Thursday, June 16, 2011

Historian: Merger of juvenile agencies risks repeating old mistakes

Occasional Grits commenter and UT-San Antonio historian Bill Bush had a column in the Austin Statesman over the weekend warning that officials charged with merging the Texas Youth Commission and Juvenile Probation Commission should avoid mistakes of the past. He notes that the initiative has been deemed by the MSM as "the feel-good story of the recent Texas legislative session," but warns that state leaders would "do well to avoid the mistakes of a previous generation of juvenile justice reformers. They too sought to end horrific abuses in "youth prisons," and, despite great promise, they failed badly."

Said Bush, "Twice in the recent past," by which he means, since World War II, "much-celebrated juvenile justice reforms have ended in disaster, with beaten, bloodied and abused youths in tow. Texans ought to be asking themselves: Will this time be any different?" He warned:
A major selling point for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is its purportedly lower price tag, but the Legislature and the citizens who elect its members must be willing to invest the necessary resources should the cost increase in the short term — as it well might — to equip local agencies to provide the quality services that will be needed to steer at-risk youth in the right direction.

Equally as important is a widely shared commitment to supporting the local, noninstitutional approach over the long haul. Our elected officials need to stand firm in the face of inevitable reports of sensational youth violence, which have often accompanied previous "get tough" campaigns to build youth prisons and impose draconian sentencing guidelines.

Oversight will also be key to the new department's success. Local agencies must be held accountable for their actions and policies, and communication must strive for the highest level of transparency. The history of juvenile justice over the past century is littered with abuses that festered due to a lack of sunlight.
History repeats itself, the saying goes: The first time as tragedy, the second as farce. Let's hope the third time's the charm.

67 comments:

  1. All of the points made here are on the mark. I think that unless new, professional, truly caring executives and administrators are put in place in the TJJD, the merger will accomplish little more than relocating where the abuses will occur. And it will be interesting to see whether or not there will be sufficient funds to sustain viable treatment/inter- vention programs that will truly meet the needs of the youth and provide for youth, staff and public safety. Money is the driving force in a state already teetering on the edge of fiscal instability. Did the RIF that took place on 06/03/11 really save money or did TYC simply reclassify a lot of their high-dollar, redundant and basically useless dead weight? What a world!!!!!!

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  2. Real accountability would be nice too. The current system is set up where if your policies and procedures are correct that is all that matters. Nobody really looks at the programs and money spent. Typical big government where lawyers and pencil pushers make the rules and then just make sure policies follow the standards. No real interaction. You can PRT (physical restraint) and lock kids down every day as long as the policies are followed.

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  3. 07:38 your right on most points however a few RIF'ed employees retired. I for one want to see about the treatment program, Central office keeps adding more on the case managers to the extent the job can't be done in a 40 hour workweek. And yet denies overtime to CM's. TYC's own program audit found CM's taking work home or working off the clock. The respopnse was a threat of termination for such actions. My point without apprpriate service delivery the treatment is in name only.

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  4. Im no expert on TYC but I will say, If bad decisions repeat themselves, so will history

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  5. Very little thought was put into the merger. There were different scenarios proposed in deciding which TYC units to close. If it was all about money, then their own criteria charts showed they picked one of the worst and most costly options. They have already figured out they will be overcrowded and short-handed in the remaining units. And, they didn't know this two weeks ago?

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  6. TYC is and was a "GOOD THING", BUT, the lack of proper oversight, watchmen on the wall, investigations, cover ups, hidden truths, abuse, torture, rape, neglect, threats, retailiation was the downfall of TYC and all of this goes all the way up the stairs to the Administration not providing proper protection for the Youth...the lack of follow up after numerous reports as to what was going on and was continually denied and covered up...even the Texas Ranger didn't take proper action for 2 years ... the same thing happens each day in TDCJ but no one will listen because they are all a bunch of convicts/criminals and everyone of them are nothing but liars...well surely someone out there learned something from the TYC fiasco. Shame on you who could have made a difference but didn't. Flo, PAPA

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  7. I agree the merger wasn't looked at throughly.Saving money is fine.Where are the programs that community base staff will be teaching? Who will be doing the training? Are there enough man power available to make this merger sucessful?I have been with TYC many years. I have seen kids release packets. The only program that i saw in every kids release packet was to report to their parole officer and to the TRC. represenative.I sure hope history is not repeating it self like it did in 1979. Violent offender kids that had been at Mountainview State were transferred and the fence that was used to protect the public was built after the kids arrived.It seems to me that all of these kids that are not in institutions and the kids that are classified as not being serious offenders will be dumped on parole, who is already short handed.Money never should have been the first priority of the merger. There should have been programs already in place and enough man power should have been available to make this a smooth transition.Where do the kids rank on the priority list?Where do staff rank on the list?Maybe a new Mission statement needs to be written ,putting money first on the list of priorities.

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  8. Last statistics from TJPC were in 2008. 99,276 children referred to juvenile probation departments across Texas. 1,718 sent to TYC.

    The mistake will be TJJD's focus on facilities. TYC squeaky wheel will kill juvenile community corrections.

    History is occuring now with TDCJ. Prisons are priority #1! CSCD's down in the very low priority list!

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  9. I believe the merger can be successful if the right measures are put in place for the probation departments. For instance, juveniles were being released back to the communities without having appropriate reentry plans. Local probation departments did not know progress of juveniles while in TYC and parole officers did not ensure kids were linked to appropriate services like mental health.

    Also, other agencies have contributed to the problem. MHMRs are horrible in opening adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system, when they clearly qualify for services. They need to be held to the fire in assisting in the rehabilitation of these kids instead of choosing not to work with difficult clients or believing that these children are the responsibility of the probation departments to access highly specialized mental health services.

    The state needs to pour much more resources to community based programs if it plans to continue to reduce the number of incarcerated youth. The state can not have its cake and eat it too.

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  10. Anonymous 7:38 p.m. said:

    Did the RIF that took place on 06/03/11 really save money or did TYC simply reclassify a lot of their high-dollar, redundant and basically useless dead weight? What a world!!!!!!

    My question is.....what are you talking about when you say reclassify a lof of their high-dollar, .... dead weight? Can you give specific examples or are you passing on hearsay or what?

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  11. TYC parole in Texas is a joke.

    If a youth wants to flee from a halfway house or avoid parole supervision all they have to do is hide from law enforcement until their 19th birthday. Many of the kids wait until they are 18 and then go on the run. After 19, they are Scott Free. (I don't think most people actually know that)

    Good for them. The State of Texas is weak on protecting the public from these particular offenders. Only an increase in murders from TYC parole will bring this particular problem to light.

    Also, why is it that when a youth goes on the run for six months they are released back onto parole almost immediately without being revoked....

    If I was a prosecutor, I would send them to a county program or certify them as an adult and send them to TDCJ.

    TYC has been neutered by the legislator and perhaps it is for the best.

    If they can't make it through county level probation.... Send them to TDCJ. TYC is broke literally.

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  12. How much will Parole Officers case load increase with the merger?Isn't there already a shortage of Parole Officers?Is there a plan to hire qualified Parole Officers?Who is responsible for Parole Officers?Is the number of Parole Officers available for the public to view?

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  13. Parole services should be provided by county departments. Just makes sense and is far more efficient.

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  14. And Whitmire and Madden can't be blamed for anything.

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  15. Anybody associated with TYC is priceless.

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  16. Sure they are. Also worth their weight in gold. Fools gold.

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  18. I believe this merger can be a great opportunity to correct alot of past mistakes and judgement errors. SOme TYC facilities have needed a complete overhaul for quite some time now. I think two of the most corrupt facilities have been closed so this already provides an advantage from this merger taking place. I think staff members should have to re-apply for positions within the new agency and stir away from hiring all of the old employees who just lost their jobs. Hire some new employees that aren't embedded into the old TYC system and create a new culture than the one TYC has created. I think this could be a great new beginning if it is really dealt with as something new.

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  19. The ppc program tha started at Mountain View and moved to the open campus at Hackberry was the most productive and safest program TYC HAS EFER HAD. We had the lowest Escape rate and the lowest assauaul percentage of all the institutions in Tyc.We didn't lock our doors. students moved around campus in numbers of threes. These were suppose to be the most violent kids tyc housed.We got postive reports from institutios all over the world.This program was founded by Harry Vorath, a reknowned juvenile specialist.Mr. Vorath and his team spent months at Mountainview teaching Positive Peer Culture.In this program the responsibility was put back on the kids to shom concern for one another.This is the same modle that Boonesville Missouri and Th Red Wings Program in Minnesoto used.Our staff went through over a year of extensive training and received constant follow up from the Directors of the PPC. PROPGRAM.A selected few of us attended National PPC seminars in An Arbor Michigan and Boones Ville Miissouri.This is the same model that all sucessful institutions are using.We used this same model at Giddings and were the most respected institution in the world.We had kids working jobs off campus as store asst. managers. diesel mechanics,builing trade(repairing homrs).beautifying parks.Our assault rate and attempt rate were the lowest in TYC. People from all over the world marveled about our Violent offender program.I was a PPC group leader for years.We combined the Behavior Management phase of PPC WITH THE RESOCIALIZATION PROGRAM AND WE BECAME EVEN MORE SUCCESS FULL.When Sheldon was at Mountain View.Corpal punishment was almost extinct.Take it from someone who was their.In the early 70's only afew African Americans worked at Mountainview.This school was run by White employees.So what kids really were the victims of the beatings and torture.White kids were wipped different that black kids.The supervisors said the reason for this is that white kids bruised easily makeing their brusies more visible.Things didn't change at Mountain View until PPC came into existance and young African Americans were allowed to work at Mountain View.So if you don't know the facts about abuse in TYC ask employees,not kids that tell only part of the situation. Ask Sheldon how much abuse did he receive at Mountain View and HackBerry.I was there when he was there.

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  21. TYC employee comments are rude, vulgar and mostly lies, to cover for their incompetence and abusive culture. Thats why Grits has to remove most of their comments from the posts. Tells a lot about TYC staffers and the real TYC. TYC's worst enemies: its own employees amd leadership.

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  22. Yes, there is reason to be concerned here. If TYC did not take personnel action, via HR, CO any other bungling office of TYC, there is the potential for the new agency to rehire TYC bad apples due to a clean looking personnel file. Of course this would exclude any former employee with a criminal charge.

    But due to the amount of experience a former TYC employee may have to list on a job application, how do you know if you are getting a bad apple or not?

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  23. Say Davis, they sure did whip up on the blacks. Some of the old school MF tell you about brothers still burried on the other side of the river. Talk about they would fall out in the cotton fields and them ol white devels whould just have some boys dig a hole and toss em in. I was at Riverside and them moved to Terrace when they closed it. They treated us like shit. You go see on the internet they have some people talking about ol Gatesville. Them bkacl dorm men was worst then the white, the had to be bad ass and woyuld whop up on us black boys more then the white boys. Plus many of the black staff like foolin around with them punks. Was you one of the dorm man who hold the punk dorm.

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  24. Mr Davis, I would have thought you would have fallen victim to the aids virus by now. I remember you were very protective of a punk named woods. I still tell the story about the kid who could write his name on the window with a bar of grit between his butt cheeks. With people still in the tyc job corps who were employed at Gatesville it’s no wonder the agency is so corrupt. The Gatesville culture was moved and because the staff stayed longer than the kids the diseased culture was able to infect others for much longer as it spread to other facilities. As you may well remember how we spoke then you fully understand what I mean when I say that’s why tyc is so hooked up, gunchy, not even bippy can fix it. This is a great example of not allowing anyone who has been employed with tyc prior to the merger, to remain employed with the new supper agency.

    Mountain View came under such scrutiny during Morales verse Turdman that PPC was nothing more than a way to continue the beatings but at the hands of the boys, or future building tenders. To have group called on you was to have your ass kicked by your peers. Mountain View did not house violent offenders, it housed kids with rabbit fever or kids who couldn’t get along at the other schools. It was a threat staff made to kids. Yes MVSSB had some mean kids but not any meaner than the other schools. If Jesus would have been sent to Gatesville he would become mean and may have had a Mountain View committee.

    That move from Mountain View to Hackberry took place in the summer of 1975.

    Anonymous 7:25pm, the black staff treated the white and Spanish boys like shit. But the black staff were much more easily manipulated. I had more black staff on my payroll than hillbillies when I was at Terrace. A whole bunch of the black staff came over from Live Oak and Riverside to Terrace. Those were some corrupt staff. Man Terrace was a hell hole. Can you believe tyc went from being a bunch of beat um up rednecks to a bunch of team player pedophiles in the last 3 decades. I suppose we could blame Crenshaw and his little butt buddy Buckner for that. So much for Morales verse Turdman protecting wards of the state of Texas.

    Also there are white boys who tell stories of kids buried where the old horse barn use to be up at Hill Top. I’ve heard the stories of black kids buried on the other side of the river. This merger is to cover up the general public discovering the tyc employee benefit of pedophilia. They closed Gatesville to cover up the physical abuse and deaths of throw away kids who may still be buried in unmarked graves. They said the facility was to old, well it wasn’t too old to move the female offenders of tdc in there. The state couldn’t afford the publicity of any developer digging up kids body’s on those grounds. The ladies there now know about the ghost of little boys.

    So this Davis guy says “So if you don't know the facts about abuse in TYC ask employees, not kids that tell only part of the situation.” Gee I haven’t ever heard that before from a tyc ass clown. (sarcasm) That was tyc’s entire defense strategy during Morales verse Turdman.

    Give no air to tyc playa punks, continue to rot in hell tyc. c/s

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  25. As the merger of juvenile agencies approaches, be reminded that TYC has an organizational chart with boxes and lines connecting each box. As far as I know, no one has charted the real nature of the organization. In TYC, what matters is the personal/sexual relationships. Where is that chart? Not understanding who is doing who can get you in a world of hurt.

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  26. Will someone publish some positive achievements about TYC? I KNOW THERE MUST BE SOME SUCCESS STORIES.Are all kids that have gone through TYC loosers?All i read from these blogs are abuse and failures.If TYC wants success the agency needs to define their mission thouroughly and have a follow-up plan to track progress or degress of there programs.

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  27. Way to get that ignorant son of a bitch Sheldon stirred up, so he can spew more racist, poor pitiful me stories from the 70s. Hey Sheldon by the sound of your post, TYC had pedophiles and punks back in the 70s. How many times did you take it up the ass?

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  28. Now back off, TB; you were fired so go away.

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  29. "As the merger of juvenile agencies approaches, be reminded that TYC has an organizational chart with boxes and lines connecting each box. As far as I know, no one has charted the real nature of the organization. In TYC, what matters is the personal/sexual relationships. Where is that chart? Not understanding who is doing who can get you in a world of hurt."

    I agree completely with this statement. No names mentioned here, but say for example, the Superintendant of a facility is having sexual relations with the HRA at his facility, so in turn for her sexual favors he promotes, demotes employees according to her wishes. Even worse still, they build a partnership against even the assistant superintendant? How can central office truly believe that these sexual partnerships have no effect on the day to day operations of the facility? Anyone who works at tyc knows exactly the two individuals that I am speaking of and they know that this relationship has taken place between two married (to other people of course, not each other) administrative staff members. This has caused corruption down throughout all of the ranks because how can anyone deal with inappropriate interpersonal staff member relationships when the top administrators are involved in sexual relationships with each other? I only hope that the new agency does not let this behavior continue. If so, there will just be a repeat of all of the past corruption and the youth being neglected as there was in the facility they just closed down. Shameful, really.

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  30. Central office knows all about this superintendent and what goes on at this facility. Tax money (thru promotions, etc.) goes to reward those who go along and keep quite. All the rest are punished. This mess needs to be cleaned up. Please call Central Office and ask why they keep this mess going year after year.

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  31. OK! We all know about corporal punishment back at Gatesville.Mr. Sheldon has given enough feedback on what he has researched about over nearly 40 years ago and even father back.The question at hand is Does TYC have the resources to make this merger work. The Agency has saved millions of dollars to do what with. Will more parole officers be hired,will new after care programs be created, will teen age mothers be taught parenting skills,will there be ample staff to do follow up on these new programs to measure their progress or degress. Will Front line staff receive adequate training on Behavior Management and Interpersonal skill training. Will the training be as it was before,dumped on Supervisors to train a program they don't thoroughly understand themseves.Will Program writers leave their offices and define the program they wrote to all staff.Will follow up training be given or will the training be one that if you don't get it the first time too bad because we won't be back again.Their excuse is we trained your supervisor ask him for details.Who on campuses will be held account able to see that all programs are operated as defined in the training manual?These issues must be treated as top priorities.Forget about past issues and deal with the issues at hand. The merger is here.Are these important issues i discussed in place?

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  32. You are a joke!

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  33. There are a number of things folks are hoping will come out of the merger. The one most critical issue that will determine if change is in the future is this:
    THROW THE STATE HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE OUT OF TYC!

    Juvenile Probation is successful because the chief is responsible for hiring and firing in order to keep the best and most qualified employees. The Chief knows that if he hires a bunch of jack-offs he will soon be fired by the juvenile board.

    For too long State Human Resources has bastardized the TYC personnel process. TYC administrators are promoted for every reason except the right reason. It should not matter if the person being hired or fired is white, black, yellow, green, straight, gay, president's cousin...so on. If you are not cutting the Mustard, your oxygen wasting ass should be cut loose." The absolute truth is, State Human Resources don't know daylight from dark about hiring good employees to work with correctional youth. If you don't believe me take a look at the role they have played in transforming TYC into what it is today. Ironically, you seldom hear of one HR person getting fired or being held accountable for the bullshit that has occurred in TYC. Absolutely amazing that State HR has not had to face heat and account for their part in all this mess.
    GET THEM GONE!

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  34. The top people in Austin, including HR, knew about the sexual abuses of youth and that staff were allowed to transfer rather than be fired. Some were evn promoted. Many knew about this strategy and played the TYC game until it exploded in their faces. HR is one of the worst units in the state. It all about who knows who and who is screwing who, literally. The TYC culture has not changed, some faces but not the rotten culture. It too will follow into the new agency.

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  35. The new department can't take over soon enough. Get rid of top management in each agency and start fresh. Run it like a county
    juvenile probation department and it will run great.

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  36. The HR departments are the guardians of the old sick TYC culture and the old sick networks. Everybody, except for the in-crowd, suffers from this. The HR departments have the tools to keep everything hidden and buried - they control the records. Bust up the HR departments before the merger. Why doesn't anyone in Central Office care about this?

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  37. Get rid of the worthless folks here and there would be no one left in the hallways of CO.

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  38. Central Office just needs a way to monitor the local facilities. If they were aware of the coverups that go on they could better equip themselves to deal with all of the undertones that they never hear. One regional director to cover multiple facilities leads to around one to two visits to each facility each month. Hardly enough to discover whats really going on.

    I agree, please hire back none of the HR staff from theses facilities that have closed! They are manipulative and unprofessional in every since of the word!

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  39. New HR staff members? Sounds like a win win situation to me.

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  40. I agree this is the worst HR department TYC has ever had.Starting with Mary Woods.She supports staff that should have been gone from the agency. Her local HR represenatives are just as corrupt as Mary Woods.Start with this department and the merger might have a chance. Get rid of Humphrey also.Mary Woods makes sure that people she wants to get hired gets hired and vice versa.Samatha Patterson also needs to go. Both people had connections with the Governors office. This is the only reason they cissed the cut.

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  41. So, who is the Supt. and HRA that's bumping uglies? How bout a hint?

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  42. 7:51 Hint:Stan

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  43. Hint:Stan?

    I think the real Superintendant wrote that one.

    One clue, his name wasn't Stan, and they got caught together. Guess again. Everyone at the facility knows.

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  44. Yes, that is what I was going to say, I bet the real superintendant or HRA wrote Stan.

    They know who they are, rumor has it that they did get caught together. They just don't want her husband to find out.

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  45. Anonymous pusillanimous 6/21/2011 9:20PM I was hoping you would ask. The first few days I was there a couple of colored boys thought they would have sex with me. I was able to make a weapon in shop and agreed to meet them in the bathroom. When the lights went out I commenced to cutting. The colored boys left me alone after that. Not too long ago I saw one of the schvartzes mug shots in a tdc death row list. He still had the scar down his face. I found it comical. The sexual deviancy was pretty much confined to the black culture when I was at Gatesville. It’s just how it was, the hillbillies treated it as common place, it’s just how they acted they would say. There was only one pedophile that we all knew about, that was the black protestant preacher, but out of respect for his place he kept it amongst his own kind.
    A racist, well I suppose I was around racism. I spent a lot of time hanging out with the maid’s kids in the projects as a child. Very racist people there in the Hatcher street and BunTon areas of the 214 in the early 60’s. Then in Gatesville having to live at a predominately black school in a compound run by a bunch of hillbillies, I was immersed in racism there, I suppose some of it rubbed off. I’m scared to death of white people, especially those that live in the country. In my opinion I think blacks are racist out of hatred while the rednecks out of ignorance. I find racism in today’s America comical especially when a black person accuses someone of racism. There’s the pot calling the kettle black, sort of speak.
    The answer to your question Anonymous 6/21/2011 9:20PM is 0. I’m so weird about that I haven’t had a colonoscopy and have lost girlfriends who wanted to stimulate me there. I may die of colon cancer because of the wacko side effects of living in that culture of protecting your manhood at all cost.
    HR is the root of all evil in any business. It’s usually populated by people with hall monitor syndrome who are predominately members of some legislated protective class. They use policy’s to manipulate their way and state run agency’s will never be immune of these types of issue many of you blog about. Racism is alive and well in the protected classes of Americas HR departments. Anyone want to post the racial makeup of tyc’s HR department. I bet I could guess within 10%
    Anonymous 6/21/2011 8:38pm Over a 5 year floating window tyc produces an 87% recidivism rate from the last 30 years of data. So there are 13% who are doing well. I have had a very successful life, but that’s how it was supposed to be, my getting caught up in Gatesville was very atypical, what statisticians call an outlier. The throw away kids of Texas are nothing but pray to these monsters who seek and maintain employment in our states job corps tyc where the primary benefit is the widespread practice of state sponsored pedophilia. What happened in tyc over the last 30 years is just like the hillbillies predicted over 40 years ago when the government passed legislation inadvertently putting the Live Oak bunch in a position to take over tyc.
    Anyone interested in reading any poor pitiful me stories from the 70’s, 60’s, and I think even the 50’s about tyc legacy here is a link http://gatesville.blogspot.com/2009/12/trip-to-gatesville.html

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  46. Intersting postings and thoughts about tyc. Hopefully the merger will eliminate all of the racism and cultural biases out of the system, but doesn't sound so likely.

    It sounds like the atypical thing for superintendants to hook up with their facilities HRA's, discusting really.

    I thought it was only the nice sweet ones proclaiming christianity who participated in extracurriculum activities with the superintendants, surprisingly enough, it sounds like more have done the same. Why not? Employee of the year, in charge of all campus activity (though never interacting with any of the youths?), your owned labeled parking spot, and choosing who gets what position or promotion, and the superintendant carrying all of your weight and protectively guarding you?

    What a job that must have been. In the end, God put a stop to it. I think it is funny! Yes, you know who I am talking too, and I hope your husband does soon find out. Keep up the calls and letters and he will know soon enough. Take care manipulative little one, what comes around goes around and it will all come back upon you. Every minute you spent in another woman's husbands arm. Guaranteed!

    And by the way, you weren't the first one, there were many others before you! (just in case you thought you were special)

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  47. Sheldon, your comments are close to the TYC comments. BOTH of you are so connected and alike that it just goes on and on. Sheldon-YOU are TYC...past but also the present...both are so lost and pitiful and abusive to the public. BOTH please go away and find confort in your violent and disruptive pasts. TYC is now for the forward looking and good employees. A joke. Both are so lost and will never understand the reality of nowdays help for idiot youth.

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  48. As everyone can see Sheldon never talks about his original family only his TYC family.I wonder what part does his mother and father play in his messed up teenage life. Why would he keep leaveing the life with his family to continuosly going back to the hell hole in Gatesville.Could it be that that he felt that this was the only place he felt recognized and cared for. He talks about how the African American matron Ms.Ruby Brown showed love for him.Maybe she was the loving mother figure he had longed for all of his life.What about his father.Was he a supportive father or just a dead beat dad?Sheldon needs a lot of professional health.He needs to learn to accept some of the blame for his messed up life.He needs to discuss his original family not his adoptive family,TYC.

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  49. Re: Sheldon posts...

    Stop acknowledging his posts and maybe he will stay on a constructive criticism note or quit posting altogether.

    Every now and then in his post he will cite something that points to a problem that needs fixing and then gets off track and distracted with all the other garbage and personal responses.

    Too bad the guy can't see that he is contributing very little by redirecting every post regarding TYC to his own personal need for attention.

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  50. Sheldon seems to be more stable than some of the TYC posters comments make them. Maybe these posters need mental health help more than he does. No one here seems to want their own boat rocked.

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  51. Some inane derogatory blaming statement. Hate TYC, Love TYC...disgruntled... More nonsensical self aggrandizing BS!!!!!

    LOL

    One Maudlin Individual

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  52. Please,abollish tyc facilities forever! These posts show no positive aspects of any of these facilities.

    I think Al Price was the most corrupt work place and am thrilled that it was chosen to be closed down! Be wise and hire back none of these corrupt abusive employees into the new agency.

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  53. PS...
    Including the corrupt unprofessional HR staff, and HRA

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  54. Everything, everyplace and everyone pales in comparison to Evins. It's THE worst and the the HRA can give lessons in being the most corrupt and CONniving while being inept (code for lazy) at the same time.

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  55. its interesting that all these people continue to post about the HR and HRA departments so I figure, they are probably already ex-tyc employees.


    This post was set up to discuss the merger so get over it.

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  56. You sound like one of the employees that bend over for supervisors pleasure, then get a promotion. Another TYC reason to trash the entire agency top to bottom.

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  57. Actually no I did not bend over for anyone, but if you are going to trash people on here, you might look ar yourselves first and then at least trash the people who deserved to be trashed.

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  58. Ranty can't look at himeself! He might see some truth if he ever did!

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  59. I am definitely not an "ex" tyc staff member, and still know that the HRA is the dirtiest and most manipulating individual at our facility. I am happy that she will lose her job, and sorry that those of us who didn't bend over had to lose our jobs to get rid of her.

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  60. Everything, everyplace and everyone pales in comparison to Evins. It's THE worst and the the HRA can give lessons in being the most corrupt and CONniving while being inept (code for lazy) at the same time.

    To this post I can only reply, you haven't had to experience the HRA at Al Price, she tops Evins HRA off the charts, I am sure!

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  61. TYC is institutionally corrupt. With the HR departments controlled by the corrupt superintendents, only those who close their eyes and support the culture have a chance for a promotion, for a raise or for anything that would advance their careers. Its been that way for over 20 years. Through this system, only the most corrupt had a chance to advance so these individuals now occupy all the top positions and lord it over the rest of us. As one example, look at who occupies state housing and benefits from this perk.

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  62. I know I'm naive, but I just can't figure out how something done cheaper will prove to be better. I know that the only reason there can be money saved is because juvenile crime has dropped, and I really don't believe that was the result of juvenile justice reform. I don't think juvenile crime will ever go away. It may hit a low, but it is bound to start climbing again with all the cuts in education and juvenile justice. The pendulum always swings back, and thirty years from now they'll be housing young offenders in tents in Jeff Davis County.

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  63. I think this merger is the greatest opportunity that the youth in tyc's care has had. I know at Al Price there is so much garbage that has went on for the past 3 years that I have worked there, that it needed to be closed down. I also know that none of the administrative staff cared anything about the care or safety of the youth on our campus.

    Administrative staff members had private luncheons, dinners, and "affairs" for themselves only, which I am sure the state paid for.

    I hope this merger is successful and the new agency keeps out Al Price admin staff members so that the agency gets a fresh start.

    Other than the assistant superintendent, no one is ever seen around campus, only hanging out in the superintendents office and admin building.

    Our Superintendent spent all of his time with the HRA at our facility before his abrupt departure, for sure.

    Good luck to all of those who support this merger. I think it is a great opportunity to work for a more professional agency. I believe staff will be thankful once they see that facilities don't have to engage in all of the underplay that goes on. I feel that both the youth and staff members have been victims of abusive and agressive administrative staff members.

    I am excited about looking for a new job. Keep your heads up and everything will go well.

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  64. Al Price Superintendent rocked! He was well aware of our carniverous HRA and knew how to keep her under foot.

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  65. The mistakes are already repeating. Institution population at those facilities that are not being closed is risings. Already staff shortages at these facilities. The way these reforms happens makes no sense. The kids think they run the show. We will have yet another batch of kids tossed to TDCJ due to ineffective programming during transition. It just goes on and on. Invest in prevention, invest in intensive treatment in institutions raise credential requirements for future staff...Oh yeah. Texas. sorry, in the bottom 10 percent of every category, except killing people

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  66. It's so sad to see that the past and present TYC employees and administrators have brought this once graceful youth agency to its present disgraceful situation. Even without counting how bad youth have been treated, just look at the employees that have been thrown to the streets and treated like trash by management; after years of devoted service to TYC. Any remaining administrators that have over five years with TYC should be eliminated and given walking papers. These people, not youth or employees, have been the failure of TYC. None of the administrators should be moved into the new agency. If so, you only poison the new agency.

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  67. I agree, the new agency should stay away from all administrative staff members and hire fresh new vibrant employees who have no prior history with tyc. To much corruption has grown throughout these facilities and needs to be stopped right at the roots!

    Use wisdom and take the better route even if it may cost more and take a longer period of time. This will prevent the demise of the new agency and its eventual collapse as tyc has experienced.

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