More than 100 youths surveyed at one of the state's largest juvenile correctional facilities said their most important concern is attacks from their peers, according to a report released today by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition.Reports Grissom:
"They had a lot of concerns about staff being really negative to them, and they had a lot of concerns about youth-on-youth violence," said Benet Magnuson, juvenile justice analyst at the coalition, which advocates for incarcerated youths.
Magnuson and a team of interviewers surveyed 115 youths at the Giddings State School in January and asked them about living conditions, services and treatment at the facility, which housed about 270 youths on average in 2011. The majority of youths reported that they felt safe and were hopeful about their future. But they also noted negative interactions with staff and worries about fights with other youths.
In the survey, 89 percent of the youths said they felt OK, kind of safe or very safe at the Giddings facility. Only 2 percent reported feeling very unsafe.Looking at the report, this tidbit stood out:
But the youths also reported a significant amount of fighting and gang-related activity at the facility. About 85 percent of the youths said they had been in a physical fight during their stay. And 70 percent said that gangs had either a lot of power or a huge amount of power at Giddings.
"There’s too much fighting on this campus. Fights, riots, gangs – trying to see who’s tougher. It makes me feel less safe," one youth wrote in a survey response.
Although positive family involvement significantly improves outcomes both during and aft er placement in secure facilities,1 the youth reported that the long distance between home and the state secure facilities caused family visits to drop precipitously following commitment to the state secure facilities. 62 percent reported receiving visits at least once per week while in county facilities, but only 15 percent reported receiving visits at least once per week while in a state secure facility.TCJC also expressed concern that Giddings' rural location limited access to mentoring opportunities, though noting that "TJJD reports that mentored youth in its state secure facilities achieve significantly better education and recidivism outcomes than non-mentored youth." This was cited as one of several arguments for enhancing and funding policies to keep kids closer to their home counties instead of being sent to rural TJJD lockups.
Another notable recommendation arising from the survey:
From the perspective of the surveyed youth, negative staff interactions increase misbehavior, hinder treatment, and create a perception of favoritism and unfair rule enforcement. Based on informal conversations with staff and administrators, those negative interactions also increase staff turnover, injuries, and job dissatisfaction. Not surprisingly, the surveyed youth identified negative staff interactions as the greatest barrier to their rehabilitation. Policy-makers and TJJD should support positive staff interactions by increasing funding for training programs at state and county facilities, such as Bexar County’s successful Restraint and Seclusion Reduction Initiative training program. (Emphasis in original.)A press release accompanying the survey said "The Giddings facility has been in the news lately following a riot on the campus in late November and a report last month that youth-on-youth violence at the facility was increasing. [TCJC attorney Benet] Magnuson says the survey results are a wake-up call for leaders to double down on reforms to expand local programs for kids in trouble."
See the full report here (pdf).
Why couldn't undercover inmates be put in juvenile and adult prisons?
ReplyDeleteTJJD spokesman commented that things are really pretty good and that the constant change that is underway now will continue to improve on the situations mentioned in the survey.
ReplyDeleteHurley also mentioned having seen old surveillance or something that had flying monkeys. He was happy to report Giddings programs have proven to be effective as there are no more reports of flying monkeys. All is well.
Look folks the problem has and will be the programs offered. Townsend either has her head in the sand or all of that Arizona sun she recieved when she became miffed for not being promoted in the old TYC and spent time there dealing with 300 or so juveniles.
ReplyDeleteAs long as she remains in denial the new TJJD will continue to flounder.
Gosh folks I have some news for you and this is not rumors. Apparently James Smith has been working for a few months now to get his "Boy" who worked with him in Maryland and now at the Mart facility, to become the next Assistant Superintendent at Giddings. Since i am telling you this now and the position has not been posted or interviewed for, i guess you could call this improper unethical, but Townsend is in charge and all is well. Mark my words this will soon occur
ReplyDeleteSome things never change. It was commented on a recent tyc thread that people in juvi justice, I’m assuming the Cherri’s, Jerry’s, Michelle’s along with negative staff are not equipped to solve the problem just manage it.
ReplyDeleteObvious! So very obvious!
Negative staff, gee there is a shocking bit of news. That’s the root to 87% recidivism. It’s the staff, even though they will defend and deflect this truism, which are responsible for these kids coming out of tyc/tjjd more screwed up.
I personally never knew human beings could be so negative until I went to tyc in 1975. I felt safe with my peers but staff was damn awful. After leaving tyc I didn’t really experience that kind of negativity until volunteering at tyc facilities a few years ago. It’s how the tyc staff carries themselves with the kids that made me look for other avenues to help these kids. I felt perfectly safe with the kids but staff made me very nervous in their language and mannerism. I can’t say I’ve lived a sheltered life but the worst human beings I have ever experienced are tyc staff as a kid and as a volunteer 30 years later.
Dealing with the attitude of these uneducated, uncultured, Neanderthals tyc calls staff is just the worst. I thought doing a fund raiser to collect toiletries for the local parole office would be a good way for me to help tyc kids but I still had to deal with that negative tyc staff attitude. After dropping off the generous amount of collected items I left wondering if the kids would ever see all the stuff collected. My 12 year old daughter who helped with the fundraiser and accompanied me on the drop off was traumatized by the attitude of the tyc staff. I talked to a shrink familiar with tyc about it to make sure it wasn’t just me and was assured it wasn’t.
Sadly all these issues this survey brings up at Giddings has been known and condoned for many decades. Dr Bush researching state archives surrounding issues with Gatesville and Gainesville writes about these very topics. Nothing positive has changed since Morales v Turman, and in many ways has gotten worst with the condoning of pedophilia within the pickets. Something only condone at Riverside and Live Oak prior to the late 1960’s.
I know this is the not the spin that the advocates want to hear, but I think that if 90% of the youth at Giddings feel safe, that's pretty darn good, considering that the only youth left in secure facilities are your violent offenders, repeat offenders, or both.
ReplyDeleteIt's also not surprising that only 15% of youth receive a visit weekly while they are visited much more frequently at the county detention; most youth are at county for a few weeks but could be in a secure state facility for 3 years. I don't know of any family that would be able to make a visit weekly over a 3 year period, even if they lived right down the street.
And once again, we see that the alleged reason for all youth who don't do well in the program is "negative staff interactions" with no mention of the youth's own accountability (or lack thereof) for their own lack of progress.
Alleged negative attitude must be from Austin or don’t know much about our programs. The kids surveyed are confusing staff negativity with verbal aggression a technique used since Morales Turman said we can’t smack the little shits around to physically control them.
ReplyDeleteSheldon I wish I had you on my dorm for a day.
A few weeks ago a board member came to Giddings with an entourage. Last week he came back again. In the interim new staff arrived and actually started helping. We still have issues because the kids here are the violent ones that the counties dump off on us. They don't listen and we can serve no consequences for their negative behavior because the advocacy groups got to legislators to create a "safe environment" for the kids. The staff suffers and thus does morale. Many of my co-workers enjoy working with the kids and we feel we are helping but when we are forced to not discipline the kids for inappropriate behavior why should we try any more? The kids run the place and they know it. It is going to take a big shake-up in staff and a change in policies before we can get a handle on things. Thank you to the board members who really care about what is going on here.
ReplyDeleteDo tell us who it was. We heard rumors but night shift never gets the full info.
ReplyDelete3/15 @7:44
ReplyDelete"...since Morales Turman said we can’t smack the little shits around to physically control them."
I sincerely hope you are not employed at TYC. To restrain, using accepted trained techniques, is one thing to "smack the little shits" is another. Hopefully you are making a statment like this for shock value and to provoke vile postings. If you are currenlty employed at TYC or working with youth in any capacity, do youself a favor and get out.
Did everyone see the new organization chart? Townsend gave the money back to her entourage because they all got promotions. That's one way of outsmarting Whitmire.
ReplyDeleteI think everybody has used all of their overtime budget. What do you expect when you got central office hiring your staff? They hire anybody who can halfway walk- and I do mean halfway walk - in the door. These people don't have a clue and as soon as they finish the training they're outta here.
ReplyDeleteThat's where part of the overtime budget has gone, to help Giddings. Why can't they handle their own problems like everybody else? They are not any more short staffed than anybody else.
ReplyDeleteJames Smith has already moved his "Boy" to Giddings. Now he just has to make it official. If you haven' noticed, Smith runs the show. I guess it's alright with Townsend.
ReplyDeleteThere is no facility handling their own problems, TJJD is a cess pool created and ran by the most incompetent leadership ever. Yes, D''Mitre Pope was better, at least you knew what her agenda was, bring her and the Bronco back.
ReplyDeleteSo Smith had the Giddings' superintendent walked off of campus and nobody made mention of this? Stan is a good man - I cannot imagine him being fired. Oh but wait, Smith is still around - the man without a degree or an ounce of logic.
ReplyDeleteSince James Smith is now the acting Superintendent at Giddings, Cherry will you hold him to the same standard that Stan was held too? Lets also remember James is a Director from CO so he should get this campus cleaned up and to standard by April 1st, this year!
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to sit in Austin calling the shots, completely different when you actaull have to do the work.
Since James Smith is now the acting Superintendent at Giddings, Cherry will you hold him to the same standard that Stan was held too? Lets also remember James is a Director from CO so he should get this campus cleaned up and to standard by April 1st, this year!
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to sit in Austin calling the shots, completely different when you actaull have to do the work.
Of course he won't get it cleaned it up. He doesn't know the first thing to do and if it gets really hot he'll make one of the other superintendents or assistant superintendents go there and he'll hold them accountable. But isn't that Walters' job?
ReplyDeleteJames Smith at Giddings?!? You're kidding right? If he also moved Pegram there, he's got someone to take the blame when he (Smith) falls flat on his face. Has anyone noticed that most of the people moving up in TJJD are Black. Are there any White or Hispanic Superintendents left in TJJD, or has Smith run them all off?
ReplyDeleteTJJD teaches the new JCO's to look out for signs of the youth "smokescreening"... but no one has instructed well-meaning reporters to do the same, apparently. When the kids say so much of the problems on campus are due to staff negativity, well... what do they expect? That JCO's are there to be their friends? The reasons JCO's are negative is because they are burnt out from overtime, frightened for their well being, disgusted by the nepotism and lazy supervisors, etc.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a negative environment. But the problem the State needs to look at FIRST is that of STAFF SAFETY, and once that's ensured, youth safety will follow behind.
Nothing has changed for the better since Morales v Turman. The last post by Get a Tat Kit is classic. Smoke screening, that’s like the phrase those negative staff would say back in the game, state boys always lie. In 1970 the Feds are discovering rights violations with tyc while state legislators are issuing a proclamation regarding the greatness of tyc staff. Now that’s a smoke screen.
ReplyDeleteFrom the comments I’m gleaning you tyc people are letting a non degreed colored man call the shots? With an elderly white lady as his cover girl. I’m laughing my ass off. Is this really Texas? That’s almost as bad as the hillbilly cook, Mack O Morris or the trash haul guy beat-um-Blair who weaseled their way to top slots only to be fired when found out.
The old hog farmers of gates-vile, that generation of negative tyc staff, who believed government hiring policies like affirmative action that forced favoritism to a dysfunctional racist culture with its sexual deviancy, laziness, and dishonesty would surely be the downfall of the agency. Leave it to TJJD’s Black employees to continuously prove the old White racist klan hillbillies of gates-vile were spot on.
I personally believe the negative attitude of the tyc/tjjd staff has no color preference. When you live at the bottom of the socio economic/academic food chain like a tyc staffer, it is what it is, black brown or white. But hay, as a byproduct of tyc coupled with our pop culture and today’s white house, who doesn’t like a little race baiting.
Walters has a job, superintendent at Mart. Right back where he came from, and the way he tells us he will retire from here in a year.
ReplyDeleteIf Walters is the sup at Mart, why are they advertising for the Sup position on the TJJD website? And Giddings? Just wondering....
ReplyDeleteSounds like a mess still. No one has said anything about the other units. Is it just Giddings having issues? I bet not. That mystery board member needs to get all the board and go to every unit out there. Does Whitmire know (or care) about what is going on? I guess the house doesn't care since Madden is retiring.
ReplyDeletehere is a link to a tjjd smokescreen
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tjjd.texas.gov/Docs/treatmenteffectivenessreport.pdf
Any info on the "riot" at Evins? I heard that the Superintendent, the Assistant and the PS V were nowhere to be found. Were they not Smith's "boys", they'd have been walked off like Stan.
ReplyDeleteMost units are having issues of sorts right now. Mostly more volatile youth. I can't help but notice all the "positive" news on Giddings and other TJJD units even though its all crap. Is anyone aware that while supervisors from Giddings hang out in the parking lot and cafeteria, the staff running their dorms and maintaining control are from other units? Not even our STAR team...staff who are already short handed...working 60 hour weeks. Oh yeah no one sees that. Just curious if anyone knew about the successful escape from Gainesville where the kid was gone almost 2 weeks? Just venting some frustration.
ReplyDeleteCherry Townsend knows what is taking place at all these facilities but chooses to change nothing. Look at her top advisors, James Smith, Rebecca Thomas, Alan Walters, gosh with this group how could you go wrong?
ReplyDelete