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.