Texas should raze last, large youth prisons in light of high sex-victimization rates

The Bureau of Justice Statistics came out with a new report last week declaring that one in seven youth prison inmates in Texas are sexually assaulted while in state custody, see the Texas Observer's coverage. This confirms based on data what legislators have already heard via anecdote: Texas juvenile prisons are unsafe for the youth incarcerated in them.

The Observer did a good job fleshing out the reasons, which will be familiar to (very) long-time Grits readers: Texas continues to rely on larger facilities instead of following bipartisan, national best practices of using smaller, better-staffed facilities closer to the urban areas where the youths' families live.

It was solely at those larger units that the sex-assault problem was so severe: Four facilities reported that double-digit percentages of inmates in their care said they'd been sexually victimized.

• Evins Unit: 13.5%
• Gainesville: 16.0%
• McLennan Co.: 16.1%
• Ron Jackson Unit: 14.0%

Some of this has been reported in the local press but this report reminds us that the problem has systemic roots.

By contrast, nationally, the new survey found that sexual victimization reported in juvenile justice facilities declined. The state-run Texas units were among a handful of outliers.

In addition to high rates of violence and sexual victimization, employee turnover at Texas youth prisons are the highest at any state agency, and employees describe a nightmarish work environment.

Over the last decade, Texas has closed most of its youth prisons, regular readers will recall, with youth-inmate populations down to 786 from more than 5,000 kids 12 years ago when the youth decarceration effort began.

Community-based responses are more expensive per kid, but more effective and less costly in the long run. And they aren't prone to large proportions of youth in their care being sexually victimized.

It's worth mentioning, since Texas began decarcerating youth prisons, reducing those held by the state by more than 80 percent, juvenile crime by all measures has continued to decline. Even though a handful of those released committed serious offenses, juvenile-crime rates plummeted and the state overall became a safer place.

Since Nate Blakeslee first broke the story that Texas Youth Commission staff were molesting youth back in 2007,  Texas has tried everything to reduce sexual victimization rates at youth prisons except to follow expert advice to abandon large youth prisons altogether. In 2007 when these allegations first arose and the Legislature intervened, they created a "blue ribbon panel" which recommended closing these large facilities and shifting to smaller, community-based settings. Red and blue states alike have followed that approach, but the Texas Legislature balked, insisting on keeping a few large units open, even as their numbers dwindled. That's where the youth are allegedly being sexually victimized.

To make matters worse, legislative leadership have used allegations of violence and high sexual-victimization rates at these facilities as an excuse not to "raise the age" of adult criminal responsibility from 17 to 18, insisting that youth prisons are already out of control and couldn't handle the influx. Despite bipartisan agreement that 17-year olds shouldn't be incarcerated as adults, Texas remains one of only three states that does so.

Think about that: legislative leaders have both insisted "We won't close dangerous youth prisons," and also, "As long as youth prisons are dangerous, we can't raise the age." That's a strange, self-imposed Catch 22, but a convenient one if you're somebody who just thinks 17-year olds should be incarcerated as adults.

Grits understands the raise-the-age transition could be bumpy and won't be cost-free. In the long run, however, the success of Texas' juvenile-decarceration experiment over the last decade makes me sanguine it can work. But only if Texas legislators embrace juvenile-detention best practices and abandon these large, anachronistic facilities.

MORE: From the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Brandi Grissom Interview: TJJD/Gainesville sex abuse scandal

In the December episode of the Reasonably Suspicious podcast, we included an excerpt from an interview by Grits with Brandi Grissom-Swicegood, who just left her post as Dallas Morning News Austin bureau chief to pursue a second career as a professional triathlete. Brandi's final story for the News focused on the emerging sex-assault scandal at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department's Gainesville State School (see prior Grits coverage).

Find a transcript of our full conversation after the jump.

New TJJD sex-abuse allegations recall similar, but different '07 scandals

For anyone paying attention a decade ago, news of sex-assault allegations against staff at a Texas youth prison in Gainesville brings on a deja vu feeling regarding the Texas Youth Commission scandals in Pyote, an episode which ultimately brought down the agency and sent its successor down a tumultuous path toward reducing incarceration levels by 75 percent.

Now, "At least four former staff members at the Gainesville State School, including a woman allegedly pregnant with a youthful offender's child, are facing prison time amid allegations of sexual misconduct at the state lockup for troubled youths," reported Brandi Grissom-Swicegood and Sue Ambrose at the Dallas News.

And everyone who was around in 2007 drops their heads and thinks, "Oh no, not again."

These troubles mirror problems witnessed at the adult system, where sexual misconduct by staff at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a big source of federal Prison Rape Elimination Act violations. The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault has recommended the Legislature create an independent oversight mechanism at TDCJ comparable to the Ombudsman created for TJJD after the 2007 scandals.

Which brings us to the big difference between this scandal and the last one: The perpetrators were caught by the government itself, not by reporters following up leads given to legislative staff by family members of raped constituents. And the perpetrators were promptly arrested and prosecuted. The agency culture that tolerated such behavior has shifted dramatically. So that part of the system worked better than last time, one notices.

And to be fair, that's really all the Legislature's reforms after 2007 were supposed to do. As the agency reduced the population in youth prisons, it was pressed along the way for commensurate budget cuts, even though most of the facilities are chronically understaffed and suffer from among the highest staff turnover rates of any state agency. That's because of low pay, crappy working conditions, and the location of the facilities in mainly rural areas where the labor pool is either dissipating or otherwise occupied.

As a result, the agency has mainly improved the lot of youth under its care by reducing their number, with the Legislature financing (mostly cheaper) community supervision programming in lieu of housing them in state youth prisons. If those reductions had afforded  the agency a chance to improve staff-to-youth ratios more aggressively, or to invest the savings in programming, it would be easier to make a case for them.

But in their current state, it's hard to argue for keeping them around at all. When activists like Angela Davis talk about "abolishing" prisons on the adult side, Grits must admit I roll my eyes. But on the juvenile side, I'm all the way there. Funding community-based programs in lieu of incarcerating youth in state-run prisons empirically has worked. Youth crime in Texas plummeted at even greater rates than crime overall when Texas shifted most offending youth into local systems.

Expanding on that model for the last thousand-or-so kids left in Texas youth prisons would also afford the chance to shift to smaller-scale units run on a more treatment-centric basis. In an ideal world, the Lege would finance locally controlled facilities reconfigured according to best practices like those endorsed a decade ago by a "blue ribbon commission," whose recommendations the Legislature first eagerly commissioned and then, when they proved inconvenient and expensive, ignored.

The blue-ribbon panel recommended the state move to smaller facilities modeled after Missouri's juvenile system, and put the era of housing juveniles in large units with hundreds of bunkmates behind us. Instead, they depopulated youth prisons, but continued to run the ones that remained on the old, large-scale warehousing model.

The other option floated periodically is to hand the system over to TDCJ to run. But as noted above, TDCJ has trouble preventing inappropriate staff relations and contraband at its adult units, which fails to inspire confidence that they'd do any better running juvenile facilities. Plus, when TDCJ executives were brought in to run TYC after the original scandals were uncovered in 2007, their skill sets did not translate to the juvenile realm and their leadership was (if we are to be frank) an unmitigated catastrophe. So as solutions go, I see that one as a pig in a poke. It could invite new troubles and wouldn't necessarily solve anything.

Anyway, that's Grits' initial takeaway from this dispiriting news out of Gainesville: The mechanisms the Legislature created to identify, prosecute and punish sexual misconduct by staff actually appear to have worked. But the corrections culture that produces these illicit relationships at TJJD and TDCJ continues to afford opportunities for predatory behavior.

So we're better at catching and punishing predators. What hasn't worked is warehousing youth in large state facilities a decade after the experts recommended breaking them up. Texas was told ten years ago it needed to shift to smaller, treatment-based programs, locally controlled and located near their own communities. And with these problems recurring, maybe it's time state leaders finally heeded those suggestions.

News of juvie prison rape should cause Lege to prioritize PREA compliance

Grits experienced a terrible moment of deja vu upon seeing Brandi Grissom's report in the Dallas News that, "Officials at the state youth prison agency are investigating a suspected serial sexual predator among corrections officers at a juvenile lockup in Gainesville." For me, seeing the story brought me back to Nate Blakeslee's January 2007 investigative report in the Texas Observer about sexual abuse at what was then the Texas Youth Commission. His story set off a chain of events which led to the dismantling and renaming of the agency, which reemerged from a troubled conservatorship renamed the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Brandi attributed some recent problems to budget cuts and rising inmate numbers:

As the agency's population and facilities shrunk, so did the budget that lawmakers approved. But the population has begun to increase, and on Thursday the agency reported that it is housing 15.5 percent more youths than it has the budget to serve. Unruh said three of the five secure state facilities are short-staffed.

Grits is surprised to hear this because I was under the impression Sen. John Whitmire passed legislation last year aimed at shifting more juvenile offenders into community supervision, though the final version was much neutered from what he originally proposed. Still, this news runs counter to expectations set during the 2015 Lege session that more troubled youth would be supervised in the community. Instead, we're sending more to state youth prisons.

The agency says solving these problems will require a big investment:

While lawmakers told the agency to cut nearly $17 million from its budget for the 2018-19 biennium, the agency has said it needs nearly $170 million more than it is allotted to keep up with the growing population and meet federal rape prevention requirements, among other needs.

Decarceration of juvenile prisons in Texas has been a major success story of the last decade, and this news doesn't mitigate that. A 15 percent increase following a 80 percent reduction still amounts to perhaps 150 kids, so that doesn't explain a $170 million budget request, much of which likely stems from facility upgrades and other changes to comply with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Indeed, given this unsettling news, compliance with PREA seems more important than ever for TJJD, so maybe the Lege should consider getting up off resources to help them make that happen.

So far, this hasn't blown up the way Blakeslee's story did back in the day, One wonders if the episode was uncovered because of reforms implemented after that 2007 upheaval that made it easier for youth to complain and more likely the agency would react when they did? It'd be interesting to see a comparison of the post-'07 reforms and the details of this case to see where changes either a) helped identify and remove the wrongdoer or b) failed to prevent his alleged misconduct as was hoped. Certainly hiring the guy after he left TDCJ under a cloud of accusations, which TJJD knew about, raises some red flags, which Brandi's story ably articulates.

The fact that the TYC transition went on for years and was such a mess for so long probably contributes to public officials' reticence to jump down the agency's throat, as happened ten years ago almost instantly when news of sexual abuse of kids arose near the beginning of session. Nobody wants to relive that leap-before-you-look fiasco (your correspondent included), which took years to resolve itself, so I'd expect state leaders to move more deliberately this time around. Still, it's pretty obvious such situations haven't been eliminated, so clearly more must be done.

RELATED: From the Dallas News editorial board.

Another speculative private prison deal implodes: Notes from Senate oversight hearing on TJJD

Most of what little press coverage there was of Tuesday's Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing exercising oversight of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department focused on Chairman John Whitmire's pronouncement that the agency  is "broken." Reported AP, “Juvenile judges have told me they’ve given up on this department,” Whitmire said. “They feel like they get better services for the youth in the communities they are coming from.” The thing is, Whitmire has made the same pronouncement so many times in the past, there's an extent to which it's lost its edge. We've long ago learned there's no short-term fix to the agency's ongoing woes and, as retiring executive director Mike Griffiths told the committee, the agency will need time and long-term stability of leadership to truly fix what ails it. (Go here to watch the hearing for yourself.)

To me, the more interesting development on Tuesday concerned the committee's squelching of yet another rural county's ploy to use incarceration - in this case, of juveniles - as an economic development gambit. In 2007, the Texas Youth Commission operated 14 secure juvenile detention facilities. Today they're down to five. The ones that remain are large facilities with antiquated layouts not conducive to what nearly everybody recognizes as modern best practices: Smaller facilities aimed at providing rehabilitation and education services as opposed to mere incarceration.

Local officials spent $700,000 rehabbing the old Crockett State School facility as a detention center, Crockett Mayor Wayne Mask told the committee. He expressly disagreed with the assertion by Whitmire, Sen. Juan Hinojosa, and others that prisons shouldn't be thought of as "economic development," declaring that in the "real world" that's exactly how local communities viewed them.

When the Crockett State School closed its doors in 2011, said Mask, the town lost one of its largest employers that had provided upwards of 300 jobs. The facility doesn’t lend itself to many kinds of businesses, he said, so they decided to turn it into a regional juvenile detention center to house delinquent youth from surrounding counties, contracting with a private prison company called Cornerstone to manage operations. The company held a recent job fair seeking applications for 40 positions and 400 people showed up hoping to fill them, said the mayor. But the economics of the deal won't work, the committee was told, unless Cornerstone can count on at least 70 youth detainees from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

Chairman Whitmire and the rest of the committee put an end to those hopes on Tuesday, telling local officials and their legislator-representatives that the agency had not given Cornerstone any letter of intent or other official confirmation and, with 400 empty beds at state-owned facilities, would not be authorized to do so. Local media had already portrayed Crockett's reopening as a done deal, so this was quite a slap in the face to the area's officials, who clearly jumped the gun. Whitmire and other senators said that, if the agency were to open new facilities, they would be smaller units in Texas' largest urban areas that contribute the most youth to TJJD's secure facilities - most likely in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. The chairman compared Crockett's situation to Jones County, which built a speculative prison and contracted with a private firm hoping to secure adult TDCJ inmates to fill it. The project went bust when the inmates never materialized.

Outgoing executive director Mike Griffiths spent much of the hearing being berated for mismanagement, in particular for the supposedly high cost ($129K per student per year) of incarcerating TJJD youth. To me, though, the cost issue is a bit of a red herring.  First, youth inmates inherently cost more than adults to incarcerate because by law (and federal court mandates) the state must provide educational and treatment services that for the most part don't exist in the adult system. Moreover, in the wake of the 2007 sex scandals, the Lege installed numerous layers of oversight that must be staffed on the administrative side. Griffiths listed several of them: An auditor, the ombudsman, an inspector general, an administrative investigation division, a youth complaint hotline (euphemistically known as "blue phones"), a monitoring and inspection division, and youth rights specialists, among others. Couple that with 12-1 staffing ratios (quadruple that of county jails) and the agency's educational mission and it's little wonder TJJD has disproportionately more admin staff and higher costs the Texas Department of Criminal Justice pays to house adults.

The three year recidivism rate for TJJD inmates is higher than on the adult side, with 77% rearrested within three years of release and 48% re-incarcerated in either the juvenile or adult systems. OTOH, Griffiths pointed out, the three-year rearrest rate for similar classes of youth kept at the county level is 67%, so not that much lower. And it's possible the TJJD cohort represents, overall, a higher risk group of offenders than those who stay with the counties.

Griffiths also took a lot of crap for not having yet eliminated all staff positions at the Corsicana unit even though the last of the youth moved out of there in December. His reasoning, though, to me seemed sound. The agency was told in a budget rider to close a facility and chose Corsicana. But it cannot finalize that decision until it gets the go-ahead from the Legislative Budget Board, where the House and Senate have been unable to reach an agreement. (Speaker Joe Straus and others have voiced support for keeping the unit open.) Most of the staff positions at Corsicana have already been eliminated. Some of those remaining are trainers - the agency still conducts training in Corsicana for staff from around the state in conjunction with Navarro Junior College. Some are maintenance staff, some work for human resources, and five are JCOs who continue to provide security. (Until LBB pulls the trigger, it's still technically a secure facility.) Griffiths said as soon as LBB made its decision, those last 25 positions would be eliminated or moved to other locales. Until then, he didn't feel he had authority under the rider to shutter it outright.

The most damning indictment of TJJD came not on the financial side but as it relates to security, in particular at the Evins unit in South Texas which was the subject of a truly awful report by the Ombudsman after a December site visit. Grits asked for a copy of the Evins report under open records. I've uploaded the whole thing, for those interested, but here are some lowlights I pulled from the 8-page text:

"The culture on campus degraded." Many incidents were observed including a youth that took food off a staff's tray and staff did not react until I inquired; when staff reacted, the youth continued to eat part of the food he took; the same youth held up movement by refusing to leave the cafe."

"Numerous youths, and one in particular, cursed loudly at staff and visitors repeatedly. Few staff attempted to intervene and that consisted of only asking the youth to quiet down and identifying the visitors to the youth. Youths threw food and created a mess in the cafe by emptying food tray(s) onto the table and floor and completely disregarded staffs' instructions."

"Discussion with staff included that the facility was staffed at approximately sixty seven percent resulting in staff having to work consecutive shifts and being 'burned out' or tired."

"There were several additional incidents of staffs requesting cells be opened with multiple youths around the cells and staff walking away once the cells were opened leaving the youths unsupervised and allowing the youths to fight inside the cells. JCO VI on count was in the office performing administrative functions instead of supervising youths and the other JCO went off the pod creating the opportunity for four youths to assault another youth; male JCO left a cell door open and two youths went in to the open cell and fought, and a female JCO left a cell door open and did not supervise the youths. This resulted in two youths fighting in the cell."

"Some JCO staff reported that some staff had been known to minimize inappropriate staff behavior in reports. ... discussion with some facility management confirmed the allegation."

"Numerous youth complained about a lack of hygiene and clothing items. Discusssion with staff reflected that there had been some shortage and that one dorm lost both the JCO V and VI" (which are supervisory positions).

"A review of all eleven grievances entered this [fiscal] year reflects a lack of video review" by management.

"Educational services are suffering from a lack of teachers and teacher's assistants (TA), teachers' refusal to stay at work past 4:30 despite being exempt employees, and allegations that teacher's aides are performing full teacher functions without being supervised by certified teachers (according to some of the educational staff)."

"Numerous youths and staff complained that some of the teachers are not conducting classroom management except to refer youths to Security. Some of the instances noted were referral for cursing, not being in the right place because the youth was by the door, and not working." According to school staff meeting minutes, the Principal believed "there have been too many referrals to security which are minor and no interventions are being provided. Everyone needs to start utilizing the focus room and any other intervention possible before sending a student to the Security Unit."

The staff involved in leaving cell doors open so youth could fight were fired and some are being prosecuted, the committee was told. Still, the Evins report represents far more serious concerns, to me, than any of the financial critiques. The Ombudsman told the committee that some of the problems occurred because senior managers had been moved to other facilities and their replacements weren't up to snuff. TJJD has moved more experienced people into those positions since the report and she thought that had improved matters, though the problems weren't yet completely fixed.

It should be noted, Evins has long been a problem child for the agency and these sorts of allegations are not new there. For whatever reason, in the time I've observed the agency and its predecessor, it's never been run as professionally as the other four remaining TJJD units.

Several senators, most prominently Sen. Dan Patrick, expressed concern that TJJD classification procedures weren't sufficient to keep very young inmates away from older, more dangerous ones. Patrick was concerned that the sort of bullying of staff by older inmates witnessed by the Ombudsman at Evins might also be victimizing younger inmates. He seemed passionate about the question and it was a fair point.

 By statute, youth can't be housed with others who are more than three years apart in age, but there are moments during the day when they may still come into contact, particularly in educational settings where older youth may be in classrooms just a few doors down from younger ones, the committee was told. That's partly a function of moving from 14 to five units in a short span of time, cramming inmates of varying ages into just a handful of units. The 80% reduction in inmate numbers helped the problem somewhat, but it would be easier to segregate the youngest ones if TJJD operated smaller, regional units instead of larger, rural ones.

Regrettably, Griffiths told the committee, there are still counties sending 10-11 year olds to TJJD despite the 2007 reforms creating disincentives to do so. One thought occurred to me: Perhaps that's a good argument for increasing the minimum age at which counties can send youth to secure state lockups from the current 10 years old to, say, 13 or 14. Most counties already are dealing with those very young offenders on their own and it wouldn't be a great burden to just make it a requirement instead of a strong suggestion that the rest of them do so.

In all, my takeaway from the hearing was somewhat different from the Chairman's pessimistic conclusion that the agency is inherently "broken." The whole thing made me think back to the "blue ribbon panel" created in 2007 to make recommendations (pdf) on TYC reforms. From Tuesday's hearing, it sounds like where the Lege followed that panel's recommendations - such as keeping more juvenile offenders at the county level and reducing both the number of secure state facilities and the number of youth housed there - the reforms have been a success. The problems haven't all gone away but the oversight mechanisms seem to be catching more of them and staff are being held accountable to a greater extent than in the past. By contrast, where the Lege failed to follow the blue ribbon panel's recommendations - e.g., continuing to house youth inmates at larger, antiquated facilities instead of moving to smaller, regional units closer to the urban areas from whence the youth mainly come - significant problems remain.

Making some of those still-needed changes will likely cost more money, not less, so focusing on minimizing per-inmate cost in the short run probably isn't helpful. Anyway, the reforms keeping more offenders at the county level have coincided with a sustained drop in juvenile crime. So even if per-inmate costs are higher, overall costs to the state both for incarceration and from the cost of crime itself to the public are markedly less. In the end, the success or failure of the agency should be judged based on public safety, not cost-per-inmate, and on that score things look a lot better in 2014 than they did back in 2007, even if they still have a long way to go.

DPS administrator raises: Where are the small-government conservatives when you need them?

The Austin Statesman has a story fleshing out the issue of administrator raises at the Texas Department of Public Safety ("Management positions, salary increase at DPS while state trooper pay raises languish," Dec. 22), a subject Grits had raised back in 2011 after state Sen. John Whitmire criticized lesser raises at what was then the Texas Youth Commission, demanding, ultimately successfully, that the raises be rolled back or the positions eliminated.

At the time, Grits pointed out that pay raises to administrators at DPS were at least as egregious and ill-timed as those at TYC, though the latter agency receives both more media scrutiny and less respect and deference than DPS (for a variety of reasons, some more justified than others). In yesterday's paper, the story by the Statesman's Brenda Bell began thusly:

When Gov. Rick Perry made Steve McCraw the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety in 2009, only a dozen DPS employees earned $100,000 a year or more at the notoriously tight-fisted agency.

Now there are 73, reflecting an enormous growth in DPS management positions and pay since McCraw, an ex-FBI agent who formerly led the governor’s Homeland Security office, took charge of the department in August 2009.

Meanwhile, the more than 3,500 officers at the largest statewide law enforcement agency — most of them uniformed Highway Patrol troopers — have seen little increase in their base pay, which is significantly below that of most big-city police departments in Texas.

DPS went from 12 employees making more than $100K to 73 in just three years time, but when eleven TYC administrators got raises, Senator Whitmire called it "unbelievable, irresponsible, arrogant and outrageous," insisting:

"Those raises need to be rescinded, the money needs to be paid back, and we need to get the comptroller, the state auditor's office and the (attorney general) involved to find out how this could happen."

He also demanded that Scott Fisher, the chairman of the agency's board, resign.

By contrast, when DPS increased the number of administrators making more than $100K by a factor of six, from 12 to 73, here was Sen. Whtimre's far more reserved assessment:

“I’m aware that they’ve hired a large number of high-end employees. I’m not prepared to fault that,” said Whitmire. “I have confidence in Steve McCraw — I know he’s trying to professionalize the department.”

At the same time, Whitmire said, the stagnation in trooper pay “needs to be fixed. It’s a huge morale factor. They know what people (at the executive level) make.”

For my part, I would have considered it justified if Sen. Whitmire reacted the same way to DPS administrator raises as to those at TYC. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, etc., plus if education and women's health care are getting cut, why shouldn't DPS? The agency has become bloated with administrator salaries at a time when trooper pay has languished and the demands on troopers - particularly as they relate to new homeland security duties - are greater than ever. (If anybody deserves higher salaries, it's the men and women on the front line, not the brass in Austin.)

Why the double standard? Where is the outrage? In this supposedly Tea-Party dominated legislature, where are the small-government conservatives when you need them?

New administrators face same old problems: Déjà vu on TJJD youth prison violence

The Austin Statesman's Mike Ward reported on yet another disturbance at at Texas Juvenile Justice Department Facility, though this time his article focused more on structural issues than calling for the heads of administrators ("Melee at youth lockup underscore stubborn problems at youth agency," Oct. 26). The story opened:

On Oct. 8, groups of rock-throwing youths broke windows, climbed onto the roofs of dorms and had to be pepper-sprayed to be brought under control at the Gainesville State School after they gained access to two security control panels and unlocked doors at the juvenile facility.

The two-hour disturbance caused thousands of dollars in damage at the North Texas lockup but was reported to legislative leaders just three days ago, weeks after it occurred, sparking new questions about whether violence and gang-related troubles at Texas’ six youth correctional centers are even close to being fixed.

On Friday, facing new legislative pressure to curb such disruptions, officials with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department confirmed that they are bringing in a team from the adult prison system to help them beef up security systemwide. They said they also have hired a new security chief and are considering a policy change to group older youths together at one lockup to better control troublemakers.

“Obviously, what happened is not acceptable,” said Mike Griffiths, the agency’s executive director since August. “Our responsibility is safety and security. We are changing things for the better, but we can’t just flip a switch and say it’s fixed right now.”

Instead, legislative and agency leaders said, the episode highlights deeper problems: high staff turnover that has put less seasoned guards on the front lines much sooner than previously; difficulty retaining and hiring staffers because of talk among legislative leaders about further downsizing; and an older, more violent population of incarcerated youths who are harder to control.

TJJD chief Mike Griffiths pinned the troubles on inexperienced, ill-trained staff, noting that "much of the staff has worked there less than a year. He said it is hard to hire, train and retain employees when the agency faces possible further downsizing by the Legislature next spring." Grits has long believed staffing and structural issues underlie most of the common complaints about TJJD, particularly episodes like this one. Over the summer I'd written that such "safety issues are really symptoms masking a more fundamental, underlying disease: A frontline staff neither trained, experienced, nor numerous enough to manage facilities which were designed along adult models rather than for the specific needs of youth." None of that changed just because the agency has a new executive director.

Counties pushing for more control over juvenile system

Texas could move even further down the path toward state-level de-incarceration and county control of juvenile justice, if a deal being discussed behind the scenes comes to fruition. Reported the Austin Statesman's Mike Ward ("Counties push to bypass state youth lockups," Oct. 17):

Counties in Texas might soon be allowed to incarcerate all their teenage lawbreakers locally rather than send them to state-run lockups that have been plagued by violence, high recidivism rates and gang activity in recent years, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Travis County is among several counties that are pushing for the change in state law that some officials predict could save taxpayers millions of dollars — and have better success at thwarting criminal behavior in youths.

Such a change would mark Texas’ latest move away from state-run juvenile corrections, a trend that started five years ago when a sex-abuse scandal in the state’s juvenile-justice agency triggered reforms that have resulted in the closure of half the state-run lockups. The six that remain house less than 1,200 youths — about the size of an average city high school.

Ward refers to a "plan that is quietly being floated by Travis and other counties’ officials at the Capitol," which:

would require a change in state law, giving counties the authority to commit a youth to their custody, rather than to a state lockup. In addition, they said there are issues that must be resolved, including whether county lockups would have to meet state standards, who would handle transfers to adult prisons for youth offenders who are too violent to keep in county lockups and how much the state would pay counties for incarcerating youths.

The cost of incarcerating a youth in a state-run lockup runs just over $400 a day; the cost in counties is much less — about $118 a day in Travis County.

It sounds like a lot of the key opinion leaders are generally on board, though that's a long way from passing a functional reform bill.

Kudos and Krimes: TJJD newsworthy employees of the week

It's a shame that bad news usually eclipses the good, so let me begin this post by recognizing accolades to a Texas Juvenile Justice Department employee whose good work's celebration has been mostly overshadowed in the same media cycle by the more unhappy news out of TJJD referenced below it. Via the Brownwood News:

A Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex employee, Holli Fenton, has been nominated for a state award, Outstanding Women in Texas Government. Fenton was nominated in the area of Outstanding Contribution. According to The Governor’s Commission for Women: Women and Government website: “The Outstanding Women in Texas Government Awards were created by the State Agency Council in 1984 to honor women who work in State government, who do not hold elected or appointed positions, and who have helped shape Texas by contributing their talents and skills to state service.”

Fenton began her career at Ron Jackson as a case manager in 2004.  In 2008, a group of case managers, including Ms. Fenton, started taking approved TJJD (formerly Texas Youth Commission) students to the Corinne T. Smith Animal Center for community service.  Ms. Fenton, a long-time volunteer with the Center, fostering canines and serving on the board, conceived the idea of a dormitory at Ron Jackson that would pair canines with student trainers enhancing the canine’s chances for successful adoptions.

Grits has written approvingly of that program in the past so I'm glad to see Ms. Fenton recognized.

However, on a more melancholy note, via KWTX-TV: "A Mart juvenile detention facility corrections officer posted $2,000 bond and was released from county jail after his arrest earlier in the week on a charge he beat a youthful inmate at the facility." The 20-year old JCO who began working at the Mart facility in April was arrested on allegedly video-documented charges that he "assaulted a 17-year-old detention center inmate last Saturday." Wrote Kirsten Crow at the Waco Trib ("Juvenile officer jailed for beating of inmate," Oct 5):

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, an investigator with the Office of Inspector General launched an inquiry into the alleged incident at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Mart after the youth complained he was assaulted by Davis on Saturday.

Surveillance video of the incident shows [Bryant J.] Davis hitting the youth “at least 12 times about the head and facial area with clenched fists” in one of the dorms, according to court documents.

The youth, who attempted to defend himself by covering his head with his arms, later was treated by a nurse for a laceration to his eye, according to the affidavit.

Court documents state that Davis, of Marlin, confessed to striking the boy in an interview Tuesday. A warrant was issued for his arrest Wednesday.

Davis, who was hired in April, has been suspended pending the termination, said Jim Hurley, spokesman for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

I can't tell from the coverage I've seen so far whether this happened at the newly created and much-scrutinized "Phoenix program" in Mart, or in some other program, but it's a pity that violent incidents - this time staff on youth - continue to pepper state headlines out of youth prisons seemingly every few months.

OTOH, the episode can also be seen as a success story for the post-2007 reforms. The misconduct was identified through the complaint system the agency established in the wake of the much-publicized sex scandal, and the incident was captured on video because the Lege paid to outfit youth prisons with a far-more extensive video surveillance system than exists in most if any adult units. And the combination of the improved complaint system, video surveillance and the existence of the Office of Inspector General to pursue charges might be taken as evidence that "the system works," that mechanisms are in place to identify and prosecute criminal physical or sexual abuse of youth prison inmates that didn't exist a half-decade ago.

Grits wonders at first reading if there isn't an underlying staffing issue: Why are JCO turnover rates are among the highest of all state employees - higher, even, than turnover rates at adult prisons? And is it possible that the resulting lack of experienced staff to exercise oversight of younger, inexperienced staff lies at the nexus of this episode? We can't know from what's been published so far and it's premature to jump to conclusions without a lot more information, but those questions reflect my initial gut reactions when considering the policy implications of this unfortunate event.

Anyway, so welcome to the job, Mike Griffiths, where every inspiring, heartwarming achievement by your dedicated staff will seemingly be greeted by some counterweight of ignominious failure, too frequently in the same news cycle. And too often, those are the good weeks.

Appellate court upholds ruling in favor of TYC whistleblower alleging misconduct at parole revocation hearings

Reported the Dallas News ("Appeals court upholds a Dallas attorneys award for blowing whistle on state judges," Sept 12), "An appellate court has upheld a judgment now totaling about $1 million awarded to Dallas attorney Chris Koustoubardis after he was fired for blowing the whistle on fellow judges at the Texas Youth Commission four years ago."

Go here for the best account available of the allegations upheld by the appellate court in affirming the jury verdict, which involved supervisors pressuring judges regarding their rulings in parole revocation hearings and an administrative judge coaching a police-officer witness in order to get inadmissible hearsay testimony admitted as an "excited utterance."

The former administrative law judge told the Dallas News "he doesn’t regret speaking up but didn’t realize it would cost so much," adding, “You know ... it doesn’t pay to do the right thing.” He's not the first at TYC/TJJD to think so, but in this case, if the appellate ruling stands, perhaps for once, this time it will.

Surprise inspections find shortstaffing at root of youth lockup violence

Despite demagoguery aimed at administrators at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department in the wake of recent escapes and violence at the units, surprise inspections at TJJD units, reported Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune today, revealed the worst problems stem from chronic understaffing, which mainly arises not from agency decisions but from legislative dicta and budget pronouncements. Wrote Grissom:

Among the major concerns Kimbrough noted from the report was the staff-to-youth ratio. Currently, there are about eight to 12 youths for each staff member at the TDCJ facilities, he said. He'd like to see that improved to about six youths per staffer. In the last week, the TJJD has begun advertising for part-time staffers, he said. The agency is seeking 20 part-time workers at four of its facilities and 10 for a fifth.

Hiring additional staff, [interim executive director Jay] Kimbrough said, would allow existing workers to log fewer hours on the job, which would reduce their stress and make both the staff and the youths safer.

“It’s a pretty stressful week, and working 60 hours every week for 50 weeks is pretty stressful,” he said.

So far, the agency has received 16 applications for the 90 part-time jobs available.

Grits has maintained for some time that staffing levels - not a shortage of solitary confinement cells or the failure to treat youth more harshly - are the root cause of the agency's troubles, along with a failure to implement various best practices advised by experts the state convened to suggest reforms back in 2007. Despite over-the-top criticisms by legislators that TJJD administrators exhibited a "hug a thug" mentality, it's the Legislature, not agency administrators, which decides how many JCOs TJJD get to hire and what they are paid. The findings from these surprise inspections remind me of an old chestnut my mother was fond of when I was a kid: When you point a finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you. That applies in spades to legislative critics of TJJD's remaining youth lockups.

The other big issue confronting Texas youth prisons - the failure to replace TYC's old treatment programming with a viable alternative - was raised by Texas Appleseed's Deborah Fowler in the final paragraphs of the Trib story:

Juvenile justice advocates applauded the agency’s efforts to address systemic problems that have contributed to violence and escapes. They said they were pleased that TJJD officials are doing more than simply punishing youths considered bad apples. But Deborah Fowler, deputy director of Texas Appleseed, which advocates for juvenile justice reform, said that the agency also must examine the programming it offers to rehabilitate youths. If that program is ineffective, she said, then problems will continue to plague the juvenile correctional system.

“The big, glaring problem is the failure to adequately implement rehabilitative programming for some of the kids in the juvenile system who are most desperately in need of it,” she said.

As long as those problems persist, she said, the agency may succeed in moving the violent youths temporarily, but another will simply take their place because the juveniles aren’t learning effective ways to cope or appropriate ways to behave.

Relatedly, at the Austin Statesman today Mike Ward has a story today on the implications of research in recent years regarding adolescent brain development on the juvenile and adult justice systems.

To Grits, those two elements - increased staffing levels and implementing a viable, evidence-based treatment plan - would make a bigger difference than all the git-tuff demagoguery Texas pols can muster.

See related, recent Grits posts:

• Phoenix program aims to neutralize violent inmates at Texas youth prisons
• Adult prison model wrong approach for juvenile offenders at TJJD
• Here we go again: Is TJJD creating juvie ad-seg at Texas youth prisons?
• Solitary confinement at Texas youth prisons: A brief history 
• Violence at youth prisons blamed on lax discipline; structural problems ignored

Phoenix program aims to neutralize violent inmates at Texas youth prisons

CIA Phoenix Program standard (source)

According to Wikipedia, the Phoenix program was a CIA-run initiative which used "infiltration, capture, terrorism, torture, and assassination" to "neutralize" civilian non-combatants during the Vietnam War. So it's more than a little ironic that that's the name chosen for the new Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) program aimed at isolating (neutralizing?) violent individuals from the general population at Texas youth prisons.

Despite its inapt appellation, TJJD today voted to open up a new isolation wing previously shuttered in Mart, TX. The Texas Tribune yesterday offered up a preview of the decision. Reporter Emily Foxhall quoted TJJD spokesman Jim Hurley saying the unit would not "be considered a lockdown or isolation facility," but "would involve reopening an unused, 24-bed dorm within the already existing Mart facility" Having examined the new rules governing the so-called "Phoenix" program, however, they say "youth are assigned to individual housing units," not a "dorm." Upon further questioning, Hurley told Grits the new unit will consist of three pods, each with eight cells and a common area with two JCOs assigned to each pod.

The facility won't quite be the equivalent of juvie "ad seg" (the euphemism for solitary confinement in the adult system). At TDCJ, inmates in ad seg get one hour recreation per day and no other time outside their cells. In the Phoenix program, the rules require a minimum of five hours per day outside their cells, four of them for education. A letter from advocates to the TJJD board declared, "There are no requirements for out-of-cell time beyond 4 hours for education and 1 hour for large muscle exercise," citing proposed rules for the Mart facility. "While we have been assured that the intent is to give youth 16 hours of programing, there is nothing in the rule itself that speaks to this as a requirement. Keeping youths in cells for 19 hours per day will worsen, not improve, their behavior."

It's difficult for Grits to understand how anyone thinks 24 beds in Mart will solve security problems. The Statesman's Mike Ward reported that:

At Giddings — where gang activity and disruptions triggered a legislative investigation in April and demands for action to curb chronic violence that had left both youths and staff injured — a new report for the week ending Tuesday showed 52 youths requested to be placed in security cells for protection.

That was among 352 youths who were referred to security that week.

Beyond Giddings, according to that same weekly incident report (which Grits obtained from TJJD), the agency reported a whopping 1,388 security referrals last week, of which 72 were self-referrals (including the 52 at Giddings). Staff referrals included 12 youth-on-staff assaults and 43 youth-on-youth assaults. At those rates, 24 secure beds will fill up pretty darn quickly.

Which raises the question, with that many security referrals, how will the 24 beds be prioritized? Standards for when youth will be placed in the Phoenix program are amorphous and subjective. Says the advocate letter, "The eligibility criteria ... include a catch-all for youth who engage in 'any other major rule violation' if the placement is directed by the executive director 'or designee.'" Further, "Criteria for completion of stages in the Phoenix program are vague and highly subjective," an assessment with which your correspondent concurs. (Hurley told me there will be more rules coming soon that may fill in some of the detail.)

With 1,388 security referrals and 55 assaults in a single week (remember, there are only 1,100 youth in the entire system), will 24 new security beds make a difference? It sounds to me like whether the new wing is opened or not, Texas Appleseed's Deborah Fowler is 100% correct that real security solutions must be identified at the unit level. This "fix" is a band-aid at best, kicking discussions about structural problems further and further down the road. There are already isolation cells at the campuses. All this seems to do is add transportation logistics and management of yet another new program to all the agency's existing security issues and admin duties. Via email, Fowler commented to Grits:

Why the board is so confident that the answer is a NEW program is beyond me, when the agency hasn’t been able to effectively implement the programs that are on the ground now.

Keep in mind that the “enhanced” version of ReDirect (and by the way, “enhanced” simply means they’ve done away with the limit on the number of days a youth can spend in the program, and have done away with the requirements that youth are out of their cells for 8 hours/day) has been in place at Giddings for at least a month – and we are STILL seeing problems at that facility.

There's notably no limit on how long youth may be placed in the Phoenix program. Hurley said everyone who enters must complete Aggression Replacement Therapy (ART) which takes a minimum of 10 weeks, so that's likely the minimum length of stay for those sent there. But in the draft rules there is no maximum, just like max limits were eliminated for the "ReDirect" program (which is the new name for Behavioral Management Plans, which in turn was for years the Texas juvenile-justice euphemism for on-campus solitary confinement).

Further, it's unclear exactly how youth end up in the Phoenix program and how they get out. Reported the Trib:

Deborah Fowler, deputy director of the advocacy group Texas Appleseed, said she doesn't believe the new Phoenix program or the change to the Redirect program are solutions to the violence. She said the Phoenix program rules lack specifics about which youths would be eligible and when they could leave. And she said even if the Phoenix program is approved, she doubts it will live up to TJJD's promises, saying the agency has failed to adequately implement similar programs in the past. Instead, Fowler believes independent experts should be hired to assess the problems and suggest solutions.

Said Fowler, "The overriding concern is that whatever this program looks like, simply moving kids from one facility to another is not going to solve the crisis," That's also my own gut reaction, but the TJJD board voted to move forward with the idea, anyway, so time will tell. (FWIW, I sincerely hope my pessimism is unfounded.)

Finally, I just about coughed up a hairball upon reading this commentary from Mike Ward's story:

[State Sen. John] Whitmire said while he respects the advocacy groups, he's disappointed in their position.

"I think they need to let the administration and the board do their job for the people of Texas,” he said. "...We’re trying to save these troublemakers. By going to Mart it might keep them from going to the adult system.”

Was Sen. Whitmire letting "the administration and the board do their job" when he accused the executive director of a "hug a thug" mentality and enlisted an oft-favored reporter to write a one-sided hit piece lambasting Cherie Townsend's management decisions, directly leading to her resignation? I respect Sen. Whitmire, but if he wants to micro-manage agency decisions then he can hardly blame advocates for their participation. If he's not content to "let the administration and the board do their job," why in heaven's name should they refrain from comment? It's not like anybody thinks the agency is doing the job well.

MORE: See Ward's coverage of the TJJD meeting, where Jay Kimbrough was hired as the new executive director.

Adult prison model wrong approach for juvenile offenders at TJJD

Finally, we're seeing corrections professionals standing up to some of the misguided policy suggestions from the media and legislators regarding application of adult corrections models to juvenile offenders at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. This is a battle between reason and emotion, the frontal cortex  vs. the amygdala, and regrettably in the modern media, appeals to the latter predominate.

Still, an op ed yesterday in the Austin Statesman by former TDCJ monitor and LBJ school academic Michele Deitch and former TDCJ chief Gary Johnson gave it the ol' college try, criticizing the application of adult prison techniques to juvenile offenders and the newspaper's "caricatured" portrayal of  the issue. "Readers have been presented with stark contrasts between a caricatured mollycoddling philosophy that supposedly characterizes the former Texas Youth Commission facilities, and the severe discipline, harsh physical conditions and solitary confinement options for juveniles that are endemic in the adult prison system," they wrote. The writers emphasized that maintaining discipline is critical to the agency's mission, but declared that:

discipline does not mean — and should not mean in the juvenile context — use of physical force or brutality, use of pepper spray, use of long-term solitary confinement or denial of programming. Not only are such measures banned under the terms of federal court orders that govern the state's juvenile justice agency, they are counterproductive strategies that worsen outcomes for the youths and put us all at risk when they are ultimately released from confinement.

I'm glad they mentioned the federal court orders; Grits has wondered if there's been so much turnover at the agency, remaining officials just forgot about them. The op-ed writers describe how juvenile offenders are treated in TDCJ, noting that "administrators and staffers there will be the first to say that these youths do not belong in adult facilities." And they adumbrated national research and standards critical of using adult prison facilities and methods with juvenile offenders:

National research shows that juveniles who are housed in adult prisons have vastly higher rates of suicide, mental illness, and sexual and physical assaults than their counterparts in juvenile facilities. They also have much worse outcomes, despite the (surprising) similarities in demographics and criminal offense history. One nationally reported study found that juveniles who spend at least a year in adult prisons and jails have a 100 percent greater risk of violent recidivism than those in juvenile facilities.

A few years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appointed a task force to evaluate all available research on this subject. The task force concluded that the evidence is overwhelming that transferring youths to the adult system is counterproductive as a strategy for controlling or preventing violence; it actually makes youths worse. The CDC called on policymakers to immediately reverse policies that allow youths to be placed in the adult criminal justice system.

For these reasons and others, every major professional corrections organization — including the American Correctional Association, the American Bar Association, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and the Association of Juvenile Correctional Administrators — disapproves of the notion of keeping juveniles in adult prisons and jails.

Finally, the authors point out that some of TJJD/TYC's programming - particularly their capital offenders program and their sex-offender regimen, "are far more successful in working with violent youths than any program the adult corrections system has to offer," encouraging lawmakers not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater."

See related, recent Grits posts:

• Here we go again: Is TJJD creating juvie ad-seg at Texas youth prisons?
• Solitary confinement at Texas youth prisons: A brief history 
• Violence at youth prisons blamed on lax discipline; structural problems ignored

Townsend out as TJJD chief

Cherie Townsend, head of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, announced today that she's retiring at the end of next month following harsh criticism from state Sen. John Whitmire, who accused her of having a "hug a thug" mentality for not utilizing solitary confinement.

Until the Legislature fixes structural flaws, though, and adequately staffs facilities, the underlying problems aren't going away. Now that Townsend's on her way out, who will be the next scapegoat? Honestly I don't know who would want the top TJJD spot: It's a bit like the honor of being named Darth Vader's next lieutenant. Find Townsend's letter to employees announcing her retirement below the jump.

Solitary confinement at Texas youth prisons: A brief history

"Off with her head!"

I've seen this movie. From Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman, state Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire said TYC officials are engaging in "hug a thug" behavior for not using solitary confinement more frequently, or in TX juvenile justice jargon, imposing "behavioral management plans" on youth ("Juvenile justice officials disagree on reopening Waco-area lockup," May 24):

At issue is whether to use the empty beds at the McLennan County Juvenile Correctional Facility in Mart — single-cell rooms with a higher level of security than most of the six campus-like facilities that hold most of Texas' 1,100 teenage offenders. Supporters say the cells could separate the troublemakers from other youths and reduce violence. But opponents, notably Texas Juvenile Justice Department Executive Director Cherie Townsend, say moving the offenders would disrupt their schoolwork and their treatment.

The stalemate comes amid continuing reports of assaults and violence at agency facilities. On May 14, several people were reported injured as youths rioted at the Evins Regional Juvenile Justice Center in Edinburg. It was the second such uprising there in five months. On Monday, six youths at the Giddings State School broke down a door and climbed onto a dorm roof before guards subdued them with pepper spray.

Two months ago, the disclosure of escalating violence, unchecked gang activity, extortion rings and general unrest at Giddings sparked a legislative inquiry.

For those who don't recall (assuming anyone even cares anymore), this is PRECISELY how TYC reacted the first time Sen. Whitmire launched into his Queen of Hearts impersonation and began shouting "Off with their heads!" (We're definitely through the looking glass, now.) The agency cracked down, expanding use of solitary confinement in just the way being suggested in this article, then had to roll it back once agency leaders discovered legal limits on the practice.

Grits argued recently that many of the agency's problems stemmed from failing to follow the recommendations of the "blue ribbon" panel of experts convened by the Governor because of the expense of shifting from large to small facilities. We can add "ditto" on the question of use of solitary. From a 1/16/08 Houston Chronicle article:

Juvenile justice experts expressed disappointment, but not surprise, upon hearing of the alleged stepped-up reliance on isolation at the agency — particularly so soon after the abuse scandal broke and after the agency found itself the target of a lawsuit over its increased reliance on pepper spray to subdue difficult youths.

"Solitary confinement has been universally condemned by courts in the juvenile justice system," said Barry Krisberg, president of the California-based National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and a member of the task force in Texas that last year recommended TYC reforms.

"Nothing good happens when you isolate youth. These are youth that are already having trouble communicating," Krisberg said.

Then-TYC Ombudsman Will Harrell issued a memorandum four years ago (which Grits uploaded here) detailing the legal limits of BMP. Critically, and this was the bane of BMP expansion under then-executive director Dimitria Pope, use of solitary confinement at TJJD is regulated by a federal settlement agreement described in a memo appended to Harrell's report. Most folks have forgotten this history, but restrictions on BMP stem from a 1973 lawsuit, Morales v. Turman. Back then, a federal "Court ordered that certain practices of TYC, including the conditions of solitary confinement, be abolished pending final order of the Court. Ten years later, after a good faith effort by TYC to improve facilities and protect the plaintiffs’ rights, the parties agreed on a settlement, setting forth, among other things, TYC commitments, policies, and goals regarding use of isolation and security" (citations omitted). Concluded Harrell, "The settlement agreement remains binding today, and any dispute arising in regard to its enforcement, if not resolved amicably, may be enforced by the plaintiffs in any court of competent jurisdiction."

The agreement "includes provisions regarding (1) the appropriate reasons for placing youth in isolation or security; (2) limits on the duration of that placement; (3) necessary treatment of inmates while in isolation or security; and (4) appropriate conditions of confinement in isolation or security," all of which he alleged TYC was violating in 2008. Here's an overview of the settlement provisions from the report's summary:

The 1983 settlement agreement that ended litigation in Morales v. Turman prohibits facilities from using isolation as a mode of retaliation or as a first-resort punishment, and limits its use to when the facility’s superintendent agrees that an inmate is out of control and dangerous. When the inmate is sufficiently under control, he or she shall be released. Isolation should not be used for more than 3 hours. The agreement, with a few exceptions, allows placement in security only as a last resort, and for no longer than 24 hours. If the inmate is kept in security longer than 24 hours, he or she is entitled to impartial review and appeal of his or her confinement. While in isolation or security, inmates must receive: daily visits from the superintendent and personnel from clinical, social work, and medical units; appropriate psychological and medical services; and the same food, prepared in the same manner, as other inmates.

So there are limits to expanded use of solitary that TYC under Ed Owens and Dimitria Pope failed to respect but which still apply if TJJD decides to crack down again - whether or not Cherie Townsend is in charge - including appellate procedures if isolation lasts longer than 24 hours. Grits suspects a program maxxing out solitary confinement under the Morales v. Turman settlement still wouldn't satisfy revanchist critics within the agency who're driving this recommendation. They want to use solitary as punishment, not behavior management, and likely wouldn't be satisfied if, "When the inmate is sufficiently under control, he or she shall be released."

IMO expanded STAFFING of youth prisons, along with shifting away from larger facilities altogether, as the Governor's blue-ribbon panel recommended, would do more to reduce both current problems and future crime than expanded solitary confinement. But legislators wanted to reform TYC while cutting costs and eschewed such suggestions, so here we are. Larger youth prisons that were failing five years ago are still failing for the same reasons. Like I said, we've already seen this movie: It's over-hyped, has too much violence, a crappy ending, and it goes on way too long.

RELATED: Violence at youth prisons blamed on lax discipline, structural problems ignored.

Reform this agency or I'll cut you: Jay Kimbrough returns to TJJD

The Governor's "fixer," Jay Kimbrough, is going to resolve whatever's wrong with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department or else whip out his knife and cut anybody who gets in his way. At least part of me hopes so. If he brandishes it just once more at another government official, Kimbrough's would be the most famous Texan knife since Jim Bowie's! Okay, perhaps it won't come to that, but it's nearly the only way this whole TYC/TJJD saga could get any weirder, and when the going gets tough in Texas, the tough frequently get weird.

Kidding aside, the Texas Tribune's Brandi Grissom reports the remarkable news that Mr. Kimbrough will be returning to TJJD. Her story opens:

The man who has become Gov. Rick Perry's problem solver, Jay Kimbrough, is going back to the state's juvenile justice agency, which is facing a crisis again five years after the last time he helped bail the agency out of a major scandal.

"I am pleased that Jay has agreed to help TJJD as we restore legislative, public and employee confidence that Texas is operating facilities that are safe for both employees and youth,” Texas Juvenile Justice Department Executive Director Cherie Townsend said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Kimbrough, who will be on loan from the Texas Department of Public Safety, where he serves as assistant director of homeland security, served as conservator of the Texas Youth Commission in 2007 after investigative news reports revealed horrendous sexual and physical abuse at juvenile lockups. He will act as special assistant for safety and security at TJJD.

Long time readers will recall Kimbrough was briefly assigned to oversee the Texas Youth Commission in the early days after the media reports revealed the agency had covered-up sex scandals and tolerating abusive employees. He left to make way for Ed Owens' disastrous conservatorship, which sought to turn TYC into a mini-adult prison system, bringing in fumbling leadership from TDCJ as well as an adult security mentality heavily reliant on pepper spray and solitary confinement. Repeating that failed approach would be a nightmare.

On the other hand, it was also Kimbrough who authored TYC's initial moves to reduce youth inmate populations, an approach that has worked well beyond anyone's imagination, allowing the state to close multiple youth prison units while juvenile crime has continued to plummet.

So I'm at least slightly sanguine that Kimbrough's appointment won't necessarily spawn a repeat of the unhappy era when Ed Owens and his associates from TDCJ drew down a bevy of lawsuits and near-rebellion among staff. Whether or not it was Kimbrough's intention to foist adult practices onto juvenile corrections, he's now seen that approach didn't work and he's nothing if not a pragmatic man. A fellow as fond as Kimbrough of bold moves can't help but sometimes make a wrong turn, but in my observation he's not the type of fellow to make the same mistake twice. And he may decide the state should double down on the part of his strategy that did work: Further de-incarceration and shifting responsibility for supervising more delinquent youth back to the local level.

Even longer-time readers will recall Kimbrough's "fixer" stint helping the the Department of Public Safety try to rein in Texas' regional narcotics task forces in the wake of 2005 legislation putting them under the command and control of the DPS Narcotics division. Many task forces simply refused to comply, and the Governor's Criminal Justice Division ultimately eliminated their funding entirely in 2006, shifting the federal grant money which for two decades had supported hundreds of narcotics officers to a combination of border enforcement and diversion programming, with an emphasis on specialty courts. In essence, they shifted responsibility for drug-enforcement downstream to the local level much like TYC shifted responsibility for supervising more delinquent youth back to the counties.

At TYC, Kimbrough had good instincts about reducing inmate populations but not about putting Ed Owens and his TDCJ cadres in charge when he left, to the extent that was his call. OTOH, in my view he knocked the drug-task force issue out of the park. And in both instances, one notes, part of his approach was to eliminate failing institutions instead of reform them, which may give a hint as to one possible approach he could take at TJJD along the same lines.

One of the major alternatives being bandied about is to eliminate most of the rest of juvenile detention facilities (they probably can't get rid of the mental health beds) and shift more money and responsibility to counties to manage delinquent youth. If Kimbrough decides Texas youth prisons are completely dysfunctional, as was the case with the drug-task force system, will he similarly recommend a wipe-the-slate-clean approach? At this point nothing would surprise me.

At least formally, Kimbrough has been brought in as an assistant to Cherie Townsend, though a "special assistant" with the Governor on speed dial won't always be perceived or necessarily behave as a subordinate. Hold onto your hats. The agency is no doubt in for another tumultuous year between now and the end of the 2013 legislative session.

TJJD contracts questioned

An audit found poor documentation for much of the construction and other contract spending by the Texas Youth Commission, now the Juvenile Justice Department, reported the Austin Statesman's Mike Ward on Saturday. The story opened:

During the past five years, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department relied heavily on change orders to pay for construction work that was not within the scope of the original contracts and failed to document the changes as required, a new audit revealed Friday.

In addition, the internal audit found that in more than half of the files examined, change orders that required the approval of top agency officials had none.

The audit does not provide detail on the contracts. Officials said Friday that those details were not immediately available.

The agency and its predecessor had more than $35.3 million in construction projects under way or queued up during the period that the auditors reviewed. While they reviewed only nine contracts in detail, such samples are commonly used as an indicator of potentially larger problems.

Robin McKeever, the agency's deputy executive director, who was previously chief financial officer with purview over contracts, said that eight of the nine contracts examined in the audit had change orders — more than 30 orders, in all.

On Friday, the agency's 13-member governing board approved new policies designed to curb those problems — the latest issue to buffet a department facing a legislative investigation over safety and security lapses at the Giddings State School and other lockups.

Déjà vu at TJJD: 2007 all over again?

Reports Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman:

As the former superintendent of the Giddings State School claimed in a lawsuit that he was fired in March for reporting violations of state law and growing safety issues at the troubled lockup, a legislative inquiry was expanded Wednesday to focus on whether 5-year-old reforms to the troubled system are still working.

"Everything is on the table now as far as I'm concerned," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who authored many of the reforms.

"Based on reports that we have confirmed from independent sources, it would appear that the management of the (Texas Juvenile Justice Department) has not been properly managing or protecting the youth and staff. You could change the names and dates, and it would be 2007 all over again."

If you'll excuse me, please go here to read the rest of Ward's missive, and I'm going to walk outside now to pound my head against the side of a tree.

TYC prescribed drug while Attorney General sued over its off-label use with children

Here's an ironic story from a Dallas TV station that speaks as much to the overmedication of youth in the juvenile justice system as to flaws in Medicaid billing. It opens:

The state won a $158 million settlement last month from a pharmaceutical company that the Texas attorney general said promoted an antipsychotic drug for uses not yet approved by federal regulators.

Attorney General Greg Abbott said Johnson & Johnson marketed Risperdal as the drug of choice for children and the elderly for schizophrenia and dementia even though the Food and Drug Administration had not approved its use in children or the elderly.

Yet while the state was suing J&J, the Texas Youth Commission, one of the state's largest purchasers of pharmaceuticals, prescribed it nearly 3,000 times to youth in the Texas prison system, according to financial documents uncovered by NBC 5.

The state's lawsuit, which was filed in 2006, said the state excessively paid pharmacies that dispensed prescriptions for Medicaid patients for a range of unapproved uses.

Violence rates in youth lockups went up after 2007 juvie reforms

At the Texas Tribune on Sunday, Brandi Grissom and Becca Aaronson had a story about rising violence rates at state youth lockups since the 2007 sex scandal at what was then the Texas Youth Commission:

10 years’ worth of data on the number of physical and sexual assaults and pepper-spray incidents at youth correctional facilities across the state indicates that this serene atmosphere is often disrupted by violence among the youths.

Overall, the rate of confirmed youth-on-youth assaults has more than tripled at the secure juvenile offender facilities statewide in the five years since lawmakers approved those reforms. Attacks on staff members have also increased.

The data do show progress for the reform efforts, including reductions in violence perpetrated by staff and in all types of sexual assaults. Cherie Townsend, executive director of the juvenile justice agency, acknowledged there is room for more work, but she said that reforms are making the facilities safer.

Advocates and experts, however, say the rise in youth-on-youth assaults and attacks on staff indicate there is still critical work to be done.

“It’s really disappointing,” said Deborah Fowler, deputy director of Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit organization that advocates juvenile justice reform. “The implementation has not been what we hoped for.”

In 2007, following reports that staff at what was then the Texas Youth Commission had sexually and physically abused youths in their custody, legislators passed laws intended to improve conditions at the lockups. They gave counties incentives to keep low-level offenders in their communities, where they could be close to treatment services and support systems. Only felony offenders who had failed at other programs would serve sentences at secure state facilities. Lawmakers also prohibited the incarceration of anyone older than 18 at the facilities.

The average daily population at the secure facilities has dropped to about 1,200 in 2011 from nearly 3,000 in 2007.

Several factbites from the story were downright stunning: "The rate of confirmed youth-on-youth physical assaults at state secure facilities grew to 54 assaults per 100 youths in 2011 from 17 assaults per 100 youths in 2007."  And, "Staff assaults by youths have climbed to 37 confirmed assaults per 100 youths last year from a rate of 10 per 100 youths in 2007." Notably, "The data do show progress for the reform efforts, including reductions in violence perpetrated by staff and in all types of sexual assaults." (See various charts and data collected by the reporters in this interactive format.)

Grits suspects, though, that the massive decline in youth prisoners explains most of the increased violence rates, which are reported not as raw numbers but as assaults, etc., per 100 youths. That's because the pool of youth in 2007 were much less serious offenders, as a class, than the smaller group of more hard-core kids who go to youth prisons under the new regime. If the rate of youth on youth assaults tripled and the number of youth incarcerated declined by roughly 2/3, then there are roughly the same number of assaults today as in 2007, just concentrated among fewer prisoners.

In prison as in everywhere else in life, a small subset of offenders accounts for the majority of serious misbehavior, and those troublemakers are precisely the type of youth that still end up in TYC despite the expanded emphasis on diversion, probation, etc.. While youth violence went up, it's also true that the proportion of youth incarcerated for violent crimes as a percentage of the whole increased substantially over the same period. If the number of prey dwindles but you keep most of the predators, you'd expect the violence rate to go up because reducing the number of victims they have access to does not in and of itself reduce the violent tendencies of those who remain. That's not to excuse rising violence rates, but I think that's what's driving it. Possibly the staffing ratios and policies from the ancien regime weren't adequate for the types of offenders who now end up in TJJD lockups, and certainly the data call into question whether programming at the units is working to change youth behavior. Good reporting from the Trib.