Ombudsman: Public schools failed many TYC youth

TYC independent ombudsman Will Harrell yesterday presented a copy of his office's recent report on education services (pdf) at the Youth Commission to an interim hearing of the Texas Senate Education Committtee. (See prior Grits coverage.) In his written testimony, Harrell said TYC's education difficulties originated in the public schools:

The Texas Youth Commission bears a great burden that can be traced back to failures of local school districts. But that is a challenge that the TYC must meet for the sake of public safety.

In broad terms, the OIO has the following major concerns about education in TYC:

• Inadequate intake, assessment and accountability.
• Inconsistent general education programs across TYC facilities.
• Disruption of education by punitive culture and policy which is compounded by race and special educational need.
• Inadequate special education services.

These issues, which are fully discussed in the attached report, are critical for two important but distinct reasons. First, as we point out in the attached report, educational attainment is one of the most effective means for reducing recidivism among delinquent youth. However, the population of students at the TYC does not represent the population of the typical Texas public school. The TYC is charged with providing education and special education services to a population of students comprised of approximately 40% special education students, and a majority of youth who are substantially behind their peers in all academic areas. The population of students at the TYC is not typical of an ordinary Texas public school, and the TYC requires a substantially different level of support than a typical public school district. Despite the fact that many of the youth committed to the TYC arrive with poor academic histories, the TYC education program can improve the basic academic skills of these youth and significantly improve their chances of successful reentry into their schools and / or communities. Providing these youth with essential skills in reading and mathematics, opportunities to obtain a diploma or GED, and vocational skills is critical for helping these youth to become responsible, civic-minded taxpaying citizens. Not only do these outcomes result in improved outcomes for delinquent youth, they also improve public safety.

Second, the youth at the TYC are coming from Texas public school systems, and most should be returning to these schools after release. However, many of the TYC youth have not been adequately supported by their public schools. Most do not have sufficient reading skills to access the high school curriculum, and many do not even have the requisite skills to read or complete a basic job application. Additionally, many of these youth have been repeatedly suspended or expelled, or have officially or unofficially dropped out of school. Furthermore, most delinquent youth both nationally and in Texas come from impoverished communities with schools that lack the financial and professional support necessary to adequately educate these youth. If the State is going to successfully rehabilitate these youth, the Texas leadership must identify and implement innovative and responsive public education programs to support these vulnerable schools and ultimately reduce the numbers of youth involved in the juvenile justice system.

Last week, Grits identified what I think would be a huge step toward discouraging schools from dumping kids with learning disabilities and behavioral problems into the juvenile justice system - charging schools the full cost of educating kids they send to so-called alternative schools for discipline. But as Harrell says, a lot more than that bureaucratic fix is needed. In addition to more resources for special ed programming, substantial investments to identify and teach kids with dyslexia would reduce crime, as would extra focus on ensuring the academic success for children of incarcerated parents. Spending extra resources to help kids succeed on the front end aimed at these special populations makes a lot more sense than waiting to incarcerate them on the back end, which costs far more and from which society derives far fewer benefits.

SEE ALSO: An interview with Harrell from KHOU and these documents related to TYC education services:

• Review of Education Programs for Students in Texas Youth Commission State Schools
• Ombudsman's Statement Regarding the Education Review (pdf)
• Review of Education Programs for Students in Texas Youth Commission State Schools (pdf)
• Conservator Richard Nedelkoff's Response Letter (pdf)

UK web activism on dyslexia includes focus on prisons

Having written previously about Texas' failure to target the link between illiteracy and crime, particularly for children with dyslexia, I was especially pleased to find the Dyslexia Online Magazine, a British site whose contents made me think this issue has taken hold more strongly on the political front in the UK than in America.

Dyslexia Online contained several interesting items including a December 2007 petition from dyslexics demanding that the British Prime Minister tackle the problem of their over-representation in prison. Another mentioned Scottish efforts beginning in 2001 to reduce recidivism by diagnosing and treating dyslexic prisoners:

Future inspections of Scottish prisons will report on efforts to screen inmates and offer help, pledged Clive Fairweather HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. An estimated 4-10 per cent of Scots are dyslexic, but a study at Edinburgh University by Jane Kirk, a dyslexia adviser, and Gavin Reid, a senior lecturer, found that in a random sample of 50 young offenders at Polmont Institute, half were affected. ...

Mr Fairweather pledged to "mention" how the issue of dyslexia was handled in prison inspection reports in a bid to put the problem more firmly on the agenda. Faced with challenges from suicides and drugs, education was far down the prisons needs list.
Mr Fairweather said, "and dyslexia is even further down."

But Mrs Kirk responded "Of all the problems and disadvantages facing offenders, dyslexia is one of the easiest to deal with."

According to a recent article, Dyslexia within the prison service, "Half of all [British] prisoners are at or below the level expected of an 11 year old in reading, two-thirds in numeracy and four-fifths in writing. Another piece focuses on Albert Einstein's dyslexia and his long-suffering mother's years spent helping him overcome it, wondering if "the path to Albert Einstein's Nobel Prize [was] paved with the stones of his mother's worry."

Like a lot of other preventive measures, identification and special training for dyslexic kids is more effective if it's done early on through the schools, without the stigma of resulting from punishment for behavioral problems. But inevitably the criminal justice system winds up with many such kids, and just like the schools, many juvenile justice programs failing to identify and treat dyslexia.

From dyslexics imprisoned to those, like Einstein, reaching the heights of intellectual achievement - this site provides a lot of fodder for thought on what can be done to prevent dyslexics and others with reading problems from winding up in prison for lack of better options.

Early identification, treatment of dyslexics would reduce crime, boost economy

I've argued before that expanding emphasis in public schools on combating dyslexia would reduce crime. Now we can also argue that it would be good for the economy!

Dyslexics make up 10% of Texas children who are tested but 30% of Texas prison inmates, and illiteracy is a key indicator increasing the likelihood of imprisonment. Now new research indicates that in addition to overpopulating the criminal justice system, dyslexics also overpopulate another, more socially acceptable class of people: Entrepreneurs! Who'da thought? According to the New York Times ("Tracing business acumen to dyslexia," Dec. 6):

It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.

The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed — 35 percent — identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority, to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

“We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory skills,” Professor Logan said in an interview. “If you tell your friends and acquaintances that you plan to start a business, you’ll hear over and over, ‘It won’t work. It can’t be done.’ But dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about maneuvering their way around problems.”

The study was based on a survey of 139 business owners in a wide range of fields across the United States. Professor Logan called the number who said they were dyslexic “staggering,” and said it was significantly higher than the 20 percent of British entrepreneurs who said they were dyslexic in a poll she conducted in 2001.

She attributed the greater share in the United States to earlier and more effective intervention by American schools to help dyslexic students deal with their learning problems. Approximately 10 percent of Americans are believed to have dyslexia, experts say.

One reason that dyslexics are drawn to entrepreneurship, Professor Logan said, is that strategies they have used since childhood to offset their weaknesses in written communication and organizational ability — identifying trustworthy people and handing over major responsibilities to them — can be applied to businesses.

“The willingness to delegate authority gives them a significant advantage over nondyslexic entrepreneurs, who tend to view their business as their baby and like to be in total control,” she said.

When I proposed a "Real Public Safety Agenda for Texas," prior to the 80th Texas Legislature, one of the principal new investments called for was to "Train 10,000 new teachers to perform individual training with dyslexic children, and increase funding for early testing for dyslexia."

I considered reducing crime a powerful enough incentive by itself to focus new resources toward treating dyslexia, but this new research finding that dyslexics who receive that extra support more frequently become creative, productive entrepreneurs means that the state is wasting valuable human capital, leaving extra, home-grown economic growth on the table by channeling dyslexics more commonly into prison than into creating small businesses.

Reading this new data, I couldn't help but think of a recent program I heard about at a Texas Public Policy Foundation forum in Austin a few weeks back, described thusly on their website:

November 07, 2007
Policy Primer: Jobs After Jail - Enhancing the Employment of Ex-Offenders (audio file)

Approximately 30 percent of Texas adults have a criminal conviction. Ex-offenders who are employed are three-times less likely to re-offend and much more likely to pay restitution and child support. However, one reason some are unemployed or underemployed are state regulations that can be used to exclude them from over 150 different licensed occupations. Also, hiring ex-offenders can expose an employer to civil liability, and there is a lack of vocational opportunities in state and local lockups that correspond to available jobs in the economy.

An impressive program described at that forum - the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) - trains inmates to become legitimate entrepreneurs when they leave prison. Several of their program's graduates so far have become significant success stories to tell.

I wonder what's the relationship if any of inmates with dyslexia and participation in PEP?

These are just initial thoughts from disparate research that perhaps raise more questions than answers. Would dyslexics who turn to crime be more likely to launch their own legitimate business enterprises if they received specialized education support, plus training that prepares them with entrepreneurial skills they'll likely need to cope with their disabilities throughout their lives? We can't know for sure from these data, but the possibilities are intriguing:

Dyslexics make up 10% of Texans, but 30% of prisoners and up to 35% of entrepreneurs! Whatever else these data say, they tell me that what happens with dyslexic kids has a profound impact on the future of both the criminal justice system and the economy. Perhaps Texas policymakers should begin to pay closer attention to them.

A Quick Tour Around The Web

I'm headed to San Antonio this morning to chat with some folks about their jail, but thought I'd leave y'all with a few links to items of interest around the web that caught my eye recently:

Regina Kelly at The Agitator
Radley Balko at The Agitator has a video interview with Regina Kelly, one of the plaintiffs from the Hearne case wrongfully accused by a mendacious confidential informant. Kelly was one of the plaintiffs who won a settlement in a lawsuit spearheaded by the ACLU.

Local Impact of TYC Reforms
The Waco Tribune Herald worries that new juvie laws and policies about who gets sent to the Texas Youth Commission will create local problems and become an "onerous unfunded mandate."

Save Prison Space for Serious Offenders
Carlos Guerra in the SA Express News says Texas state jails are keeping the wrong inmates in prison longer than they should.

New Actual Innocence Database
Via the Eyewitness ID Blog, the University of Texas law school just launched the Actual Innocence Awareness Database, with a section devoted to "resources which address wrongful convictions resulting primarily from inaccurate, mistaken or perjured eyewitness identification."

Monitor This
Though Dallas legislators helped kill legislation to monitor local jails with severe problems, they couldn't stop the feds from installing a monitor to oversee reforms to the dangerously poor healthcare delivery system.

Dallas DA Misstep?
Speaking of Dallas, though I've recently praised their new District Attorney, The Wretched of the Earth thinks one of his new prosecution policies goes in the wrong direction.

Failure to Treat Dyslexia Boosts Crime
Kuff discusses the failure to adequately teach kids with dyslexia, but he didn't mention that doing so could have a significant impact on future crime.

Scenes from Under the Bridge
I always enjoy visiting Dirty Third Streets.

Jail Expansion Votes Looming
Harris County is considering bond election for nearly a billion dollars in criminal justice projects including expanding the county jail and local juvenile facilities. County Commissioners are also considering expanding the jail in Huntsville.

Hutto Litigation Update
The Texas Observer blog has an update on the litigation at the Hutto immigrant family detention facility. Texas Prison Bidness has more from recent protests, and as always the Texas Civil Rights Review has more background on the subject.

HPD's Bracket Racket
Houston PD issues thousands of tickets for people with car dealer's license plate brackets on their cars, and continues to give the tickets even though the Legislature changed the statute effective September 1. Critics accuse them of profiteering. The Houston Chronicle has a good editorial on the subject.

Are Anonymous Blog Comments Anonymous?
The Austin Chronicle picked up on a story covered earlier on Grits about Attorney General Greg Abbott backing off the effort on behalf of the Bexar County probation director to reveal anonymous blog commenters' identities in court.

Border Patrol Expansion Invites Graft
Many folks fear the expansion of the US Border Patrol by 6,000 agents is a recipe for expanded graft. (I'd suggested the same thing last fall.)

Dallas/Houston reps vote to keep jails dangerous, unhealthy

Here are a few Texas criminal justice odds and ends Grits readers should be aware of:

Jail oversight bills die - Urban reps take anti-accountability stand
The two bills by Rep. Turner discussed here aimed at providing greater oversight at Texas jails in large counties were defeated on an unusual third reading vote, mostly by Dallas and Houston representatives who apparently like their failed, dangerous jails just the way they are. See the Dallas News coverage of yesterday's surprising reversal. Rep. Jim Jackson who himself formerly chaired the Commission on Jail Standards, led the charge to kill the reforms, calling any effort to put teeth in agency regs an "unfunded mandate."

Why am I not surprised that the fellow on whose regulatory watch the Dallas Jail went to hell now thinks everything is hunky dory?

To me this was a politically foolish move - henceforth every jail death, every staph infection, every mentally ill person lost for months in the system without a court hearing can (and should) be blamed at election time on members who voted against these bills. Turner said it exactly right, "How can you complain about the problems at TYC when you're protecting your own local jails on the same stuff? That's hypocrisy at its best." I'll certainly be watching closely to see what horrors could have been prevented by a more conscientious vote.

What the Dallas Jail scandal will look like in a couple of years
You'd think Texas legislators would have learned by now, but here's what happens when you ignore problems at correctional institutions. Analyzing the results of more open records research, the Dallas News says that at the Texas Youth Commission:

A chain of administrative failures, executive inattention and bureaucratic missteps brought TYC to this institutional collapse. State government records, legislative archives and interviews with current and former officials show a breakdown of authority at all levels.

TYC officials consistently exaggerated agency accomplishments while downplaying its considerable problems. Legislators repeatedly failed to press the issue. And Gov. Rick Perry's office paid little heed to numerous and repeated warnings.

Crimes at TYC still concealed from administrators
Speaking of TYC, apparently it's not just reporters and the public being kept in the dark about misconduct allegations at the troubled agency, but even administrative staff, reports the Houston Chronicle. The paper reported that, "TYC Conservator Jay Kimbrough said that gap shouldn't matter because criminal investigators are now protecting the youth." Yeah, right - why should the administrators need to know?! Jesus H. Christ, how many times do we have to make the same mistakes over and over? Security through obscurity is SOOOOO last century - transparency at TYC is the best way to keep kids safe.

Drilling down into prison dentistry
Read an interview with Pamela Myers, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Dental Hygiene Coordinator. "After over 20 years, I am still behind the walls, barbed wire and fences, and it has been the most rewarding career I could have ever dreamed," Myers declared.

Dyslexia and Crime
I Speak of Dreams liked some of my writing on dyslexia and crime and linked to some additional resources.

Texas failed schools generating crime

Texas has long claimed 85% graduation rates, with President Bush calling the state a model for his "No Child Left Behind" initiative. In reality, it turns out, fewer than 70 percent of Texas students graduate, including less than half of minority students in Houston and Dallas ("Experts claim Texas graduation rates inflated," Houston Chronicle, Oct. 6).

I've argued before that failure of the educational system to treat dyslexia contributes to crime. These statistics cause me to think a failed educational system in general has become its own indirect crime generator. In the modern information economy, if you can't read and have no skills what would you choose to do? Pick onions or sell drugs?

A Real Public Safety Agenda for Texas, Part I

I've been thinking a lot about how glaringly, if counterintuitively unproductive so many of our "incarcerate now, think later" policies in Texas (and the United States) have become, and how equally glaring is the lack of a clear, articulable alternative to that vacuum of ideas.

What follows is the first installment of a list of proposals, most of which would have to be enacted by the Texas Legislature, that I think would make a real, substantive difference to actually improving public safety, not just symbolic changes designed to "send a message." These ideas are aimed to actually improve the lives of Texans and reduce crime in the short and long term. In some cases, they're designed to expressly counter the criminal justice system's excesses where it has destroyed lives and corrupted civil society.

I'll be adding to this as we head toward the 80th Texas Legislature, but here's a start: What would state leaders be doing if they really cared about public safety?

1. Train 10,000 new teachers to perform individual training with dyslexic children, and increase funding for early testing for dyslexia. That's the low end of an estimate for how many are needed. Dyslexics make up 10% of children who are tested but 30% of Texas inmates, and illiteracy is a key indicator increasing the likelihood of imprisonment.

2. Create new programs to support children of incarcerated parents, including mentoring, tutoring, counseling, part-time jobs and access to social services. Without intervention, children of incarcerated parents are 6-8 times more likely than their peers to wind up in prison. Fund the programs that exist, including privately operated charities if they're effective and accountable, plus create new ones modeled on successful programs in Texas and elsewhere.

3. Cut probation lengths in half. Most probationers who re-offend do so in the first two years, the majority of those (says Tony Fabelo) within the first eight months. Texas has the longest probation lengths in the nation. Reducing them would reduce caseloads so probation officers could increase supervision during that most-important early period. (This will require revamping funding for probation departments, which are currently paid by the head.)

4. Give probationers ways to earn their way off probation early through good behavior and completion of assigned programs, reducing caseloads and giving strong, personal incentives for compliance with probation rules. HB 2193 would have this for some offenders, but the change should be made for all but so-called 3g offenders, or those who've committed more dangerous, violent crimes.

5. Use offenders' employment status and recidivism rates as outcome measures by which probation and parole officers are judged, as well as two of several factors for how probation and parole department funding is determined.

6. Hire 3,000 more guards to staff current prisons before building anymore.

7. Allow local governments to operate syringe exchange programs to promote personal responsibility, reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C and provide greater opportunities for outreach to hardcore drug users.

8. New money for border law enforcement should first go either to Internal Affairs Bureaus (instead of for patrols and equipment) or to a new AG-run investigative squad aimed at cleaning up law enforcement corruption.

9. Force pardon and parole board to adhere to its own guidelines and release more low-risk non-violent offenders to make way for more dangerous ones.

10. Fund re-entry programs designed to help ex-offenders get and keep a job, housing and stay out of trouble when they get out of prison, especially for the first 1-2 years.

It sounds like a lot of new money, but it's all a lot lot cheaper than building and staffing three new prisons.

Grits 2005 Retrospective

Well thank God it's almost over. To be honest, 2005 wasn't a great year for me personally, but without question maintaining this blog has been one of the real high points. I've been churning out 15,000 to 30,000 words of prose here every month -- almost 900 posts so far -- far too much for any sensible person to wade through, I know (even my wife and best friends don't actually read this stuff!). It's great writing practice, though, and quite useful to me for tracking the issues I'm working on.

With that kind of output, I've no illusions too many people will go back to read Grits' voluminous archives, but if you're interested in sampling what I've been writing on this blog in 2005, I've compiled a more or less representative linkfest below:

January

• Senate testimony in Houston on flawed crime labs
• Brandon Moon: Give prisoners open records access
• A Fourth Amendment for the 21st century
• TX troopers teach profiling to mounties
• Accuracy optional in forensic science?
• Guest blogger Alan Bean: Daily coverage of Tulia cop Tom Coleman's perjury trial

February

• Fiscal note fantasy world
• Oklahoma meth law overhyped
• Drug task force cites Grits in federal court motion
• Unaccountable drug task forces boost liability everywhere
• Snitching undermines justice institutions
• A snitch in time
• Ending drug task force boosts drug enforcement in Lubbock
• Whither loyalty in the war on meth?

March

• Police oversearching not all about race
• Austin drivers refuse searches when they know they can
• Bleeding Red Ink: Why LBB is to blame for bloated prison budgets
• How often do drivers refuse consent to search at traffic stops?
• Safer with surveillance cameras or just more exposed?
• Why surveillance cameras don't reduce crime
• Biometric passwords risk gravest form of identity theft
• Drug courts = solution to meth epidemic in Piney Woods
• Passing along police lies
• Pack your pistola and hit the road
• Why drug task forces must go 101

April

• Texas criminal law not just for criminals anymore
• Left and right join to bash Byrne grants in D.C.
• LBB hasn't learned there's no free lunch
• 'Strange coalition' backs consent search ban
• Senator faces police retaliation over bills
• Using camera phone at movie theater Texas' most likely 1,942nd felony

May

• Texas right confronts 'overcriminalization'
• Where are the small government conservatives? (links to biometrics coverage)
• Prosecutor: War on drugs is just like beating your dog
• Task forces get more supervision instead of the axe
• Federal 'No More Tulias' legislation filed
• Written consent protects Texans' rights and prosecutors cases
• Written consent preferred by Texas prosecutors' manual

June

• Texas Lege avoided $1 billion in new prisons
• Perry vetoes key public safety bills
• Perry's vetoes worse than reported
• Harris revokes probation most among big Texas counties
• Illegal drugs 14% of world ag exports
• Blogs' role in political campaigns

July

• Blogs, Jazz and Message Development
• Failure to treat dyslexia increases crime
• Sun Tzu and the Art of Opposition Research, Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six
• HPD crime lab showed 'indifference to right and wrong'
• Texas prisons overflowing, now what?
• Cameras wrong response to London bombings
• Making sure ex-prisoners can find employment

August

• Tradeoffs: Mexican cartels boost meth involvement
• Harris County bail and jail series linked here
• Drug war no longer a growth industry in Texas
• ACLU vs. police union on interpreting racial profiling data
• Silver linings: Probation strengthening measures Perry didn't veto
• Texas news sources and methods

September

• Will .0056 grams of meth get you high?
• DEA nostalgic for alcohol prohibition
• Texas' new carry law: What does it mean?
• Bail policies juice Tarrant jail overcrowding
• Does Tarrant County need a public defender?
• Do Texas counties violate drug offenders' right to a speedy trial?
• Why are Texas county jails overcrowded? Pretrial detention
• Oklahoma meth law not working

October

• Hutchison immigration plan harms public safety
• Tell me immigration opponents, what's the big deal?
• Grits on Travis County's probation department: Parts one, two, and three
• McLennan County 'snuffs' Agriplex task force
• Tom DeLay sees everyday Texas justice
• Blame game misses point on Hidalgo jail overcrowding
• Governor getting one-sided advice from CJAC appointees

November

• Rocha case shows Austin police oversight toothless
• Biometrics slope got slippery awfully quick
• The surprising economics of unsanctioned immigration
• New Hidalgo public defender spurred by jail overcrowding
• Grits' best practices to reduce county jail overcrowding

December

• Research needed to tell if fewer arrests increases crime
• Mexican border wars
• Are Texas courts one big plea mill?
• Seeds of a new centrism?
• Don't snitch, Jack (with links to other Grits snitch clips)
• Tarrant County bail politics keeps jail full
• Bad idea from Texas exported to Britain

Hope you enjoy this new year's sampler, and please come back by in 2006 for more nutritious, mouth-watering servings of Grits for Breakfast. Happy New Year, folks!

Blog break

Thanks for stopping by. Grits for Breakfast is on a two-week hiatus. My big plan is to recoup somewhere in the mountains where thermometers never issue repugnant readings like 105 degrees fahrenheit. In the meantime, check out all the good folks linked to the right, and also these recent Grits posts:

Political campaign strategy:

• Sun Tzu and Opposition Research Strategy, Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six.
• Blogs, Jazz and Message Development
• Blogs' Role in Political Campaigns
• Mark Strama on web campaigning
  
• RELATED: Tipping crowds on the Internet (Texas Observer, 10/8/04)
  

Surveillance cameras:

• Cameras wrong response to London bombings
• Negotiating hidden cameras in the workplace
• Where can you be surveilled? Pretty much anywhere

Texas criminal justice:

• Texas prisons overflowing, now what?
• HPD crime lab shows "indifference to right and wrong"
• Assistant chief handcuffs reluctant sex partner
• Odds and ends: Drylabbing, border wars and high speed chases
• Children with incarcerated parents
• Failure to treat dyslexia increases crime
• Judge: Perry probation veto risks public safety
  
• Lege avoided $1 billion in new prisons

Drug war

• DEA snitch data lost
• West Texas drug task force may close
• Illegal drugs 14% of world Ag exports
• Cops profit from traffic stops
• La Mordida in Fort Bend County

Failure to treat dyslexia increases crime

Crime is neither random nor inevitable. It always occurs in a context, in particular the context of the individual who engages in it. While some bad people will choose to commit crimes no matter what, for others, changing the context of their lives early on could prevent them from ever entering the system.

That's the implication of a recent study that found the incidence of dyslexia in Texas prisons is triple the rate on the outside. Dyslexia is a reading disorder that causes a person to read letters on the page as though they're out of order, in a jumble. The Comptroller's Fiscal Notes publication says dyslexia directly contributes to hopelessness for many Texas youth and, ultimately, to their overincarceration.

[Dyslexia Research Foundation of Texas Chairman Bill] Hilgers said the incidence level is 10 percent or higher in Texas schools and about 30 percent or higher in prisons. The students either fall behind or get put in special education classes, Hilgers said.

"They drop out or get into other problems," he said. "Some end up in the criminal justice system. It creates a psychological problem. They feel stupid because they can't read. It's psychologically deadening--children and parents are very affected by that."

McCreary said it's better if dyslexia is diagnosed early, though some students with the disorder aren't identified until after third grade.

"Sometimes it takes a long time to find out a student is struggling to read if he or she is smart enough to find ways to compensate for the disability," she said.

The ones who don't learn to read because they are "smart enough" to "compensate for their disability" perhaps consitute the greatest tragedy of all -- that's the state's talent pool falling through the cracks. Think about it: One in ten Texans, but three out of ten Texas prisoners are dyslexic?! Horrifying. That's a direct result of the failure of our schools. This is obviously an area where greater investment in education would directly lead to lower incarceration rates and improved public safety. The folks diverted from prison would be people who otherwise would only have turned to crime out of frustration and a lack of opportunities because of a learning disorder that's not their fault.

As usual, though, the issue is mainly about money, or, rather, the values behind decisions to spend it: Texas just isn't investing enough to help these kids. Reports the Comptroller:

Hilgers said students need a lot of one-on-one training to overcome dyslexia. Students need to spend an extra hour a day for two years concentrating on reading skills to offset the disability, he said. ...

"The problem with dyslexics is that kids aren't able to sound out words or decode the sounds in words effectively," [Scottish Rites Children's Hospital medical director Dr. Jeffrey] Black said. "The intensive phonics system overrides that in many cases."

"We have a really good handle on what the condition is, how to identify it and intervene," he said. "The challenge now is scaling up, preparing more teachers and identifying more children so that fewer fall through the cracks." ...

Hilgers said the problem is that many school districts don't have the funding to implement comprehensive dyslexia programs.

"Schools just don't have the funding to do that, and teachers aren't trained to teach it," he said. "We need at least 10,000 to 15,000 more teachers trained, and nobody has seen fit to provide them."

Training 10,000 teachers would take big bucks, but not nearly so much as would be saved by diverting so many otherwise non-criminally inclined dyslexics away from prison. Legislators have an opportunity to do just that. They're in a special session right now on the subject of schools, and they could easily decide to pass the needed legislation under the Governor's current "charge." Somebody needs to step up.

See Dyslexia Texas for more.