By Mike Ward
The Austin American-Statesman
COKE COUNTY, Texas — Citing unsafe conditions, Texas Youth Commission officials abruptly closed a privately run lockup in West Texas on Monday and ordered nearly 200 offenders transferred to state-run centers.
Agency spokesman Jim Hurley said that the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in Bronte, operated by Geo Corp., “was in an advanced state of disrepair, that programming and rehabilitation efforts were not being pursued, and the overall health and safety of the youth housed there were in jeopardy.”
The surprise move is the latest issue for the troubled agency, which last week abandoned a controversial two-month-old policy that expanded the use of pepper spray in youth lockups and decided to retain custody of more than 100 19- and 20-year-old offenders it had earlier moved to place on adult parole.
Using buses provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, all youths at the Bronte center will be transferred out today , Hurley said.
“TYC’s No. 1 priority is the safety and well-being of those youths under our care,” said Dimitria Pope, the Youth Commission’s acting executive director. “The unsafe conditions I witnessed at Coke County this weekend are unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for any form of abuse within the system, and those responsible parties will be held accountable.”
Geo officials could not be reached for comment.
Hurley said the problems surfaced a week earlier, when a top Youth Commission official “arrived at the Geo center and discovered unsanitary conditions throughout the facility.”
Pope’s decision to remove the state offenders was made after additional problems were found in programming and facility operations. A special audit over the weekend confirmed the problems and led to Pope’s decision to remove the facility’s youth population, Hurley said.
He said Youth Commission officials brought in guards to ensure the safety of all youths and deployed law enforcement officials from the agency’s Office of Inspector General.
Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, calling it “a clear indication of the positive changes under way at the Texas Youth Commission.”
Geo has operated the facility north of San Angelo since 2003, when it purchased the institutional division from Wackenhut Corp., Hurley said.
After an abuse scandal in the Youth Commission broke this year, leading to the agency being placed in conservatorship and in the removal of most top officials, the Coke County lockup made headlines when a convicted sex offender was discovered to be working there. He was subsequently fired.
Copyright 2007 Austin American-Statesman