By EMILY RAMSHAW
The Dallas Morning News
Texas to settle DOJ suit over juvenile prison
Texas agency loads kids into solitary, watchdog says
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Youth Commission’s conservator is taking steps toward abandoning the state’s long-time strategy of farming youth offenders out to large, remote prisons.
Richard Nedelkoff said Wednesday that he has the wheels in motion to move juveniles to the facilities closest to their homes – which will probably mean phasing out or closing less-populated rural prisons.
Lawmakers believe the isolation of the youth prisons, which were the subject of widespread reports of physical and sexual abuse last year, contributed to their poor conditions.
“Right now we have kids all over the place,” Mr. Nedelkoff said at a legislative hearing on the TYC. “We’ve got to put the kids in the community, closer to where they belong, and build the services there. That’s what we’re attempting to do.”
But closing rural youth prisons won’t come without strong local opposition. Traditionally, plans to shut institutions – which are major employers in their communities – have caused outrage in the towns where they are located.
If the West Texas State School in Ward County is closed, “anywhere from 150 to 200 families would be affected in terms of their job situation,” County Judge Greg Holly said. “It would have a tremendous negative effect.”
The “regionalization” plan, one that emphasizes a decentralized, mostly community-based juvenile justice system, was first raised publicly by Sen. John Whitmire.
The Houston Democrat held up the state’s juvenile probation system – which has taken responsibility for hundreds of youth misdemeanants released from the TYC since last year – as a model. The probation system has an 18 percent recidivism rate, compared to the TYC’s 50 percent, a spread Mr. Whitmire called unacceptable.
And he questioned the TYC’s continued incarceration of more than 150 misdemeanants and 100 19-year-olds – youths who were supposed to be released under the agency’s reform legislation last year. Between the probation department’s success and the release of these remaining youth, Mr. Whitmire said, the TYC’s population will only continue to decline, making regionalization even more cost effective.
TYC officials said 77 of the remaining youth offenders with misdemeanors are overdue for release and will be freed within 30 days. The others were incarcerated before the new law went into effect and still must meet their minimum stay. The Attorney General’s office has upheld keeping them in custody, the officials said.
Mr. Nedelkoff also said the TYC has begun renovating juvenile prisons with violence-prone open bay dorms, in favor of single-room cells.
While many lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing seemed to support regionalization in theory, the plan may face greater opposition when specific youth prisons are on the chopping block. In some cases, even school districts have fought to keep TYC prisons open, to prevent losing state education dollars.
“That’s not our highest priority, to try to help a school district maintain its funding,” Mr. Whitmire said. “It’s got to make sense overall.”
And while the TYC doesn’t need legislative approval to move youth offenders closer to home, officials may need it to close youth prisons. The reallocation of funds directed to those facilities would probably need lawmakers’ stamp of approval, agency spokesman Jim Hurley said.
The state’s first responsibility is to the youth offenders, said Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Many offenders are living in prisons so remote that they aren’t getting adequate medical or mental health care, he said.
Some facilities, like the West Texas State School where abuse allegations first surfaced last year, are “so isolated… that we can’t even find the proper professionals to provide the services these youth need,” Mr. Hinojosa said. “We’re trying to find ways to eliminate, or do away with, some of those facilities.”
Copyright 2008 The Dallas Morning News