TYC News, august 23 – august 30

8/25/10, Groups urge U.S. inquiry into alleged assaults, lapses at Texas juvenile lockups

8/27/10, TYC ombudsman resigns

8/27/10, TYC officials open fire on critics

8/27/10, TYC executive director, board chairman dispute letter to DOJ

8/27/10, TYC board says complaints of abuse are off base

8/27/10, TSEU calls on the Legislature to take responsibility and fully fund TYC

Groups urge U.S. inquiry into alleged assaults, lapses at Texas juvenile lockups

Dallas Morning News

August 25, 2010

Christy Hoppe

AUSTIN – Four child advocacy groups are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Texas Youth Commission, charging that juvenile offenders are routinely assaulted, lack mental health treatment and live in fear because of inadequate security conditions.

The commission, which confines about 2,000 young offenders, was overhauled by the state three years ago after reports of abuse and sexual assaults by supervisors.

In what were billed as sweeping reforms, Gov. Rick Perry placed the agency under a conservator, the number of detained youths was cut in half, new laws governing procedures were enacted, and new managers were hired.

But the four groups said teenagers are still endangered, and they asked Tuesday for federal intervention to deter the use of excessive force and restraints.

The groups reported that extensive interviews at TYC's 12 facilities found a pattern of inappropriate force, high numbers of assaults and inadequate education and health care.

TYC responded that it takes the concerns of the groups seriously and will fully investigate allegations outlined in the letter to federal authorities.

The agency also pointed out that youth assaults resulting in injuries have been reduced 61 percent in the past year, the use of antipsychotic drugs as sleep aids has been slashed 90 percent, and clinically licensed specialists are available for mental health treatment.

"TYC has and enforces a zero tolerance policy for any type of mistreatment or abuse," said spokesman Jim Hurley.

He said that the agency has been working with Advocacy Inc. and Texas Appleseed, two of the groups requesting intervention, but that it is sometimes difficult to corroborate what an unidentified youth says in an interview.

Hurley did say that video cameras and investigators that weren't in place three years ago are now available to substantiate mistreatment.

Justice officials in Washington said they were reviewing the letter.

Some offenders – including one who suffered a broken jaw after being attacked by other youth – told advocate lawyers that they were held in high-security segregation for extended periods because TYC couldn't protect them in dorms.

The advocates also reported concern that self-injuries – such as "cutting" because of mental health problems – were growing and going largely untreated.

In interviews at the Al Price facility in Beaumont last month, youths spoke of frequent fights, the lawyers reported to federal officials.

"Every young person we asked said they did not feel safe," the lawyers wrote.

The other two groups requesting federal intervention are the Center for Public Representation, in Northampton, Mass., and the National Center for Youth Law, in Oakland, California.

TYC ombudsman resigns

Youth advocate says departure unrelated to advocacy group complaints.

Austin American Statesman

August 27, 2010

Mike Ward

Amid a growing controversy about new allegations of abuse and security concerns at the Texas Youth Commission, the top official responsible for independently investigating mistreatment and monitoring conditions has resigned after less than six months on the job.

Officials confirmed Thursday that John Moore, who was appointed as independent ombudsman by Gov. Rick Perry in March, resigned Aug. 9.

Moore, who could not immediately be reached for comment, confirmed his resignation in an e-mail to legislative leaders, saying he was leaving for other employment. Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry, said Moore's last day would be Sept. 1.

No replacement has been named.

"This resignation was submitted prior to the current advocacy issue and is not in anyway driven by that," Moore stated in his resignation letter. "I value my service with the state and appreciate the opportunity to serve."

Four youth advocacy groups on Monday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate continuing reports of systemic chaos inside the agency, including allegations that incarcerated teenagers are routinely assaulted, lack required educational programs and mental-health treatment and that many youths are living in fear because of inadequate security.

Agency officials have promised to investigate the claims but generally deny that the issues are as grave as portrayed.

Legislative leaders have promised an expedited inquiry of their own and on Tuesday had pressed for answers about why Moore's office and the agency's inspector general had not turned up the problems earlier on their own. Their quarterly reports had given no indication of the systemic problems that the advocacy groups cited in their request for a federal investigation.

Legislative leaders also want to know why top agency officials did not address and resolve complaints from the advocacy groups as early as last spring about conditions inside the 10-lockup juvenile corrections system.

The new complaints echo many of the ones four years ago that triggered legislative reforms after a sexual abuse scandal and cover-up, and have left some legislative leaders questioning whether the agency has corrected its past problems.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he was especially surprised to learn Thursday that Moore had resigned. The day after Moore's resignation letter to Perry was dated, the senator said, "he sat in my office and shared his plans for the coming months, his concerns about the Beaumont campus and what he was going to be focusing on."

Moore's resignation marks the latest vacancy in the top monitoring job, a post that the Legislature created to curb abuse and mistreatment and a post that was seen as a key reform at the agency.

Perry named Moore to the post March 10, replacing former state District Judge Catherine Evans of Dallas. She had resigned three months earlier after being caught smuggling contraband — a knife, a cell phone and prescription drugs — into a Youth Commission lockup in Crockett.

At the time, Evans insisted she was testing reports of lax security in Youth Commission lockups.

Evans was indicted on a felony charge in December 2009 and pleaded guilty in June to a reduced misdemeanor charge. She received six months' probation.

Evans' predecessor was Will Harrell, a former head of the American Civil Liberties Union's Texas office who failed to win Senate confirmation to keep his job amid a controversy about an arrest record years ago.

Moore, who lives in Denison in North Texas, is a retired U.S. marshal with 25 years of service, a former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and former Amarillo police officer. He could not be reached for comment.

TYC officials open fire on critics

Austin American Statesman [Post Cards Blog]

August 27, 2010

Mike Ward

The Texas Youth Commission’s top brass today blasted as misleading and untrue allegations by four leading advocacy groups who have called for a federal investigation into evidence of continuing assaults and lack of care in the state’s juvenile corrections system.

Even though an internal agency investigation into the complaints is less than a week old, the board apparently felt confident enough in the outcome to unanimously approve a vote of confidence in the job that Executive Director Cherie Townsend and agency officials are doing.

“I assure you we take the complaints seriously and will thoroughly investigate, but the advocates’ letter to the Department of Justice contains overly broad and inflammatory accusations that ignore and dismiss out-of-hand the vast improvements we have made over the past two years with safeguards and programming that match best practices nationwide, ” the Rev. Scott Fisher, chairman of the agency’s seven-member board, said in a prepared statement he read at a board meeting in Austin.

“This board has never, and will never, tolerate abuse of children in our custody and the agency will continue to take swift and firm corrective action any time there is a documented case. We strongly disagree, however, with the characterizations portrayed in the (advocates’) letter.”

While Youth Commission officials earlier had said the allegations were off-point, today’s pronouncements represented an intensified effort to tamp down what has become a growing public controversy at an agency that Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed a reform success.

Perry, a Republican, faces Democrat Bill White in the November general election.

On Monday, the four groups filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice charging that incarcerated teen-agers are still routinely being assaulted at some lockups, that others are plagued by lack of school programs and lack of proper mental health care and that continuing security issues have left offenders living in fear at other lockups.

The groups include Advocacy Incorporated, Texas Appleseed, the Center for Public Representation and the National Center for Youth Law.

During the meeting, Townsend also blasted the advocates’ complaints as “inaccuracies,” stressing that the agency has made “many significant positive changes” that are being ignored.”

She said that youths are not being sexually assaulted on a daily basis, that schooling is not being scuttled continually by security concerns and scheduling mistakes and that offenders are not being denied proper mental-health services on a continuing basis.

“Nothing could be farther from the truth,” she said of the health complaints, insisting that any continuing issues at the agency are “occasional and isolated” and are quickly addressed.

“To suggest otherwise is not based on fact,” she said. “TYC in 2010 is not TYC three years ago, and it won’t be the same as TYC 2011.”

Defending their complaint as valid, representatives of the advocacy groups said they asked the Justice Department to intervene only after Townsend and other Youth Commission officials did not follow-up on their concerns.

Deborah Fowler, legal director of Texas Appleseed, said the groups alerted agency officials about their growing concerns about the safety of teen-aged offenders several times since February, both in meetings and in letters.

“All of these issues have been raised with TYC before we sent the letter to the Justice Department,” Fowler said, citing letters sent to Townsend and Grant Goodwin, a Youth Commission litigation attorney, in February, July and August detailing the issues.

“I don’t know how they can say they didn’t know … Their own records reflect that there are problems.”

John Moore, 59, the agency’s independent ombudsman who is responsible for monitoring conditions inside the youth lockups and investigating abuse allegations, told the board in his first public comments on the controversy that while he “agrees with some things” in the advocate’s complaint, “I am somewhat disturbed by what was described as systemic problems. I have not seen them.”

“No youth has said they feel threatened or that they feel abused or unsafe,” he said, noting that his investigators ask that as a last question to every youth they interview.

Moore’s resignation on Aug. 9 has added to growing questions about whether abuse and security complaints are being properly investigated. Moore said his departure had nothing to do with the advocacy groups’ complaints, which he was unaware of until news broke about their complaint.

His last day is Sept. 1.

In his six months on the job, Moore, who lives in Denison, said he has spent most of his time establishing an administrative structure “to allow the ombudsman’s office to operate. There was not one when I got here.”

In fact, Moore said he has visited only three TYC locations — lockups in Giddings and Gainesville, and a Youth Commission parole office in Dallas. At the same time, his staff has logged 282 contacts with youth and visited sites 19 times.

Get more Legislative coverage inside the Virtual Capitol

TYC executive director, board chairman dispute letter to DOJ

Lone Star Report [Blog]

August 27, 2010

Mark Lavergne

At a meeting of the Texas Youth Commission governing board this morning, Executive Director Cherie Townsend and board Chairman Scott Fisher both disputed claims made in the letter, from four advocacy groups to the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging systemic problems of abuse and lack of safety for offenders incarcerated at TYC facilities (as reported in today's LSR).

Townsend said TYC has made "significant positive changes" since 2007. "The frequency with which any of these allegations or actions that are inconsistent with agency policy are happening, is now occasional or isolated, not routine operations, and for anyone to suggest otherwise is not based on fact," she said.

Fisher, in a written statement released today, said the TYC Board "takes very seriously every allegation of abuse, mistreatment or neglect of youth in TYC," and "are committed to investigated the cases and taking the appropriate action swiftly."

Lack of communication?

But Fisher was "particularly dismayed that these organizations chose to publicly air their concerns without first meeting with agency management or this Board."

Outgoing TYC Ombudsman John Moore said that Texas Appleseed Legal Director Deborah Fowler had called him at the beginning of this week, as the letter was being made public, to apologize for not having contacted him. He accepted her apology, he told the board.

Fowler acknowledges that she did in fact call him to apologize, but said that she had never contacted him because 1) of high turnover in leadership in the office over the last two years, and 2) she and other authors thought it unnecessary to communicate with the ombudsman's office because they communicated amply with others in management at TYC.

Fowler said that Texas Appleseed had been working with Townsend and others for two and a half years. They had also worked with TYC litigation attorneys, and sent letters to TYC after each visit to a facility. She told LSR that they did a lot of "cutting and pasting" from those letters to TYC into the letter to DOJ.

"We bent over backwards to communicate with the commission," Fowler told LSR.

Townsend addresses claims

At the hearing, Townsend addressed the claims of the DOJ letter one by one.

The letter's claim that TYC has continued systemic problems is simply "not true," she said. To the letter's claims, based on interviews with the youthful offenders, that sexual assaults still happen regularly, Townsend responded that a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey report documented that throughout the nation, youth with a history of trauma and sexual abuse prior to entering a juvenile facility will report allegations of sexual abuse at the facility at twice the rate of other youth. Many of the youth at Corsicana, the unit named in the DOJ letter as having youth-on-youth sexual assaults daily, have histories of abuse and report allegations at a higher rate than youth at others facilities. The Office of Inspector General has said that about 99 percent of those allegations are not founded or confirmed, Townsend said.

To the letter's claims of inadequate educational programs: in fiscal year 2010 TYC extended the school day by 90 minutes, with 80 percent of TYC facilities in 2010 meeting the 180-day minimum set by the Texas Education Agency, Townsend said. (She vowed that it would be 100 percent in 2011.) She also said that packets given to the youths that were characterized in the DOJ letter as "busy work" were in fact supplemental materials on top of the 180-day minimum.

Townsend acknowledged that during the time the advocacy groups were conducting their visits, school days were missed. New leadership is in place at Crockett, Al Price, and Mart II, the three facilities referenced in the letter. In each case they have significant experience working with at-risk youth, and instructional days have returned to normal, she said.

Townsend said in response to the letter's claim of inadequate mental health services and integration with education programs, "nothing could be further from the truth." TYC implemented a psychiatric symptom checklist which is completed prior to each psychiatric visit. That checklist is scanned into the electronic medical record for review by the psychiatrist prior to evaluating any youth. TYC also implemented a rating scale for behavioral concerns. All concerns are being addressed, Townsend said.

"The bottom line is that consistent care is provided and is integrated into educational and behavioral health programming," Townsend said.

Upon completing her report, the board unanimously gave Townsend a vote of confidence.

Seth Hutchinson, an organizer with the Texas State Employees Union, agreed with the board that many of the cases in the DOJ letter were anecdotal, and said that the problem was understaffing.

Moore told the board that he was resigning as Ombudsman effective Sept. 1 because he believed he had done what he set out to do in that position and felt it was "time to pursue other interests. Since March 2010, he said, the Office of the Independent Ombudsman had made 282 direct contacts with youth and made 19 site visits, as well as phone calls received through the hotline.

He said he agreed with some of the problems alleged in the DOJ letter, if only because the program is so large and decentralized. He sees positive improvement at the top but it is taking a while for that professionalism to trickle down, he said.

"Systemic"

He also took issue with the letter's characterization of "systemic" pattern of abuse of youth in the TYC system. In 282 direct visits with youth, he said, the last question routinely asked is, "Do you feel safe." Never once did a youth say they felt threatened or had been abused, Moore told the board.

"I haven't seen anything to support the allegation that there's systemic abuse," he told LSR.

Fisher's statement says: "The advocacy groups' allegations of systemic problems appear to be based on interviews with approximately 30 youth at two or three facilities who related anecdotal stories of what they heard or said they know about. Additionally, it appears the advocates did not sufficiently research many of the issues on which they commented.

"For instance, the letter inaccurately refers to youth being placed in a "barrel restraint" for committing minor infractions. Youth are to be placed in suicide-safe clothing only as a last resort and only in instances where they have established a pattern of self-injurious behavior. Placing a youth in a barrel restraint is a temporary measure and can only be ordered by the psychologist. It would be used for safety of the youth, not as a restraint or punishment."

Fowler said the authors only included reports from youth that were consistent with each other. Thus they included interviews with 14 youths at the Al Price facility, because they saw a clear pattern in each of the interviews, Fowler told LSR.

She also pointed to records from TYC showing instances where, for example, gang-related fights broke out during lunch and Al Price and youths were sent back to their dorms for the rest of the day instead of finishing school.

TYC will have a more detailed response to the DOJ letter in the near future, TYC public affairs director Jim Hurley said.

TYC board says complaints of abuse are off base

Austin American Statesman

August 27, 2010

Mike Ward

The Texas Youth Commission's top officials Friday blasted as misleading and untrue allegations by four leading advocacy groups who have called for a federal investigation into evidence of continuing assaults and lack of care in the state's juvenile corrections system.

Even though an internal agency investigation into the complaints has just begun, the agency's board apparently felt sure enough in the outcome to unanimously approve a vote of confidence in the job that Executive Director Cherie Townsend and agency officials are doing.

"I assure you we take the complaints seriously and will thoroughly investigate, but the advocates' letter to the Department of Justice contains overly broad and inflammatory accusations that ignore and dismiss out-of-hand the vast improvements we have made over the past two years with safeguards and programming that match best practices nationwide," the Rev. Scott Fisher, chairman of the seven-member board, said in a statement he read at a board meeting in Austin.

"This board has never, and will never, tolerate abuse of children in our custody and the agency will continue to take swift and firm corrective action any time there is a documented case. We strongly disagree, however, with the characterizations portrayed in the (advocates') letter."

In 2007, the agency was racked by a sex-abuse and cover-up scandal that brought sweeping reforms that included strict new policies to curb abuse and fix chronic security and operational flaws.

With some legislative leaders questioning whether the agency has been fixed, the Youth Commission board approved a two-year budget request that would force the closure of two additional lockups and 230 layoffs to further reduce spending, if a 10 percent reduction is mandated.

Although Youth Commission officials earlier had denied there were extensive new problems, Friday's pronouncements intensified their efforts to put to rest a growing controversy at an agency that Gov. Rick Perry has proclaimed a reform success.

Perry, a Republican, faces Democrat Bill White in the November general election.

On Monday, the four groups filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice charging that incarcerated teenagers are still routinely being assaulted at some lockups, that others are plagued by lack of school programs and lack of proper mental health care and that continuing security issues have left offenders living in fear at other lockups.

The groups — Advocacy Inc., Texas Appleseed, the Center for Public Representation and the National Center for Youth Law — said they took the step only after Townsend and other Youth Commission officials did not follow up on their concerns.

They said they had alerted agency officials about their concern for the safety of teenage offenders several times since February, both in meetings and in letters.

"All of these issues have been raised with TYC before we sent the letter to the Justice Department," said Deborah Fowler, legal director of Texas Appleseed. As proof, she cited letters sent to Townsend and Grant Goodwin, a Youth Commission litigation attorney, in February, July and August detailing the issues.

"I don't know how they can say they didn't know. ... Their own records reflect that there are problems."

During the meeting, Townsend labeled the advocates' complaints as "inaccuracies" and stressed that the agency has made "many significant positive changes" that are now being ignored.

She said that youths are not being sexually assaulted on a daily basis, that schooling is not being scuttled continually by security concerns and scheduling miscues, and that some offenders are not being continually denied proper mental health services.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth," she said of the health complaints, insisting that any continuing issues at the agency are "occasional and isolated" and are quickly addressed.

"To suggest otherwise is not based on fact. ... TYC in 2010 is not TYC three years ago, and it won't be the same as TYC 2011."

Even so, internal agency reports made public Friday show there have been problems with schooling. School days for offenders at the Al Price State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Beaumont have repeatedly been shortened or canceled altogether since June 2009 for lack of staff, because teachers were in training seminars and because of "campus unrest," among other reasons, the documents show.

"Campus on lockdown. Youth on roof," reads the reason for limited or no classes on May 5. The next day: "Campus under 'Code Blue' due to unrest."

As recently as Aug. 13, this notation was shown: "Gang activity & fights caused movement to lunch to be delayed. 4th period extended into 5th period. Youth kept in dorms remainder of afternoon for safety."

In the past three years, security issues have continued to plague the Beaumont center.

On Friday, the agency's two independent monitors who are tasked with investigating complaints of abuse and lax security — Inspector General Cris Love and Independent Ombudsman John Moore — insisted they had not been alerted to the advocates' complaints.

"I am somewhat disturbed by what was described as systemic problems. I have not seen them," said Moore, 59, who has resigned effective Sept. 1 to, as he explained it, "pursue some other interests."

"No youth has said they feel threatened or that they feel abused or unsafe," he said, noting that his investigators ask that as a last question to every youth they interview.

In his six months on the job, Moore, who lives in Denison, said he has spent most of his time establishing an administrative structure "to allow the ombudsman's office to operate. There was not one when I got here."

He said his job has mostly involved "hiring a staff, getting computers, writing a policies and procedures manual, getting an operations system in place. ... Now that that's accomplished, I think I can move on."

Moore acknowledged that he has visited only three Youth Commission locations — lockups in Giddings and Gainesville, and a parole office in Dallas — during his time as ombudsman. At the same time, his staff has logged 282 contacts with youths and visited sites 19 times, he said.

TSEU calls on the Legislature to take responsibility and fully fund TYC

TSEU Press Release

August 27, 2010

The Texas State Employees Union is calling on the Texas Legislature to take responsibility for funding the facilities of the Texas Youth Commission and reestablish reasonable client to staff ratios. The current crisis in TYC is a result of short sighted policies and a failure to fully support the facilities.

In 2007 the legislature reduced the number of juvenile offenders in the TYC facilities by half. Less violent offenders were sent back to their home counties while the more violent offenders continued to be held at TYC. “At this point the staff to client ratio was somewhat reasonable,” states Mike Gross, TSEU vice president. However staffing cuts and layoffs at TYC mandated by the Legislature in 2009 recreated the staffing crisis that afflicted the agency prior to 2007. “Now there are fewer staff working longer hours with coerced overtime dealing with a more violent population,” says Gross.

The agency is facing additional problems: the 10% budget reduction demanded by the Governor for the next budget cycle would force the closure of two additional facilities. For staff, the stress of forced overtime was made much worse until recently because they were forced to “bank” overtime instead of being paid for it.

Shutting facilities, passing the buck to counties, and cutting staff are not the answer. The state must take responsibility for TYC. This means fully funding the agency, providing appropriate levels of staff, as well as appropriate training.