Griffiths said he will make public his new organization chart for the agency that runs Texas' youth corrections programs, perhaps as soon as today. And he said he plans to quickly begin filling the jobs.
As for the raises, Griffiths was clear: "I'm going to make sure the salaries at this agency are in line with legislative directives."
Griffiths briefed the agency's Austin headquarters staff on those details during an afternoon staff meeting on Tuesday, and top managers were given a two-page form to select their "preferred leadership roles" in the remade agency.
The form listed 16 jobs. Agency officials said about two dozen executive-level officials were asked to complete the novel, at least for state government, writing assignment.
On the form, they were asked to list the two leadership roles they would like to fill. They were then asked to list the top three action steps to take those jobs or divisions "to the next higher level of achievement."
Griffiths provided a copy of the form to the American-Statesman, unusual for an agency that has spent much of the past five years withholding details of its problems from the media and lawmakers.
"We are going to be transparent as we move forward," Griffiths pledged.
"I've got thick skin. I'm hardheaded, and I will work just as hard as anyone can to turn this agency around."
Griffiths is touring the agency's lockups and briefed legislative leaders on details of the shakeup.Two dozen managers seeking 16 jobs would mean cutting even more than 20% of executive staff if things really turn out that way. (Two more have already been let go.) Grits is looking forward to acquiring copies of those manager "writing assignments" once they're completed. They should make for interesting reading.
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he believes Griffiths plans to cut perhaps as much as 20 percent of the senior staff as part of his reorganization.
Griffiths said the details of his plan will emerge clearly in coming days.
N.b.: Commenters should accept Griffiths challenge to "list the top three action steps to take [the agency] 'to the next higher level of achievement.'" Please don't turn this comment string into a series of screeds about who should be fired. That's Griffiths' call, not yours, and the sort of prattle that tends to accompany such suggestions quickly becomes counterproductive.
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44 comments:
I applaud Mr. Grifiths for finally taking control of this agency. Just shows he should have been the choice a while back. He has caught everyone's attention with his much needed moves. Congratulations to the TJJD staff, especially the JCO's at the facilities. He is a great man.
This is indeed exactly what the agency needed. Someone with a backbone who knows the meaning of "merger". The TJJD board made the best decision yet by placing Mike Griffiths as the executive director. And yes, he is a friend to line staff. He has been there-done that.
The ones who will benefit the most will be the youth of Texas. Cut overhead and put more into services.
The roles that should really be listed are as follows. JCO IV at Giddings. JCO III at Giddings on 2-10 shift! These clowns need to go experience the disaster they created there!
The selection of Mike Griffiths as the executive director has been highly celebrated by the individuals who work directly with the juveniles in the facilities. We were so very relieved hearing about his selection over the other 2 top candidates. It is evident he will have the department's best interest at heart, not just central admin.
Go Mr. Griffiths, GO!! I'm behind you 110% if your efforts result in better outcomes for the kids, at less taxpayer cost, while retaining staff who really will do their jobs.
This is a breath of fresh air the Agency has needed for a long time. Best of luck -- the future starts NOW.
The one's who forced CoNextions on us could easily go.
It depends upon who the 20 percent are that will get cut. This agency has a dismal record for cutting the wrong people and keeping the losers.
LMAO! Write a essay to justify their jobs? Is there some doubt regarding their writing skills??? When Madden said there would be consequences, he was right! These greedy individuals deserve everything they get for accepting those raises while so many front line staff have gimpered by for years. But the one that needs to be held accountable - Cherie Townsend - is long gone. But hey, so was Ray Brookins. He broke the law, got arrested and convicted. Townsend broke the law. When can we expect her arrest?
Here's my three steps to take it to the next level:
1.Re-implement Resocialization and do away with CoNextions
2. Divide and Concure: limit dorms to 8 youth maximum
3. Implement a meaningful disciplinary system that targets violence or other felony acts by re-implementing a Level I and II hearing process which results in meaningful consequences
It is truly sad that this agency has fallen so far. No entity it entirely free of problems regardless of who is heading it. Prior to the 2007 scandal TYC needed changes however they went to extremes and made it worse for both the youth and front line staff. The people that were put in charge placed their friends in key positions with huge salaries. It was never clear what they did to earn it, least of all the raises they recieved. The field staff were always told that not was there no money for increases but we had no money to fill vacant JCO or CM positions. Even at the individual facilities there were always a few that did all the work while the ones that earned the big bucks did nothing to earn least of all deserve the money they were paid. If you were to grieve the differences you were labled as difficult to work with....as much as Senator Whitmire may complain about the agency he is also responsible for it's state of affairs. He gained popularity as as a result that I'm sure has not hurt his ability to remain in office. Good luck to the new director....just hope that the fat is truly trimmed from CO. The last time it happened positions were simply moved from CO to the field which made for less money for front line staff. Still don not know what half of the non care staff at the facilities do other than draw a salary and point fingers when things go wrong!Webyst
It's a little premature to be congratulating Mr. Griffiths. Correcting mistakes made by Cherie is an obvious first move, one that would have been made by any of the three candidates.
Hopefully Griffiths doesn't bow to the advocates or the Casey Foundation. Time will tell.
1. Initiate pay for performance at all levels, including administrative.
2. Put leadership in place that will require and provide open communication.
3. Create committee/positions to develop transition relationships with community groups.
You know I like that committee idea. We did that back in the day to ensure all work groups were represented. As a group, these different disciplines came up with some solid policies that had great outcomes. Now that the former JPC Commission has merged with TYC, I can only expect that their input will be valuable. I bet Mike will see that as well.
This news of what Mike's doing is promising. I worked with him in Dallas and I knew when he was selected, he'd cut the fat and get in the race. This thing will roll so fast that no rat will hang on, that's for sure.
I, as do many others, believe Cherie Townsend needs to be held accountable for violating the law and disregarding the ledg's intent. That was the most stupid, arrogant decision anyone has ever made in any state agency. It was fiscal mismangement - the very reason this agency was placed under conservatorship.
Great job on transparency so far!
Now he can go out to the facilities and get rid of some of the needless positions created there, starting with the 2nd Assistant Superintendent positions. What a waste.
Do you know that the JCO VI position used to supervise 2 dorms and do their own schedules and clean their own dorms and check their dorms for compliance? Now we have a JCO VI on every dorm and they don't do schedules and they don't clean and they don't check for compliance. Does anybody know what they DO do? Also the JCO V... Then we have the Dorm Supervisors. Why in the world do we need all these levels of supervisors?
Human Resource Director still pending. Did they not finish their essay?
And a whole group of people that go out to monitor the facilities. Now they've placed a Compliance Officer at each facility. For what? Daily monitoring so they can monitor their monitor? The one at our facility is a waste of time and money anyway. And the things they monitor
LMAO 9:40 P.M. She probably doesn't know where to begin trying to explain what she'd do differently to undo her absolute piss poor decisions she made to contibute to these problems. I think it'd be comical to read whatever she wrote.
Does anybody know what the JCO VIs do? They had something on Stan so he let them hide out instead of work.
Just want to say, just got of a Dorm 2 hours ago! I'm tired! Yesterday I pulled a 12, with a 17 to 1 ratio! 17 Capital Offenders, and me! I was good, but just the idea! If shit popped off in there, do you understand the ramifications? It's kinda scary, and I'm not a scary person! I go in there with a crazy attitude, and that's what it takes to handle business! I'm very happy that Mr Griffiths is taking charge, I really am! But, it's still as much screwed up as it has been in awhile, maybe even worse! The Direct Care, hard ass working JCOs are struggling like never before! And not making the money to show for it! That's the truth! It's a mad house guys! I guess it might take time, but time is getting thin! Massive 12 hr shifts, bullcrap consequences for youth, and people calling in by the dozens! I'm so tired and stressed out, words cannot express! Mr Griffiths, if you read this, please take note, we need you to really take charge, clean house, and make Texas Juvenile Facilities the pride of the State, not the joke of the State! Somebody, sometime in this fiasco, has to take charge and make TJJD a success! I believe you can, cause if not, your JCOs will not endure! I can promise you that! Please tell me I'm not wasting my time, please! Give me a reason to go to work and see a change! That's all every JCO asks! Trust me! We have stayed true and have stuck with it, show us why! !!! Just once! I'm so sore and tired, it ain't even funny! Give us some hope, if not, good people will leave! It's crunch time, 4th quarter, so man up Memr Griffiths! Don't smokescreen some bullshit! Let's do this, and do it right! Please, just ask a low level JCO for real advice, I promise it will change the whole outlook! No political BS, get it right this time for your Staff, Youth, and this great State!
1. Find ways to cut paperwork and get"supervisors" on the floor.
2. Get staff out of Austin and in the field seeing how things really work. Not for an hour or two either. A week, at a minimum. Advocacy groups might want to get in on this:)
3. Real consequences for negative actions. Staff and youth.
My suggestions:
1. Address the overtime issue. It has severely impacted on safety, morale and attrition. Supervisors (line and administrators)never seem to have problems taking time off, but do little to ensure that their staff get the time time off they need and deserve. Directly related is the issue of staff call-ins. Policy is very clear on what a supervisor can do to require adequate documentation if abuse is happening, but no one at Central Office supported using the policy to curb the abuse that has consistently resulted in annual overtime budgets being exhausted within a couple of months of the start of a new fiscal year and systematically destroyed the morale of the staff who have to work 12 to 16 hour shifts to pick up the slack created by the abusers. The patterns of abuse are there if you look.
Superintendents need to be given back the authority to make decisions at the facility level, without having to beg a regional manager to do so. But with that authority, the facility administrators need to be responsible for their decisions and not look for some subordinate to sacrifice if they screw up. JCO VI's and V's need to be on the floor working with and training their staff, not in an office or hanging out in Security or the cafeteria. If a supervisor or administrator can't be trusted to make decisions, why are they in those position. The same applies to those who won't make decisions.
3. Realize that it's the staff who make or break an organization. If they are well trained, reasonably supported by supervisors (at all levels), feel safe and are treated fairly. Morale will go up, call-ins will be reduced and things will get better. If you don't, it simply won't.
I lived the scandal at West Texas in 2005, endured the purges of 2007and the closures of San Saba and West Texas. I finsihed my time with the agency at Evins, at a time when no one wanted to come here and I'd like to think that I made at least a small contribution to solving some of the problems. I didn't want to retire, but it was preferable to getting fire. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Seems like people have been aware of the problems that have existed in the Agency for quite some time... but no matter how much the same words are repeated -- no one does anything about them?? What's going on here?
Hold the JCO 6's and 5's feet to the fire, first off. MAKE THEM EARN THEIR PAY FOR A CHANGE. If they can't hack it, get rid of them. Get everyone on the same page about consequences, and make them consistant. Get rid of CoNextions. Empower staff with REAL AUTHORITY. Get enough staff on the job to do the work so the overtime and piss-poor retention issues are taken care of... and see what happens.
There has to be changes from the dorms on up when it comes to how things are run. It's the low level JCO's who are expected to shoulder the lion's share of these changes, so make sure they are solidly in the loop before making any changes. Simple, easy solutions... but who has the guts to take on the entrenched status quo?
If Mr. Griffiths is the man to take charge of the Agency and turn it around, he'll need to go on the dorms and "get his feet wet" as to what the culture is at that level. Only then will he really understand what needs to be done.
Finally, someone with the right mind takes over the agency. Good move for Griffiths.
If Griffiths' latest decision is any indication, he still expects employees to work for free.
Griffiths said he wanted to unite TJJD but he has increased the animosity by demoting in title and salary most former TYC Central Office Supevisors, other than those where there were no equivalents in probation. Townsend gave Director positions to TYC staff, but she didn't reduce the salaries of TJPC employees. Griffiths is and he is losing the respect of most of Central Office.
Overall, I think the Agency would run more effectively -- for the kids and the taxpayers of the State of Texas -- if Mr. Griffiths lost more of the respect of those in Austin than the rank-and-file JCO's working the floors on the Agency's dorms.
If he's in charge, he needs to be able to light a fire under his overpaid/underworked staff in Austin, NOT the staff who are putting in all those 12 hour shifts required to simply get job #1 done, which should be at least keeping enough eyes on kids. If the dorm superviors are culpable of the same poor performance, they need to go, too, until EVERYONE down the line understands that working for the Stare is NOT a free ride.
Maybe a good place to start is to require Supervisors to start supervising for a change, and holding themselves as mentors and examples. As it is now, the higher your JCO rating, the LESS work you are expected to do and/or can get away with. Just ask any JCO 4 on down!
You are wrong. Townsend most certainly did reduce some former TJPC employee salaries. Get your facts straight.
6:22 The salaries lowered are the ones that Townsend increased. If ex-TYC folks still in the agency do not respect a Director doing the right thing I am not surprised---they have never seen it.
This is a new day, a new agency, and real leadership. Those in Central Office need to get on board or go away!
The question is this: to what extent did the TYC Central Office policies contribute to the violence and chaos at the facilities? 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and into 2012--terrible years for the agency. Central office folks played hardball with those who tried to get their attention. They showed contempt for those who wouldn't pretend that things were working.
Also, who at Central Office led this ill advised campaign?
TYC hasn’t had a right man running the show for a very long time and is why the agency has been so extremely mismanaged. Now we have a right man in charge and things won’t be ran so foolishly as demonstrated over the previous years. The right skill sets with a right man will fix what all the previously wrong people at the helm who were simply incompetently incapable to do. Texas would be smart and do right by the tax payers and place a skilled right man that could stop our corrections hemorrhage. Another place where a right man is very desperately needed is in pardons and paroles. The more right men we have running these hemorrhaging government agencies the better it is for tax payers. If these people who have demonstrated such fool hearted management need to live off the govment dole let them stay home and replace them with the right man. Perhaps we could afford to educate our children instead of locking up their parents.
One thing that most of you posters know little about, Central Office should support the facilities and not the field supporting CO. This was a concept that actually worked prior to 2007.
Over the years CO has chnaged this practice and had the Business Manager, HRA, Maintenance Supervisor, etc., report directly to a CO manager. When the legislature downsized CO what did CO do, they kept the employees but moved them out into the field. The employees payroll came from the local facility but the employee was actually asigned and supervised by CO. These practices have gone on now since 2007 and we are all hopeful that Griffiths can see through all these well wishers up there in Austin and get this agency back on solid ground. If it takes dropping salaries, realigning staff, so be it.
10:34 dont you mean white man?
One thing to always consider when dealing with long term Central Office personnel, their motive.
Did any of them speak up when they knew or should have known the field was suffering. Did they address the issue with Ms. Townsend that CoNextions was a failure and actually placing youth and staff in danger. What role did they play in perpetuating this mis-guided treament plan. Why did they not speak up when the behavior management propgrams were removed from the institutions for ReDirect. The answer, they showed up for a pay-check and the staff and youths safety meant little to them.
Central Office folks were either walking around with their finger in the wind or else hiding out. They managed to run the clock out so many of them can now retire with fat pensions. They were making good salaries and that was all that really mattered to them. The agency was too stupid to know what these folks were up to or too inept to deal with them.
I really do not understand why some of these TJJD/TYC employees are just NOW saying things have been bad for the past 4 years. And the sad thing is they have been in positions to make or at least stand up to the powers who were in charge but they chose to do nothing. If these are the leaders you want Mike Griffiths they will do you in. They will tell you what they think you want to hear but the question should be, what did you do while you were a superintendent, director, did you ever stand up and voice your concerns. The answer if your still employed is, NO, you did nothing but draw a check.
How about reducing the amount of kids by letting the ones with good records of non violence and cooperation get sent home with ankle monitors?
I know for a fact they are out there.
The reason the staff have not said anything up until now is that we have been silenced by the administration staff of the campus at Gainesville, From Miss Gwan Hawthorne and Mr Studamire on Down to the Dorm Supervisors Mr. Reece and Miss Hudspeth (Who by the way do the scheduling now). The use tactics such as blowing off the staff that say something like saying "I will get back to you on that" Then do nothing. Or if you strike a nerve with them where they feel like you are "causing trouble" to the way they operate your schedule is suddenly changed to work a different shift or work a bunch of twelve hour shifts. Then when you file a grievance they somehow find a way to lay the blame on you and not accept responsibility for what happened. Believe me when I say this cause it has happened to myself and other staff I work with. Most of the staff left on campus have been beaten down by the administration of the campus with the system that most are fed up or area afraid of putting a bulls eye on their back and draw attention to themselves. Matter of fact today the Director of TJJD Mike Griffiths is going to be on campus at the campus meeting but I am certain that some administration staff will be with him at all times to make sure that none of the staff on the campus say anything to him about all that is truly going on when he is not there. Look at the facts about the administration covering up how they do things. It took them 3 weeks to report the disruption/riot to the main office and that was only AFTER the administration at Gainesville got wind that the story was going to hit the press. Also if you run the numbers with all secure facilities in TJJD you will notice that Gainesville has the highest Incident Report submissions out of any other facility (Not including Corsicana)yet it has the lowest rate of youth admitted to security out of all the state schools, why is that? Also ask any staff working on campus if they have ever been denied assistance from security or denied a security referral when youth are off program and disruptive. I have been assaulted twice on the campus while working and the youth not only did not receive consequences, the youth was simply put back in his room and the Indecent Report that was turned in was mysteriously lost. So to the one the said all we have done is drawn a check, that is most certainly not true we have tried to make a change and a difference here but we are merely silenced and shoved out of the way.
Griffith hasn't done too much in taking control of what happens at the facility in Mart,TX. We want to know why the white teacher that physically assaulted a black teacher 3 times is still teaching but the back teacher's job was terminated, she was accused of knowing a youth was going to escape during a soccer game that she did not attend yet the 3 correctional officers that made the trip were NOT discipline. We at the facility felt this was a cover up for allowing the assault.
Why didn't the teacher who was assaulted file a police report?
The bigger picture to the whole ordeal about the revamping of the Texas Youth Commission during the sex scandal was a "Smoke Screen" to take away the employee property interest that the staff had before they could be fired and/or terminated. Once Senate Bill 103 was enacted, the staff become an At-Will employee...which reduced their power when it came to filing grievances against their supervisors. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department has yet to incorporate "Justice" into it's correctional business mission. Whenever, the agency focus on Justice of Staff, Youth and Family. The Agency will turn itself around. The agency has implemented youth rights, family rights and has never implemented staff rights.
I've been employed a many years at a juvenile facility lots said is so true and for as the 12hr shifts they are still outrageous and its a 12 to 1 ratio
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