anyone to actually demonstrate how to use this program to manage behavior.Treatment personell kept lieing to the media and the public that this program was a sucess.Front line staff felt betrayed after reading these lies.If people in Central office had honestly accepted the responsibility for not following up on the program to ensure that staff understood the program completly.Instead they continued to lie and still continue to lie about the sucess of the program.Where is the program working sucessful except in the confines of central Office?What campuses at this times has a safe culture.Facilities will once again fill up because TYC doesn't have enough trained personell to take on the task of managing these type of children in community based programs.If TYC didn't take time to make sure staff in institutions were properly trained.how will it be any different with community based staff.Stay Put and let God work this out.Somethings we don't have control of.As long as there are children some will be dilinquent.Closeing institutions is not going to solve the problems.What will keep institutions from filling back up if after care programs are'nt deveolped?

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  13. I would like to turn some of these new kids loose on old Sheldon. He would just think twice about what happen to him was bad!

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  14. 11:25, dont turn them on Sheldon let Madden and Whitmire and the advocates and everyone else that is standing up and telling us how to manage a 16 year old drug using, assaultive, pissed off uneducated criminal. Let them try one, just one single shift in here where as bad as it is your biggest threat is the monitor will show you picking up the pen with your right hand and not your left.
    Forget that you were being called a MF this and Mf that, you used the wrong hand to pick up your pen!

    I tell you what if these criminals are such sweethearts have the little community meetings in the gym, bring the members of the different elected bodies and the the TYC bosses too. Put the kids in the chairs on both sides and the know-it-alls sat in the middle of the gym floor.

    Bring a news team too, cause this will make the national news.

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  15. Is Dwight Harris back in TYC and working at Giddings State School? I saw his picture in the TYC Bulletin where he was getting an award. The bulletin was a few months old (2010).

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  16. Yes, Dwight was given an award for bringing TYC to the point of greatness. It would be really great if he came back and again brought us to our greatest heights ever. A wonderful man, the best TYC has ever offered. The new agency should be named after him.

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  17. If Dwight Harris had handled the issue in Pyote correctly instead of trying to cover it up, TYC wouldn't be in the sorry state that it's in right now.

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  18. 11:25 I agree let's take them to Austin and turn them loose on the Captial! They would be begging us to take them back. They just don't know what some of these kids have done, will do and can do and where their mind is going next. All we can do is the best and hope that if I help one I have done some good in this world.

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  19. Cmon now, it only makes sense to close evins. Theft, graft, drugs, innappropriate stuff between staff and youth, waste, assault, did I mention theft? Oh yeah, said that already. Staff there steal more time and take more leave without properly accounting for it than there are fire ant mounds in South Texas. Co knows about it and still they do nothing. Oh, ACA what a joke. They had to bring in a surrogate to just get through that dog/pony show of useless paper shuffling. Close that turd and stop wasting my tax dollars.

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  20. Outside leadership was needed at Evins to get thru ACA, what leadership could you be talking about

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  21. "ACA what a joke. They had to bring in a surrogate to just get through that dog/pony show."

    What outside leadership was brought in to help them fake the dog and pony show? Maybe you said more than you wanted to reveal.

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  22. You TYC suckers/has beens are looking for any way to save your jobs. YOU are has beens. The CO and field offices are proven to be idiots that can't spend state money wisely. No one in TYC is capable of bringing about the justice and savings we all need. YOU have proven that over and over. FIRE all the TYCers that have over three years service and start with a new agency. The stength of the prior TYCers AND SAVIORS OF PRESENT tyc ARE TRASH AND SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. GO FOR A NEW AGENCY WIH NEW/UNCONTAMINATED WORKERS...NO OLDIES tycERS WITH BRIDGES TO BUILD WITH THE CRIMINALS IN CHARGE! OUT CHERIE AND FOLLOWERS.

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  23. Boy, what a spin. I heard the local community at Mart wants those units CLOSED! They complained that the state promised the town that when that unit opened, there would be growth and a boost to the local economy. The townspeople in Mart claim those were all empty promises, and that the only thing the got were TYC employees tearing up the local roads.

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  24. I wonder how much it cost to bring ACA in to get inspected? I seem to remember it is in the thousands.At least. Grits? Vicki will be the new leader. Guaranteed.

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  25. Not only that, one of the Mart facilities doesn't have a cafeteria. I understand that has been a big issue with Mart since day one.

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  26. obviously you haven't been around long when it comes to treatment programs-CoNextions and all it's components do absolutely nothing to address the core issues of delinquent youth-bring back "Resocialization" it treats the issues that help reduce recidivism-look at the recidivism rate now-you might be shocked-

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  27. I wonder what is the back up plan when all hell breaks out in the communities.Where will the kids be sent then?Now is the time for for central office staff to man up and admitt they failed to train staff in field,that they lied about haveing a treatment program that was meeting the kids needs,that assaults on staff and students has increase 50 percent since Resocialization was terminated,and that they have juggeled around treatment personell and no one has any idea how to use Conextions to manage kids behavior.The agency forgot about useing the old Safe Culture module.All of the staff that taught Safe Culture and Behavior Management were forced out of their positions.You can say what you want to about the PDA.At least everyone was on the same page whether they liked the programs or not.The assaults were down 50 percent staff morale was good.Staff were getting trained properly and PDA teams were always visible on campus giving support.People likr David Walenta sucked up to Mickey Neil,bad mouthung the PDA in hope of becoming head of treatment.He didn't last no time.Other PDA haters did the same thing and were quickly replaced by outsiders.What a bunch of whimps.There are a lot of good staff left if it were not for these few all hell would be breaking out.Revamp the treatment stamp.Beg real leaders like Dr. Sanders and her PDA staff to come back and deliver this agency back to a national power house.People that have not ever worked with violent offenders or delinquent kids will always be the biggest critics.

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  28. Conextions seemed to come out of nowhere. We all knew it was a bad idea (make that a terrible idea) but it was being pushed by somebody. Who thought it up and who pushed it?

    Has anyone made an assessment of the damage caused by this concoction?

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  29. It's a little late for the Austin people to admit failure regarding any treatment programs. The agency as it was, will be no more! It failed and it's time to man up. As one poster suggested. Facility closures are political in nature. The public meetings are a waste of tax payer's money and time. However, there is life after TYC and it goes on.

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  30. The question was asked but does anyone know who the new TDJJ director will be, any names mentioned? Also, haven't seen any talk about loosing dead weight in Austin? I'm assuming they have as much useless management at TJPC. TJPC has been divided into so many units that they have a few employes and a director position for each unit, so basically one in about 5 or 6 positions at an agency with about 60 employees is a director!

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  31. There is a good chance that Dwight Harris may come back as the new director of the combined agency. That would be a good move on the part of the lege since TYC was at its top when Dwight was in charge. Lets hope for this wonderful happening.

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  32. hope you are kidding, the guy was in charge when the abuse was at it's peak then jumped off the sinking ship.

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  33. Dwight Harris didnt jump. He was 'pushed'

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  34. Dwight and several other top officials were pushed because they helped destroy TYC. They should have been prosecuted.

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  35. Prosecuted for what? Dwight told Whitmire and Governor Fairy Perry's Office of the abuse at WTSS, and they didn't do shit. Perry, his office, and the panel of Legislators that it was reported to are the ones that slipped threw the crosshairs. This TYC mess falls squarely on their shoulders.

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  36. Everything is Perry's fault. All the folks in Austin are wonderful evne though this had been going on for years.

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  37. 10:21 p.m. reveals what is going on in TYC to this day. D. Harris supporters and Lydia B's supporters are still entrenched in high positions in TYC. Central Office people allow this to happen. They sit back and allow this old bunch to thrive and to argue for a return to the bad old days. For years they have kept TYC in the grip of denial and guess what they are doing now? They are doing exactly the same thing.

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  38. 11:35 PM- how do you come to the conclusion that,

    "TYC to this day. D. Harris supporters and Lydia B's supporters are still entrenched in high positions in TYC".

    I would be quite curious on how you drew this conclusion, I am writing a book about inbred's and the TYC culture, and would like to hear more of your opinions on this matter.

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  39. Put all of TYC out of its collective misery and let the counties handle their own problem children. It would be interesting to see how long that would last.

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  40. I heard gov good hair and sheldon cut a deal for him to run the new agency. sheldom must be bored in his retirement with all that milk money.

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  41. Harris and his coworker/cronies are sitting back, laughing at you fools left in the mire he created. He and his set themselves quite nicely and are living high on the hog, on your dime. The joke is on you.

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  42. Lets hope it is NOT Vicki Spriggs running the new agency. That would be a very big mistake. Yes there are more managers at TJPC than there needs to be. The ANE unit is a waste of taxpayers money. Local law enforcement takes care of investigations, why have them. Other names are floating around out there like Mike Griffiths, retired chief from Dallas County, who would make a wonderful choice.

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  43. Yeh, right...might as well bring back Harris and Harrison and Ms B.

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  44. It's good to see much of the scum washed away from TYC, either way it goes. The future has to be better than the corruptive past. Many poor performers have been cut from their illegal, but protected anchors. Thanks.

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  45. They say that scum generally washes away. It takes time sometimes, yet the flowers will come forth and TYC will dissapear, as turds blend into the earth to be eaten by worms. Go fishin' and forget the scorgue TYC.

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  46. Grits shows that TYC’s best friends and worst enemies are its current and former employees. Some are vicious in hoping for the worst. Some, like Sheldon, enjoy performing for crowd reactions to vulgar, ridiculous and self-defeating assertions. I'm also a former employee with strong opinions and I've continued to follow the agency (and Grits) closely. TYC has come a long long way in a couple of years, and Cherie Townsend is the best there is anywhere in the business. She’s not a nationally acclaimed leader for nothing. Unlike her predecessors, she seems to know how to set a goal and make it happen. At a recent legislative hearing, I heard about agency improvements—safety, workers comp injuries and costs are coming down, medical costs slashed with better management of expensive prescriptions, more GEDs and vocational certifications than ever, and class attendance is better than ever. More treatment services being given than ever for sex offenders and other serious conditions. And what do you know, Connections is actually beginning to show some positive results! I think five facilities ACA certified (a big fat zero in 2007). This isn’t small stuff. Yup, TYC is still a long way from perfect, but it’s also a long way from the situation in 2007—abuse and riots every whipstitch, untrained staff in dangerous situations, no leadership, no transparency. Everyone with any personal negative agenda piling on. What a circus. Anyone remember the “star team” which seemed to be all over the place quelling riots? Anyone remember the last riot?

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  47. 3:33pm- you cannot compare 2007 to the current situation, 2007 had 4500 youth in institutions, 2011 has 1500 youth in institutions.

    I would like to see the numbers of staff and youth assaults with these lower numbers of youth incarcerated compared to 2007, I would bet they are higher based upon the current programming that is being offered.
    Unfortunately it may have nothing to do with the programs but the lack of effort on CO's part of rolling the training out and training the field staff. If you survey the field I am sure 75% have very little knowledge of the programs and this is a reflection on leadership.

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  48. I think that people are forgetting real fast.TYC was a national power house for treating violent offenders and hard to manage kids.We have been on 60 minutes to acquaint the nation on our treatment of youth.We excelled beyond any any expected standards.People from other countries patterned their treat after our program.We sucessfully hosed violent offenders without a fence and had fewer excapes than all the other institutions.At Giddings we accepted all unmanageable kids throughout the agency.We had violent offender kids working off campus throughout the community of Giddings.Where were all the critics when we were the showcase for TYC.Just because of a few incidents has not changed my opinion of TYC.If you check out large city juvenile facilities.You would praise how well TYC has helped troubled youth.I agree that leadership is the big problem now.To many people without knowledge of juvenile delinquents are know at the helm of TYC.We had qualified but back stabbers cut their throts with lies and slander.As long as we have passive staff that are prediators with children that are passive.We will always have scandals.A very small percentage of staff would take have sex with students OR would use kids to fullfill their sexual needs or their sexual perversions.This is not TYC'S FAULT.We have to many staff that try to put in an honest days work to try and help kids.Staff would do a much better job if we had qualified staff to properly train them.Qualified behavior specialist were taken out of the loop for teaching staff how to teach students and staff behavior management techinques.We were replaced by people who were afraid to take their program to the field.They knew they had no experience in the field.I am happily retired.Their are a lot of trained behavior specialist still working for TYC.Use their talents before its to late.I have no need to bragg about my acomplisments during my tenure with TYC.MY GOD GIVEN TALENT AND MY WORK SPEAKS FOR ME.GOD IS SHAKING UP TYC FOR THE INJUSTICES THAT HAVE BEEN DONE TO LOYAL TYC STAFF.IT SHOULD NOT BE HARD TO DETERMINE WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE.A TYC SUPPOPTER.

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  49. TYC has no discipline for the youth-if there's no discipline-then forget about teaching them anything-untie staff's hands so the youth can at least learn some basic respect and manners-without consequences you can forget it-that goes for anything-the new Conextions program is worthless-i know what works with delinquent youth and several other old schoolers that aren't around anymore-bring back S. Robinson and let him be the leader

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  50. Robinson helped start the downfall of TYC...he brought in Harris...the downbringer. You are about as smart and bitter as 1104. Get a real job, get away from TYC and any connections to it. If happily retired then move on and let TYC die.

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  51. " Cherie Townsend is the best there is anywhere in the business."

    OMG are you kidding me? Did you forget how she screwed TYC's most valued resources - it's employees - by failing to stand up and defend the agency, as well as denying merit increases all the while handing out several thousands to the executive staff in CO?

    She's the best in Bullshit, thats about it.

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  52. Robinson didn't bring in Harris, the TYC board did when he was promoted to dep. e.d. The board also promoted his ass to ed after Robinson retired.

    Anyone but any of the juvenile justice leaders in Texas would lead much better than what yall have now. Best bet would be Sandy Burnam but she'd never leave retirement.

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  53. Sandy is no fool. She knows anyone or anything associated with TYC will turn to butt stinks.

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  54. obviously you don't know your head from your butt-Robinson was a fearless leader and brought in some good people-it shows that you haven't been around long so study your history before you make anymore idiotic comments-

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  55. Sounds like you did some personal butt-sucking on Robinson. You're one of the bad/sad ol'timers still hiding out and need to to fired with your buddy criminals. Keep the lips tight and your butt/preped- ready too.

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  56. It's time for some Ranty comments again! WhooHoo!!

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  57. If we just go back to making sure that all staff are taught the basics.Interpersonal Skills,and how to involve the students to help solve problems.Conextions has taken students out of the loop when it comes to managing students behavior.The agency has again put staff in harms way by creating a one on one behavior program.This has always been a dangerous situation for staff.Connextion developers have yet to demonsrrate to staff how to use this program as a behavior management tool.Assauls on staff are at an all time high high because Tteatment Co-ordinators are afraid to demonstrate how to use this program to manage kids are out of control and hostile.I know how it feels to come to work dailY.
    not knowing what tools to use when a crisIS arises.We are back to having touse security as a behavior manage tool because no one teaches them de=escalation skills.Staff are going to continue to be in harms way until someone admits that lack of training is yhe main problem.With fewer kids as the agency has now.Behavior management should not be the major problem of concern.It's that way now because no one is putting a flame under these so called treatment specialist.You will never be able to do the yasks that the conextion program is designed to do until you first develop a program that is designed teach students how to manage their behavior.You wouldn't stick your head in a lions mouth without first adressing his behavior .This is same with kids. Patting and Burping is the approach needed.CONFRONT NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR.ALWAYS USING PROPER INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS IS A MUST.NO ONE NEEDS TO BE CONFRONTED IN A HOSTILE MANNER. REWARD POSITVE BEHAVIOR.MODELING GOOD INTERPERSONAL SKILLS BY ALL STAFF.USING GOOD COMMON SENSE WILL GET YOU THROUGH THE DAY SAFELY UNTIL SOMEONE DECIDES THAT PROPER TRAINING OF STAFF IS IMPORTANT.YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE 6 FOOT 4 TO BE A STRONG STAFF. FOLLOW THE OJT MANUAL.BE CONSISTENT EVERYDAY.DON'T BREAK A WRITTEN RULE FOR ANYONE.BE CONSISTENT.CONSISTENCY WILL HELP MANAGE STUDENTS BEHAVIOR.DON'T RELY ON SURVIVAL SKILLS.ENFORCE THE RULES.GOOD LUCK AND STAY SAFE.

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  58. obviously your one of the left wing (bleeding heart)save the trees- who continues to bring this country down and which includes our youth-go back to your island and take your buddies with you-maybe TYC and this country would have a chance if yall do that-have you ever heard of "tough love" go look it up--oh- by the way-the ol-timers "staff" who started back in the 80's are all gone-look at the agency now and how it's a joke

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  59. C'mon, people are comparing 2007 to 2011 all the time. I agree with 3:33 that there are major improvements and still a lot to do, but we're on the right track. I was at the Mart community meeting last week and heard a very articulate parent make public comments about the caring relationships her son has with TYC staff. She thanked us and acknowledged our excellence. The Chief Probation Officer thanked heaven for TYC and said they had a youth in detention who was wearing them out because they didn't have the resources to treat the kid. You wouldn't have heard either of those statements publicly in 2007 (because they weren't true then), but they're true now. I can tell you the Mart community support felt like we've turned a corner.

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  60. YOU apparently received one of the big raises from Cherie. You will soon lose it..don't get too arrogarant and ignorant. The public isn't ignorant.

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  61. i can't find my comment.

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  62. Wow-1 parent out of 300 kids had something good to say-come on man-all TYC facilities are current breeding grounds for drug use,gang involvement, learning how to be a better criminal, bullying, sexual abuse. It's simple people- give the kid 2 chances on probation then if he/she doesn't get the message-send him or her to a youth prison right next door to adult prison-kids sometimes have to "literally" see what the consequences are gonna be in order to make changes now.In other words there has to be a DETERRENT.

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  63. Do any one have any ideal of what halfway house they closing.? I'm getting ready to tranfer and I didn't want it if the they are closing down halfway house.

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  64. Crockett had 900+ show up for their meeting.

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  65. If only the staff would show up to work this facility might be effective. Maybe the residents in Crockett should apply for a job and show their support by coming to work daily.

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  66. CoNextions treatment program is what needs to be closed--it's useless and if it stays will only serve more injustice to the delinquent youth of Texas-the bleeding hearts need to go and bring in some tough love with discipline and consequences-i hope the new agency flushes it down the toilet and implements a new program. Right now TYC is like a summer camp at a nice lake where kids are catered too 24-7/

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  67. Your are correct reddog on your assessment and the biggest reason why staff get assaulted every day in our institutions is based upon poor programing. Those who have justified their jobs over this program should walk out the door when it goes away or should I say when these two agencies merge and it will surely be extinguished.

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  68. There were several choices that should have been made regarding re-hiring a retiree from the Transportation Dept. This man had this job promised to him before he ever walked out the door. Instead of making a good choice they brought back the retiree who has little to know business ever being a supervisor to anyone.

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  69. Anonymous said...
    I say I am a staff that has been with tyc for years and have seen a lot. One thing everyone should know pepole way of liveing is about to change some of our fellow coworkers will lose their jobs and we might be one of them. I have learn alot while working with the youth at tyc and if the tyc where i work at close. I have invested in some education that I intent to use and not let tyc closeing get me down life goes on and I intent to live it. I feel sad for my coworkers that the only income in theirs AND THAT SOME OF THE OLD STAFF SUCH AS MYSELF ARE REALY THEIR FOR THE YOUTH.

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  70. 4 year employee, keep doing what you're doing. Even if you don't save one, you tried. That's good with God and that is what matters.To my Al Price colleagues, remember we vowed to leave it in his hands and we have recognized the need for change and God will lead us.

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  71. Let me just say that I was at one of the facilities that is in the position of being closed, and asked when the meeting were to be held and the staff that I questioned about the meeting ask: "do you want to attend in a good way or a bad way?" I didn't know how to answer that question. I have a relative in the facility and I know that it would not be in a good way. I mean get real, you tell the youth to tuck you shirt, yet you have yours untuck. You tell the youth how to wear their hair, yet there is a staff at the front gate to let you in to visit and she has a purple mohawk. Give me a break. Do you really want to teach the youth to respect you and you stand there in disrespect. Really... What do you think these kids are thinging... You ask these youth where do you want to work if you have all the jail tattoos and he or she answers "right here the staff have the same tattoos and weird hairdos." Please Grits bring this to the forefront for the youth good or bad. These youth haven't had a chance from the get-go. I have seen the places the staff look as thuggie as the little thugs they take in. Why do you think there are so many Red Packets that send these kids to "big boy Prison?" If you make this a statement I'm sure you will get a huge following.

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  72. 900+ at Crockett? Doesn't surprise me at all. Those ignorant back woods East Texans would show up for their cousins lynching if they got a free sandwich with it.

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  73. Co-Nextions must go.

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  74. The latest news I had concerning AL Price was that staff reported admin staff members entering the closed dorms together in the early am hours three hours before his and her shifts. No one has followed up but the top two "early birds" still meet discretely each morning. I hope they close the whole place down!

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