The State of Our Children: Texas as a Parent
with William S. Bush and Sherry Matthews
Moderated by Michele Deitch
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 1:30 - 2:30
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.014
In two recently published books, Texas' role - both in the past and present-day - as the caretaker of youth in state-operated children’s homes and juvenile prisons is being examined. Sherry Matthews and William Bush write about the thorny problems and life within those institutions both from the human and policy perspectives, and they bring to life an aspect of Texas society that isn't often talked about.
Panelists:
William Bush, author of Who Gets a Childhood: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth-Century Texas
and
Sherry Matthews, author of We Were Not Orphans
Moderator Michele Deitch, J.D., M.Sc., is a Senior Lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, where she teaches graduate level courses in juvenile justice and criminal justice policy. She served on Texas’s blue-ribbon task force that recommended recent reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system, and has been a court-appointed monitor of conditions in the Texas prison system. Her juvenile justice research has received national media attention, and in 2010, she was named “Outstanding Juvenile Justice Advocate of the Year” by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.
William S. Bush
In Who Gets a Childhood: Race and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth-Century Texas, William S. Bush both analyzes and indicts the American juvenile justice system. Using Texas as a case study in its treatment of young offenders, he uncovers the ongoing cycles of crisis, reform, and regression over the past 100 years. At the turn of the century, the United States juvenile justice system underwent extreme transformation. Under the gentle leadership of people like Justice Ben Lindsey and the unwavering passion of reform groups (specifically women’s Christian organizations), attitudes toward juvenile defendants changed drastically and the goals for dealing with these youths changed from retribution to rehabilitation. Cases like that of 16-year-old San Marcos resident Jimmy Jones, who in the late Twenties was struck 40 times with a baseball bat and chased down by blood hounds, first brought the horrors of incarcerated minors to light. Others like the incident at Mountain View State School in Gatesville, where 14-year-old C.W. was beaten unconscious by inmates as a guard looked on, resulted in institution shut-downs in 1975. Youth offenders initially landed in adult prisons, where their discipline was both punitive and ineffectual. But with reform came the concept of “treating the individual, not the crime,” which has remained – at least in theory – the prevalent idea behind youth rehabilitation programs. Despite such gains, however, history has proven that theory and practice are often worlds apart, and gruesome scandals continue to surface (blacks, Latinos, and poor whites are particularly affected). Bush ends by charging the American juvenile justice system to uphold the rights of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution by addressing “this century’s dilemma,” as he calls it, and extending “the privileges and protections of childhood and adolescence to all youth.” Bush is an assistant professor of history at Texas A&M University in San Antonio. His extensive research has culminated in a policy series for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC), a non-profit advocacy organization in Austin.
Sherry Matthews
Austin writer Sherry Matthews lost her three older brothers when she was only a toddler. Like thousands of other children, they were sent to live at the Waco State Home following a series of family tragedies. Established in 1919, the home was a center for children ages four to 16 whose parents were either unable or unwilling to care for them; often it was both. In We Were Not Orphans, Matthews explores the history of the despotic state-run institution and relates the alternately harrowing and joyful stories of more than 50 people who grew up there (Austin writer Jesse Sublett conducts the interviews with the Home’s former residents). The Texas Senate created the Waco State Home as a safety net for white children who were labeled “dependent and neglected” by the court system. Deaths, financial crisis, and family violence were some of the reasons they ended up at WSH. By the 1960’s the home became integrated. Although the home did exceptionally well in providing food, clothing, and a well-rounded education, it did nothing to provide a safe or nurturing environment. Many children were severely beaten and emotionally scarred. Despite the endemic abuse, some of the children still had fond memories of growing up at the home. They played sports, indulged in pranks, and sneaked away on dates. As one Waco State Home alumnus put it, “We were not orphans. Our parents were living. They just couldn’t take care of us.” We Were Not Orphans is a blend of chilling investigative reporting and life-affirming storytelling, revealing that the resilient spirit of childhood can prevail over adversity. Despite coming from broken homes and living under horrifying circumstances, the children of the Waco State Home clung to each other for comfort and for the most part were able to lead fulfilling lives. Matthews is the founder and owner of Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing, a public service marketing firm. She has won numerous awards on behalf of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and companies for her socially conscious work. We Were Not Orphans is her first book.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The State of Texas as Parent
Our pal Michele Deitch at the UT-Austin LBJ School is moderating a panel on juvenile justice at the State Book Fair in Austin next weekend that sounds interesting:
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28 comments:
No one should have had to suffer the abuse from those spiritually depraved sorry pieces of feces who ran the Gatesville State School for Boys. There you will find the most ignorant racist inbreed rednecks the state of Texas has to offer. Talk about the ongoing cycles of crisis, reform, and regression. That may be true of tyc but the staff of gssb and mvssb were so far gone after Morales v turdman that the Feds couldn’t let those hillbillies take care of children anymore. There was no turning back from the regression road those ancestrally cursed devils were on. One of the more vicious of state dogs was elected sheriff of coryell county. The state must have known the moral fiber of the town was rotten to the core. Tarring the facility down would kill the towns livelihood and Gd knows they didn’t need to accidently disturb any of the unmarked graves of the children who escaped and never heard from again. They needed some week defenseless people that no one would listen to regarding abuse. Enter TDC with a supply of female inmates. Happy days for the town of gatesville; under the protection of TDCJ the moral depravity of the towns people can continue to worsen unabated by pesky federal lawsuits.
If TYC were a real parent, it would be locked up for endangerment to children. All of the things that were "supposed" to make things better, DOJ, ACA, Conextions are all just smokke and mirrors. Abuses continue, kids aren't safe, staff are corrupt, racism and discrimination are the order of the day. DOJ needs to revisit, not just the Evins facility, where few, if any of the stipulations of the Agreed Order are being adhered to, but all of TYC. ACA is only taken seriously when it's time for the six-month review. And then, only enough eye-wash to "fool" the in-house audit teams. Kids setting fires in the security unit at Evins, an escape at Gainesville, superintendents using State employess and materials for their personal use (fixing flats on personal vehicles). Positions that were "permanently" deleted have been opened to accommodate James Smith's cronies who transferred in from Crockett and are currently in the process of monopolizing all of the key leadership positions at Evins. They have even stooped to telling an Anglo PS II that he should self demote because "Central Office" is going to fire him if he doesn't. It's all there if anyone cares to look, and it is only getting worse. Read the Moss Report, the other survey and internal audit reports...in black and white. Racism, cronyism, employment discrimiation, under the table appointments to positions that should have been posted for competitive hiring, intimidation, and on and on. TJDD is coming in December, but if the same corrupt administrators remain in change, it will be the same as it ever was. As has been stated before, a turd in a shiny new package is still a turd.
Nearly 4 years after the inception of conextions it still has not taking hold. Most intelligent administrators would review what progress or lack of progress and change course. Not TYC, they continue to pettle the same song and dance even when staff and youth will confirm the lack sustainability and productivity.
I really do not know what Perry's staff are looking at let alone Madden and Whitmire, but any time spent (suprise visit) at any of our existing campuses will tell them what they need to know. Also, spend real time with the Case Workers and JCO staff, stay away from administrators, they will sing the company song.
Pepper spray is increasing, youth on youth assault, youth on staff assault, and these youth are still being released, just take a look. Did I forget to mention high numbers of FMLA leave, workers comp claims, programing, programing, programing!!
Back in the 70’s the old rednecks had predicted this type of behavior described above as the result of desegregation and affirmative action. Especially the staff on kid pedophilia stuff. These predictions were based on their experience with the “colored school” Riverside and Live Oak. Remember gssb was segregated from its very beginning and might as well have been right up to its closing. The racism and free for all sex was very prevalent at Riverside/LiveOak and segregation was thought to keep it in check by the rednecks. With what little desegregating they attempted at gssb it still was segregated enough to keep the B’s in check. From the late 60’s A’s and L’s who were deemed disciplinary problems were placed at the predominantly B school as punishment. Live Oak and then Terrace when Live Oak closed.
According to state archives back in the 20’s the state wanted to move the colored boys to Fergusson farm because just having them in separate dorms wasn’t cutting the whole separate and unequal law. The gatesvilleites fought the move and built a separate school for them down by the river, Harris Hall which became Riverside and then Live Oak when the new Riverside school was built in the 60’s. The old timers would say the B’s made great field hands and didn’t want to lose them. I took upholstery shop in that old Harris Hall dorm. We had to move out of that building because it was said to be condemned. TDCJ has administrative offices in there now. I wonder how much it cost to un-condemn that substandard building that was built to over crowd the colored boys into a separate facility.
Now I realize this is a very controversial topic. Making it very easy for the likes of tyc to defend and deflect by calling the statement, the author, and all white people of the universe racist. It’s an easy enough deflection and were back to business as usual. However history would show itself to be true but we as a society don’t like to look at history and I think that’s why tyc continues to cycle through the crises, reform, retrenchment. This is the cover up mentality of that culture. We don’t want to be accountable for the mistakes of the past, we cover them, and go on to make them again.
TDCJ, having offices in what was once a condemned building built to house reform school colored boys in Texas. Attitudes of the day, you know it was built on the cheap without much concern for safety considering the occupants. Tell me that’s not a whatever the cost to cover up for various reasons like to prevent archeological work around that place. Especially around Harris Hall. I once knew a guy who was a tdc inmate at Hilltop in 1980 who worked to prepare the buildings for the ladies. He said he wouldn’t want his ex wife living in those buildings. I bet you would find a disproportionate amount of Black boys to White and Spanish boys buried in unmarked graves around that place.
Post written by eye witness can be found at http://gatesville.blogspot.com/
This is a song that really sums up the day to day in tyc back in the day written by an alum.
Gatesville State Rehab (song)
There's a reform school in Texas,
And I know the tales that they tell are true.
'Cause I've been through it buddy,
And I wanna tell the truth to you.
Well, they'll knock you down and kick you
And they'll beat you till you're black and blue,
But as long as you are there,
Ain't nothing you can do.
Well, I got sent to Gatesville in June of 64.
I hadn't been there but five long days,
When I got beat to the floor.
And the man just stood there grinnin',
Thinkin' he was bad,
And the shape his soul was in
Would make a preacher sad.
Well they'll beat you up in Hackberry,
And they'll stomp you on the Hill.
They'll knock you down on the Riverside,
And kick you in the Valley still.
And the boys up on Terrace, they got spots of blue.
And God bless the boy, who can live through Mountain View.
I said, God be with you boy, don't let it happen to you.
Well a group of men from Austin, were sent to investigate.
But the evidence was hidden, and the men just couldn't wait.
So they left there a-thinkin'; everything was OK.
'Cause the boys there in Gatesville, were too afraid to say.
That they'll beat you up in Hackberry,
And they'll stomp you on the Hill.
They'll knock you down on the Riverside,
And kick you in the Valley still.
And the boys up on Terrace, they got spots of blue.
And God bless the boy, who can live through Mountain View.
I said, God be with you boy, don't let it happen to you.
Jack Olin Hotchkiss © 1968/2009
We as a polite society do not want to of fail to see the abuses in the current system for the kids and women being housed in a cruel and unforgiving system. We just cannot believe it could happen. I can tell you those buildings are crumbling on what is now called the Crain Unit the old Gatesville Unit. All those units are crumbling Crain, Hill Top and Mountain View. You see it just seems like when someone does wrong we say rehabilitate them all but in reality it is all about punishment every day. We as society just do not see it or want to see it unless it is their child or loved one. Those facilities in Gatesville are dangerous to say the least filled for the most part with non-violent offenders as most of the people incarcerated in this country today. Instead of putting them in school and keeping them there they employed the officers there full time in kicking them out of classes. Now where would our society be today if we licked everyone out of school as a punishment? I know everyone will say you should behave in school and I agree but why kick someone out of school for something that happens away from school like not shoveling enough manure today at work because we had nothing constructive for you today but shovel manure. I would not ask an animal to live in that Crain Unit or any of those Gatesville facilities. It has a third world country fill about it time you arrive there. I agree with you Sheldon but someone will come along here soon and call us “Inmate Lovers” regardless of the facts and say we have no facts at all and we are capable of judging from what we have witness down there. Facts? What a joke coming from anyone connected with TYC or TDCJ. Yes it is way past time for DOJ to go into these juvenile and women facilities in the state of Texas. The ACA is a paid joke for the state and the people at these facilities are handpicked by staff before they even arrived. I would tell anyone ride down there and witness the abuse for yourself at any of these facilities.
Whoever has been in charge at TYC has known that they are invisible and untouchable. That's as true now as it has ever been. No mater how out of bounds they are, nobody will tell what they are doing.
The culture here is like crabgrass - you can't kill it and it will outlast you. They know one thing - how to stick together and reward those who watch their back. Once concrete is set, it's set.
I think the non-profit church organizations did and do a better job of taking care of our youth that are in need of care.
Look at Dave the guy who started Wendy's, he grew up in an orphanage.
Our foster care system is also plagued by years of ineptness.
The kids at TYC are throw away kids to this governor. They were throw away kids when they were being molested in West Texas and Perry knew about it! They were throw away kids for years and that has not changed.
They continue to be throw away kids with the current TYC adminstrations free reign to continue failed programs, move and hid problems,and keep facts from the uncaring eyes of the governors office.
There is big business in prisons in Texas and with that Perry and CO. seem more than content to let TYC "keep up the good work" by being the failure they have always been! Thus insuring the steady stream into the adult system.
Randy Chance should change the title of his book Raped By The State to How To Cover Up State Sponsored Child Abuse and Pedophilia with case studies. He could triple the prices because TYC would buy it to use in quarterly mandatory training of it staff.
Crain Watcher
Gatesville isn’t the only 100+ year old inbreed backwater prison town in Texas. However I do believe that Gatesville is unique and gets my vote as today’s worst 100+ year old inbreed backwater Texas prison town.
• From the beginning in 1889 the Dallas Morning News stigmatizing the institution in an article that announces a win for Gatesville’s bid to get state school for “vicious boys”.
• Slave labor mentality of staff towards the kids. The locals depended on the livelihood generated by the free field labor.
• Used tracking dogs to keep the work force in place
• Early on the fear of telling what went on there was instilled into the children.
• Cycle of scandal and cover up. Because they had kids unlike the adult slave labor prison farms various organization were in their face regarding reports of abuse. The staff became pro’s at cover up. Today’s tyc is so good at defending and deflecting largely in part to the agency’s rich roots in the art of covering up state sponsored child abuse. How to books like the one mentioned above could be written by today’s tyc staff on covering up child abuse.
• The local workforce are so far gone in their depravity of state sponsored child abuse the Feds finely attempted to shut them down. Unfortunately all that happened was the diseased culture was spread and allowed to grow and be nurtured in tyc. This was the states payback for the Feds stepping into state business similar to Estelle’s costly stalling during Ruiz. It was the norm at the time and anti Fed is a great rally cry in Texas.
• The scandal that would be unleashed if people started digging around that place the state had to cover for the indigenous locals. Same holds true for several of the old farms but these were children in the states care at gssb
• Knowing the diminutive sprit of the indigenous locals, the state knew it couldn’t move in male prisoners, many of whom are the result of the gssb. Basic physiology regarding men who beat women and children says they can’t stand up to a man. So they moved in the females allowing the indigenous locals to continue the abuse, grow the depravity and pass it on to the next generation of creatures.
• The state didn’t mind the diseased culture spreading among tyc but it didn’t want the indigenous locals integrating into other cities. They had to keep the institution up and running at whatever the cost to the tax payers. They even built so new sub standard housing to handle the influx of victims of the war on minority’s and poor whites that was launched in the 90’s under the ruse of “war on drugs and ignorant on crime”.
I’m sure the list could go on infinite.
Think about the dangerous conditions the facility is in. The building craze that happened in the 50’s and 60’s at gssb, mostly under an old Army quartermaster. Forget the old pre www I and II buildings, just talking about the newer ones. Think about the budget for construction, the bidding on performing the construction, who got the bid, who did the work, why the work was needed, and for whom it was done. I know in the 70’s that Riverside, a school built initially to house colored boys was so substandard that they couldn’t reopen the school to handle the influx of boys coming to gssb in the summer of 75. They had to re opened Valley to ease overcrowding at Terrace and Sycamore. I was surprised to see that Riverside and Live Oak weren’t bulldozed but then remembered the stories an old Black man I knew who was there as a kid in the 50’s about how he helped bury dead boys down by the river who were victims of those monsters abuse.
1:21 your only half right my friend. We would buy every copy to keep it hidden as if Perry or Madden or Whitmire gave a rats ass.
We continue to do a poor job with the kids but are doing an amazing job moving problems one step ahead of any one looking. Run away kids not reported as missing from half way houses, not giving kids their level so we can keep them longer so it looks like we need the staff. And teaching kids every where that cause some hell, tell us what you want us to get for you so you'll not raise any more hell.
All designed to keep things secret until they pick the new director. Forget the kid, forget us that have to work in this daycare program. Its all about upper management staying out of the new to keep the bloated Central Office staff employeed!
So yes, they would buy every copy and bury them out back so they could not be read, as if anyone in the governors office cared enough to ask!
If the Governors office really wanted to look at issues with TYC start with the specialized treatment funding. Why are we billing the Feds and State for non-existent groups, maybe on paper but talk with the kids.
Look not only at the salaries given to the top ten last year, but ask for names of all employees over the last year who recieved over 10% or higher, you will be amazed to see that some recieved raises over 30%, all in Austin.
Look at the overtime for the past few years in comparison to amount of staff and youth ratio's. Look at worker comp claims, amount of employees out on FMLA.
Take a visit to any of our campuses and ask what happens to a youth who pull's his penis out to female staff. Yes this happens on some campuses 3 to 4 times a day. If our programs were working so well, why are these issues keep happening?
The rise in restraints, youth on youth assaults, youth on staff assaults.
I really do not believe our elected leaders want to know the truth, if they did they might just have to make a decision.
Sheldon, I could not agree more with you! Thank you!
Look at the amount of revokee's over the past 2 years at TYC, the youth leave institutions to the halfway houses and escape or commit a rule violation and go right back to institutions. Those youth on parole are coming right back as well, the lack of evidence based treatment is very evident.
I came across this on another blog.
I have a friend that's in the Terrace Unit at Gatesville. She have told me about some of the same sexual harrassment by the guards. One in particular is a black man. I remember when leaving a visit recently he started asking the inmate I visited very personal questions that he was way out of line for asking. She told me he's perverted and one of the guards that watch them shower. The ombudsmen is a joke, they'll act like they will look in to something, but basically what they do is ask the staff at the unit about a problem and take their word for it. The people with any power to do anything about the abuse don't give a damn because it's not them or their loved ones. They don't do surprise inspections, they don't arrest these people, if they do find out about a perverted guard all they'll do is fire them. In the state of Kansas for instance if a male guard get caught doing anything sexual with an inmate, he is not given due process, he is taken straight to prison. If I remember correctly the guards up their have to sign paperwork stating they are giving up their rights to due process if they get involved with an inmate sexually. The Texas prison system is very, very sadistic.
I can only hope that chnage occurs at TYC. I visited my son at the Giddings school this past weekend and all he could talk about was how he had to fight to keep his food and his medications. Apparently the older and stronger youth at these facilities place the weak and young on a thing he called "Bo". This is where the older stringer youth strong arm the weak to take these items, if you do not comply they beat you up or threaten to beat you up. Lord knows the staff cannot see everything and I spoke to my sons case worker and she said nearly all of the TYC facilities have this going on but they do the best they can. She also said the youth who prey on the younger youth recieve no consequnces because they are non-existent. When I asked about this she said youth on campus can get away with murder and staff will not try to hold them accountable because of the administrators out of Austin will come down hard on them. For the life of me I do not understand how this can be, my own son needs discipline based upon his actions, I will be the first to say this. But, according to the staff at Giddings discipline is a word you are not allowed to use. How can they justify their jobs if they are not helping my son and the others that there are consequnces for bad behavior, not rewards. I will be contacting my State Representaive this coming Monday and disclose all that I have seen and been told and would hope all parents who ahve a kid in TYC do the same.
05:15 At TYC Giddings, the violent youth prey on the weak. Staff members see it happen all the time but it's too difficult to control. The good folks in Austin don't help, they just talk. They believe in promoting the aggressive youth and pretending that by being nice these guys will appreciate it and lighten up--doesn't happen. Never happens except in the mind of a well paid administrator. You did good to let your Caseworker know about your concerns. The Superintendent is charged with protecting youth, but good luck with that. Let your State Representative know what is going on. They can put pressure on the good folks in Austin who run things, or don't run things however you want to look at it. You can try to appeal to the local Superintendent, but he will talk a good show until he gets you out of his office on back on the road. After that, it's as if you didn't even talk to him.
This is very sad to hear but expected. Why are we allowing aggressive youth to run the programs, does anyone see that by allowing them this power we are setting them up for a life of incareration? Being rewarded is not real life, does your boss or employer reward you every day with a raise when you do your job, no, they expect you to do your job. The current way of conducting business at TYC must stop for the youths sake. Buying behavior for doing what is expected is the most ridiculous form of treatment I have ever seen or associated with.
Having attended this panel discussion I found it very informative. Sherry Matthews spent time discussing the abuse issues that plagued the Waco State Home as did Dr Bush with regards to tyc and gssb. At one point in the discussion Matthews made a statement about how the kids are looked upon in many cases by staff and politicians as having mental issues but after all her research she has come to the conclusion that it is the staff with the mental issues. This received applause and cheers from a relatively packed chamber room.
The moderator, Michele Deitch, pointed out the coincidence of having the panel discussion in a chamber where many discussions regarding the fate of tyc had been held. I think the take away I received from the discussion was the entrenched culture of state sponsored child abuse in state schools/homes can’t be fixed. There is absolutely nothing that can be done, no matter how many well intended hours are spent by qualified individuals tasked with reforming these places. Jesus Christ could go to work for tyc and within a few months he would be molesting children, stealing state property, and covering up, all under the assumption it was a benefit of the job. The tyc is like an alcoholic, everyone associated seems to know it has issues, very bad issues, yet like the alcoholic tyc is about defending a deflecting and we as a society all ok with it. Meanwhile back at the institution the same entitlement minded employees continue to rape and pillage state property.
The best part was getting to meet one of my heroes Dr Bush and get a personally autographed copy of his book. Perhaps people like Michele Deitch will read, comprehend, and apply the historical perspectives and make appropriate changes to hiring practices at tyc. This way the state can stop doing the same old reforms and expecting different results. Otherwise if all we care about is how cheap can we house these kids we might as well put them all on a farm and let them earn their keep. Thank you Dr Bush for being a voice of the victims who have suffered the abuse of that depraved culture that calls itself running tyc.
To the Mom whose kid is in Giddings, good luck. May your son come home soon so you can get him the help he needs. May those corrupt bastards’ in charge of him not damage him too much. The boys home at Giddings was where the 80 year old corrupt culture of gatesville moved to. Since that time Giddings has a history of abuse that has been will covered up.
Something I found interesting while reading the reviews on the local golf course in Gatesville. The consistent theme of the reviews was that the staff was rude. I think that says a lot about that backwater hillbilly prison town that even the staff at the golf course is rude. The tyc was so bad that when moved from its birthplace the town was not allowed to recover but enabled to further its darkness. There are tons of dark secrets hidden in that county, its darkest was perpetuating and morphing that culture into what tyc is today. A den of thieves and pedophiles who feed off of tax dollars and the throw away children of Texas.
Very sad.
From what I see not Shelodn, the current administrators in charhe of TYC today are getting a pass from all of these advocacy groups. The groups that once attempted to hold TYC's feet to the fire actually believe TYC has made progress. It appeard they have been bought and paid off or at least until they name the next Executive Director of this combined cluster (TYC and TJPC). I guess the theme better the devil you know than the one you do not know?
Sheldon I hear you but if people think the golf course staff is rude in Gatesville they cannot even start to believe the staff at those prisons in that god awful town. Just go to visitation at the Crain Unit and see for themselves. I know for a FACT if they treat the family members and friends rude and do not care what they see or hear than you have no clue what they say and do to the women down there. I saw a guard threaten a prisoner dwon there this weekend for asking a question. Rehabilitation my you know what.
What Advocates, they are in bed with TYC Administrators. There is no way a real youth advocate would allow to happen what takes place at these institutions. They are the real culprit in allowing these youth to move on up to TDCJ, based upon their code of silence for the current administration.
Look at the amount of revocations the past 2 years, level hearing are suppose to be fair and unbiased, then why are the majority coming back to high restriction. Look at the weekly escapes at the half way houses. Look at the overall youth behavior in the instiutions, daily exposures to female staff, daily assaults of staff and peers. These youth are being set up for failure based upon lack of programs.
My 11 year old daughter who goes with her Mom to minister to inmates at Crain understands this double standard all too well. She never really thought that much of the guards behavior because they have always been pleasant to them. Once she went with a group of Hispanics and got to experience much different treatment than when she goes with her Mom. My little Jewish American Princess sheltered in the parochial school bubble came back and told me that that those guards are a bunch of racist bitches and the male guards kept looking at her in a way that creped her out. She told me that they even felt her up which according to TDCJ policy is not supposed to be done. Its only happened to her that one time at Crain. My first thought is because she looks 12 and down there that most likely is acceptable age. But I think it really goes back to the racist mentality those hillbillies have towards people. So now my daughter and I can say we both learned about the ignorance of racism in gatesville. None of my other kids have ever had to experience that type of ignorance because when they got to high school, that type of racial hatred those hillbillies in gatesville have was a thing of the past. One of my kids, now a practicing electrical engineer, actually went to a DISD high school. They must inbreed that stuff down there among themselves.
The comment about the rude attendant at the golf course was to show just how messed up a generational curse on a community can be. It’s a golf course, how can you have a crappy attitude at a golf course. Well in a cursed backwoods hillbilly prison town who owes their lively hood to the spilled blood of orphans and widows it’s the only attitude.
Sheldon I knew what you meant by the golf course and you are right every store or business you go into in Gatesville you will get that kind of treatment. It is their way of letting outsiders know you are not welcome and do not hang around when the sun goes down. I have witness many of abuses during visitation and callous degrading treatment of prisoners in front of their family members too. I know the worst guards that I have witness is the black females and they are overtly racist and do not try to hide it either whenever they are dealing with Latinos or Whites. I have had men pat me down that starts with a hard push or hard bump to the back. The only reason you cannot say anything is because when you leave they will retaliate against your friend and I have many friends down there that I do not want to cause problems for. Sure they would never do that away from the prison but these are not real men we are talking about because these are men who pick on and beat up upon and abuse women. I would hate to have a daughter go down there and be felt up by one of the lesbian guards and I like your daughter have witness this too. Their goal is to make visitation so miserable that no one will come back again. They always sarcastically say when you leave I hope you come back to continue to support your offender. This is their way of saying we hope we made it so hard you will never come back. I like many others on here have seen and heard many complain about visitation and working visitation. I have witness guards come through during visitation and confront family members and the people they are visiting that are not only inappropriate but uncalled for. I have been told by many women down there on the Terrace unit they deal with racist black women and a black guy who watches them all shower. On the Riverside unit it is the white female guards. There is a Lieutenant down there that is an overly open lesbian and she does nothing to hide it either.
Oh-Sheldon I forgot and I stand behind these words. The Crain Unit is for the most part a minimum security unit that is run like a de-facto military style prisoner of war camp in a third world country or better yet a concentration camp. The abuses are unthinkable and unmentionable to our polite society that seems to think it does not happen or encourages it to happen in prisons. One can see this at visitation any weekend if they can stomach it.
I think we're doing a sorry job at the Giddings State School as well... though the Administration claims my blog is "of no concern" to them?? It should be!! I've written to everyone from the President to my local paper... yet no one seems to care how horrible of a situation is going on. Please visit my blog and give me some feedback and support? Sure would appreciate it!
Looks like my blog URL on the previous post didn't show up... let's try it again -- visit my rant site blog at tdjj.yolasite.com
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