News
Saturday, March 21, 2009 - 8:24 am
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, March 19, 2009
CROCKETT - Authorities say a 14-year-old inmate at the Texas Youth Commission’s juvenile prison in Crockett hanged himself.
Houston County Judge Lonnie Hunt said the boy hanged himself with his underwear. An officer found the teen early Monday after someone reported that paper covered the window of the door to the teen’s room, Hunt said.
“We will conduct a comprehensive investigation to determine how this young man was able to take his life while in our custody,” Youth Commission Executive Commissioner Cherie Townsend said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Commission spokesman Jim Hurley declined to say how long the teen had been at the Crockett State School, which has 265 beds, or what crime he had committed. Before the death this week, the most recent juvenile inmate suicide was in 2006, when Robert Schulze, 19, who had complained that he felt unsafe, hanged himself in his cell at a lockup in Bronte.
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Friday, March 13, 2009 - 3:52 pm
After months of discussion about the Sunset Commission’s recommendation to merge the functions of the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, bills to that effect have been filed in the Texas Legislature. House Bill 3689 by Representative Ruth Jones McClendon was filed on March 12, and Senate Bill 1020, authored by Senators Juan “Chuy” Hinajosa and Glenn Hegar and was filed on March 13.
Rep. McClendon also filed bills that would provide options to the consolidation. McClendon’s HB 3687 and 3688 would preserve TYC and TJPC as separate agencies through at least 2015. The bills also call for the creation of a Juvenile Justice Improvement plan to be created by June 1, 2010. The plan would prioritize placing juveniles as close to their homes as possible, and reserving secure facilities for youth who present a clear danger to themselves or others unless confined. The plan would also call for both risk and needs assessments for all youth committed to state custody, to ensure they receive appropriate placement and services, as well as for improved re-entry programming to assist youth release from secure facilities rejoin their families and communities.
So far, no further action has been scheduled on any of the bills.
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Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 1:42 pm
A report released by the Sunset Advisory Commission says TYC remains unable to fix it’s many structural and programmatic short-comings, and suggests the creation of a new agency, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, that would combine the functions of TYC with the functions of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. If the legislature follows the Commission’s recommendation, TYC and TJPC would be dissolved by September 30, 2009.
In fact, the change represents nothing very new. Before the landmark reform lawsuit Morales V. Turman was settled in 1981, juvenile detention and probation services were both provided by TYC. The seperation of those functions, and the creation of an independent probation department, was one of the changes mandated by the Morales settlement agreement.
Neither TYC nor TJPC are embracing the report’s recommendation. Both Cherie Townsend, TYC’s current executive director, and Vicki Spriggs, executive director of the Probation Commission, say they two agencies are looking for ways to collaborate to better coordinate services for youth moving between state detention facilities and services in their home communities after release. “While I appreciate the work of the Sunset staff, I do not believe their report is an accurate portrayal of the Youth Commission today,” Townsend said in a press release put out in response to the Sunset report. “I’m afraid the recommendations are not only outdated but, if adopted, will be counter-productive to our reform efforts.”
Many juvenile justice reform advocates also oppose the change, fearing that the new agency would place an over-emphasis on the incarceration of juvenile delinquents, while hampering reforms focussed on prevention and rehabilitation.
According to the Sunset Commission, the change would involve closing several facilities and laying off staff, saving the state $27 million a year. Implicitly, the report also calls for moving more youth from large-scale secure facilities in remote, rural locations into smaller facilities closer to their homes and families. This is a reform which has been tried several times during the agency’s 100-year history, and one which reformers say is generally more conducive to rehabilitation and a smooth re-entry into the community after release. Historically, however, such initiatives have been successful only when the state has provided sufficient funding and resources to local authorities that they are able to provide for the increased number of youth who remain in their communities.
The closing of facilities would seem indicate the Commission foresees a marked decrease in the number of juveniles who will require secure confinement in the immediate future. This is in direct contrast to the latest projections from the non-partisan Legislative Budget Board, which predict the number of incarcerated juveniles will continue to rise, despite laws passed in 2007 limiting the types of offenses for which juvenile can be sent to TYC, and lowering TYC’s top age limit from 21 to 19. Even with these changes in place, it is predicted that the number of youth incarcerated in Texas will once again exceed the capacity of the secure facilities available for them by June of 2009. Conditions of over-crowding and under-staffing are widely understood to contribute to the chaotic and violent climate that have spurred widespread accusations of abuse and neglect in recent years.
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Thursday, August 7, 2008 - 1:37 pm
Airick opted to accept a plea deal of two years of Determinant Sentence Offender probation, in return for which the state will change his charge from “Aggravated Attempted Sexual Assault” to “Aggravated Assault.” In order to accept the deal, Airick was required to tell the court that he used a weapon to assault his victim, in order for the charge to qualify as aggravated assault—in essence confessing to a crime he had insisted for nearly two years that he did not commit, in order to secure his release and return home to his family. At the time of his original trial, the victim never testified that a weapon was used or displayed as part of the assault she alleged. Privately, Airick continues to maintain that he did not assault his victim, with or without a weapon.
By the terms of the deal, Airick was paroled through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, rather than the Texas Youth Commission, resulting in an adult felony record that will follow him into adult life. He is now living with his family out of state.
Since the Texas Supreme Court reversed and remanded Airick’s case in May, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has filed several delaying motions, and his original sentencing judge refused to write the bench warrant that would release him from the authority of the Texas Youth Commission. At issue was Airick’s inability to complete TYC’s Sexual Behavior Treatment Program. Because Airick never confessed to the crime for which he was adjudicated, he was never able to enter the program.
Airick and his family considered waiting for a retrial in which they would have attempted to prove that he did not commit either sexual assault or aggravated assault on his alleged victim. However, Airick accepted the deal when he got tired of waiting for release. “I’ve been locked up since I was fifteen. I feel like I missed my childhood,” he says. “I’d to at least try and get a little bit of that back.”
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Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:36 pm
Although Airick’s case was reversed and remanded to the lower court on April 26, one month later he is still in TYC custody. Airick was moved from the facility where he had been held for more than a year to another TYC facility. He told his mother that while handcuffed prior to transport, he was left alone in the hall, where he was attacked by another youth, pushed to the ground, and kicked in the face. He received a black eye.
Airick also told his mother he had been caught in the cross-fire of a guard pepper-spraying another youth. Airick has asthma, as well as a rare and potentially life-threatening allergy to many chemical agents, and is officially on the list of youth whom staff are not supposed to spray.
His mother has been given no word about why his release is delayed, or when she should expect him to be out.
Airick’s original sentencing judge will have the option to order a retrial for him, during which prosecutors will have to show he intended to sexually assault the woman he admits to pushing down after she called him a racial slur while he was walking past her.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 12:02 pm
On May 20, just one month after his wedding to long-time girlfriend Darcey, Robert was summoned back to court and given 30 days in county jail for violating the terms of his parole. Violations included missing some sex offender treatment classes and falling behind on court fees.
It is worth noting that there was no sex offense in the charge that put Robert on parole last year. The original charge that took him to TYC was a sex offense, but the charge he was picked up on in 2006 after his release from TYC was a drug possession charge.
It has been frequently noted by critics of the Texas parole system that terms of parole are often so restrictive and demanding that they seemed designed more to catch violations and send parolees back to prison than to assist them in rejoining society. In Robert’s case, he found it difficult to attend drug education classes and sex offender treatment classes, complete community service requirements, and attend weekly check-ins while keeping the job he needed in order to be able to pay his court fees.
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Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 12:28 pm
Joseph Galloway’s girlfriend Melissa gave birth to a healthy baby son, to be named Gunner Joseph Galloway, at the East Texas Medical Center in Crockett on May 15 shortly after 1 a.m.
Joseph was out of state, attending a heavy-equipment training school, when his mother called to tell him that Melissa had begun labor. Joseph called the state highway department, explained the situation, and was given an escort by state troopers all the way to Crockett at 115 mph. He arrived just an hour before the birth.
A few days later, Joseph returned to training school, which he hopes to complete in a few months. Melissa graduated from high school in Crockett on May 31.
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Saturday, April 26, 2008 - 12:19 pm
The Texas’ Supreme Court released their ruling on April 26, reversing and remanding Airick’s case back to the judge who sentenced him. The high court found that prosecutors had failed to show that Airick’s intent was to sexually assault the woman who accused him.
Although Airick admits to pushing the woman, who he says called him a racial epithet as he was walking past, he denies that he sexually assaulted her, or ever intended to do so. He says the woman fell to the ground, after which he got scared and ran away. According to the testimony of the alleged victim, Airick did not attempt to remove her clothing or his own, and did not touch her breasts or genital area.
When originally sentenced, the fact that he had a pocket knife on him at the time of the offense was held to be sufficient evidence of intent.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 1:47 pm
Dimitria Pope, who was named acting executive director of the Texas Youth Commission last spring, resigned Monday. Reportedly, the agency new conservator told her she would be fired if she did not resign. Pope had announced at a legislative last week that she had applied for the position as permanent agency head, but was not being considered.
In her nine months at the agency, Pope drew frequent criticism for expanding the use of pepper spray and solitary confinement in TYC facilities. She has also been criticized for using state monies to redecorate her office at a time when the agency did not have enough money to staff its secure facilities at the level required by last spring’s reform legislation.
“TYC acting director resigns under pressure”, Dallas Morning News
“TYC chief’s resignation stirs further criticism”, Houston Chronicle
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Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - 1:53 pm
TYC has agreed to make some changes to protect inmates safety at the Evins Regional Juvenile Justice Center, after federal investigators found staff at the South Texas facility had violated the civil rights of incarcerated youth.
The Justice Department filed suit last week, accusing TYC and the Evins unit of failing to protect inmates’ safety or provide rehabilitative treatment, as well as violating their due process rights. The Department cited the same concerns in a report released in March 2007. After several months of investigation, the report concluded that conditions at Evins were “chaotic and violent.” In recent years Evins has been plagued by several youth riots and high turn-over among top-level administrators.
Attorneys for TYC and the Justice Department have agreed to a proposed settlement that would require adequate staffing levels at the facility to prevent violence, and would ensure that restraint—including pepper spray—is used to only maintain security, and not as punishment. A staff member would be assigned to the Evins facility to ensure that the new requirements are met. Evins would have three years to meet the terms of the agreement. (“State to settle suit over South Texas juvenile prison.”,)
A hearing before a federal judge is set for April 9.
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Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 12:06 pm
On January 18, a county judge sentenced Justin to 21 years in state prison for attempted escape from a TYC facility, and bodily harm to the guard with whom he struggled during the escape.
A security video played in the hearing shows Justin entering the guardroom a few minutes before midnight on January 4, 2007, where a single officer was on duty. Justin appears to distract the officer with conversation while a second boy enters the room and tackles the officer from behind. The three struggle on the floor for nearly two minutes while two more boys enter the guardroom and take the guard’s keys and call radio. A second guard, who had been monitoring the security video and saw the attack, enters the room and three of the boys run outside. Only one would make it over the facility’s razor-wire fence. Justin and the other boy were caught quickly.
The guard who sustained the attacks told Judge Reba Towsley Corbett that he had received no broken bones, but many muscle strains and bruises. He was placed on light duty for several weeks after the incident. He said he feared for his life during the attack, and now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After a medical seperation of several months, he has resumed his position as a guard at TYC.
Prosecuting attorneys for the county emphasized Justin’s first offense—the sexual assault of his sister that took him to TYC at thirteen years old—and his many behavioral violations in TYC, calling him a repeat offender and a budding career criminal. Pointing out that he had been dropped from TYC’s Sex Offender Treatment program before completing it, they said Justin had not been rehabilitated and was likely to offend again.
Defense attorneys argued that abusive and arbitrary treatment during Justin’s incarceration made him desperate and willing to attempt anything to escape the TYC campus. Justin testified that TYC doctors had taken him off the psychiatric medications he had taken since fifth grade to control Bipolar Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. He claimed many of his behavioral violations stemmed from fighting in self-defense, or from accidents. He also claimed to have petitioned for months to be allowed to re-enter the Sex Offender Treatment program after he was declared a failure, but had been denied. After more than four years in TYC, Justin says he came to believe he would never be released.
Defense attorney Stephen Keng asked Corbett to give Justin probation and allow him to return home. He pointed out that in the four months since Justin was bonded out of county jail, he has held a steady job and been active in church. “This is a young man at a turning point,” Keng said. “We are asking you to give him a chance.” Two members of the Temple, TX, Bethel Assembly of God testified that Justin had recently been baptized and seemed sincere about making a new start.
After attorney concluded five hours of testimony, Corbett told the defense she was not interested in the facts they had presented regarding the conditions of Justin’s confinement in TYC. “I am not here today to try TYC,” she said. Saying she was interested only in the attack on the guard and injuries he had sustained, Corbett sentenced Justin to 21 years in state prison.
Justin said goodbye to his family and the members of his church, exchanging hugs over the wall of the gallery box. He was then handcuffed, escorted from the courtroom, and taken to the Lee County Jail.
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Saturday, January 12, 2008 - 12:44 pm
The agency executive who pushed for the expanded use of peppery spray and solitary confinement is gone, as of this week. According to the Austin American-Statesman, Humphrey’s “depature was initiated” by TYC’s new conservator, Richard Nedelkoff. (“Texas Youth Commission official Billy Humphrey forced to resign”, Jan. 11)
As director of residential services, Humphrey oversaw the management of all TYC institutions, half-way houses, and contract-care facilities. Humphrey was appointed by acting executive director Dimitria Pope, with whom he served at the Texas Deparment of Criminal Justice, which operates the state’s adult prison system.
Humphrey and Pope together championed the increased use of peppery spray in TYC facilities, which they said would cut down on injuries received by youth and staff during physical restraints.
In October, two TYC facility administrators filed grievances against Humphrey, saying he retaliated against them when they were unwilling to enforce his new policies on pepper spray and the solitary confinement of disruptive youth.
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 12:17 pm
Governor’s Perry’s newly appointed conservator, Richard Nedelkoff, has three decades experience in criminal justice at the federal and state levels. Nedelkoff oversaw Texas’ criminal justice division under the Bush governorship, and followed Bush to Washington in 2001 to direct the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, which oversees public safety grants to community organizations.
Currently, Nedelkoff is chief operation officer for Eckhard Youth Alternatives, a Florida-based non-profit that serves at-risk youth through community-based treatment programs. Nedelkoff will retain that position while he serves as TYC’s conservator for an unspecified term.
Nedelkoff’s appointment has the backing of Barry Krisberg, of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.Krisberg told the Dallas Morning News that Nedelkoff is “a tough-minded guy” and “a very effective administrator.” (New conservator has long-term outlook for Texas Youth Commission“”, Dec. 20)
In the Dallas Morning News story, Nedelkoff suggested that TYC’s future might include more community-based treatment and small-group settings for youth. .
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Thursday, November 29, 2007 - 9:56 am
The Texas Youth Commission will hold a public hearing Monday, December 3, to “solicit public input on changes to it’s use-of-force policy” according to the agency website. The primary topic of discussion, one imagines, will be the agency’s recent rule-change on the use of OC gas, also known as pepper spray.
Previously, guards were supposed to use verbal commands first when dealing with youth who refused to obey commands. If commands were unsuccessful guards were to attempt mechanical restraint (such as handcuffs), then physical restraints, then—as a last resort—chemical agents such as pepper spray.
The agency’s rule change places chemical agents before physical restraint in the use-of-force continuum. That is, if a youth disobeys a verbal command and does not submit to being handcuffed, the next step is pepper spray.
The agency’s reasoning is that pepper spray, if it is used appropriately and if a sprayed youth is quickly decontaminated, results in fewer injuries to staff and youth than physical restraints that may devolve into violent struggles. A bill passed by the Texas Legislature last spring ordered the agency to limit the number of physical restraints in its facilities, following charges that incarcerated youth were being unnecessarily and brutally restrained. Some prisoners’ rights advocates say the new rule change violates the spirit of that legislation.
Advocacy group Texas Appleseed filed suit against the agency in September, claiming that the method of the rule change—which was made by an administration order from Executive Director Dimitria Pope—was illegal. Weeks later, the agency settled the suit, agreeing to curtail the use of pepper spray. In October, Texas Appleseed filed a second suit, claiming that the agency was still spraying outside the rules.
The agency is now going through the legal avenues for making it’s rule change on the increased use of pepper spray permanent. The proposed rule change was published in the Texas Register Nov. 2.
The public hearing will be at 2:00 p.m., in room 1410 on the ground floor of the Brown Heatly state office building at 4900 North Lamar Boulevard, in Austin, Texas.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 8:41 pm
Ten days ago, a Travis County district judge ordered attorneys for TYC to reach an agreement with attorneys for advocacy groups Texas Applesees and Advocacy, Inc. about the appropriate use of pepper spray on youth in TYC facilities. Texas Appleseed and Advocacy, Inc. announced today that they have reached a compromise with the agency, under which pepper spray will not be used as a first resort against youth with respiratory, emotional, or mental health issues.
The agency has further agreed that each instance of the use of pepper spray must meet a two-part test: It must be used only if the youth threatens imminent hard to self or others, and only if “manual restraint is not a practicable method for dealing with the situation under the circumstances presented.”
The compromise further provides that:
- Youth with respiratory/health problems that contraindicate use of OC spray will be identified and placed on a” no-spray” list, which will be circulated to all staff authorized to use pepper spray.
- As a general rule, pepper spray should not be used in the TYC facility in Corsicana, which houses youth with mental and emotional issues, unless necessary prevent loss of life or serious bodily injury.
- If a youth’s mental condition would contraindicate the use of OC pepper spray, a mental health professional must be given an opportunity to establish control of the situation before OC spray is used. The only exception is if use of the spray is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
- For youth confined in a room in a security unit or an isolation room, pepper spray can only be used when necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or loss of life.
- TYC cannot use OC spray unless a youth’s behavior poses a risk of “imminent harm.” This requires non-verbal aggressive behavior. In the absence of non-verbal aggressive behavior, TYC has agreed that manual restraint must be attempted prior to the use of OC spray.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 9:42 am
The Texas Youth Commission announced Tuesday that it will resume paying overtime to Juvenile Corrections Officers. Overtime payments were suspended last month after top agency officials discovered they had spent almost a year’s worth of budgeted overtime money in just two months. The heavy overtime payments result from the understaffing of frontline positions.
Read more at The Austin-American Statesman:
“Youth Commission resumes overtime pay for guards.”
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Monday, November 12, 2007 - 4:08 pm
Airick’s minimum length of stay was up on the 6th of November. He was reviewed for release, but the review panel found that since he had not completed treatment, he was not eligible for release. According to his mother, they then appeared to release their decision and informed her that they were preparing his paperwork for release on November 14. On November 9, TYC officials informed his mother that he would not be released on the 14th, as there were some problems with his parole paperwork. On November 12, officials informed Airick’s attorney that, as stated by the original review panel, Airick will not be released until he has completed a sex offender treatment program. He cannot enter TYC’s sex offender treatment program until he confesses to the details of the police report alleging he committed sexual assault. Essentially, he will remain in TYC custody until he confesses to a crime he says he did not commit.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 4:15 pm
Justin has entered a plea of no contendere to the Lee County District Court on the charge of attempted escape and causing bodily harm to a TYC employee. As part of the plea, the court will conduct an investigation into the circumstances of the attempted escape before issuing a sentence. Justin and his family are hoping the court will consider Justin’s state of mind at the time of the attempted escape, after nearly four years of incarceration and what they beleive were deliberate attempts on the part of TYC staff to extend his stay another five years, until his 21st birthday. They also hope the court will consider the circumstances of Justin’s confession to his original offense—according to his family, Justin was pulled out of school and questioned by police officers for eight hours, during which he was persuaded to confess to incidents and details that never happened, and was told that if he did not sign his confession he would never see his mother again.
Justin’s sentencing is expected in January.
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