TYC will hold public hearing on use of force
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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