Youth jails closing urged
Advocates push for rehab, not criminal, juvenile lockups
AUSTIN — Four Texas civil rights and youth-justice reform groups called Thursday for the state to close all of its remaining juvenile-justice lockups and replace them with community-based treatment and rehabilitation centers.
The move by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Texans Care for Children, Texas Appleseed and the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition comes as confirmed allegations of sexual abuse of incarcerated teenagers at the Gainesville State School have sparked renewed demands by legislative leaders to stop the criminal misconduct.
If adopted, the recommendations would take the Texas Juvenile Justice Department out of the business of incarcerating youths in remote staterun lockups for the first time in years.
Texas’ juvenile-justice system grew from a network of orphanages and work farms into training centers that gradually became secure facilities across the state.
While state officials offered no immediate comment, legislative leaders have moved in recent weeks to come up with a new solution to the growing problems in the state centers.
The growing problems in Texas juvenile-justice system, revealed weeks ago in reports by the Houston Chronicle and other media, come a decade after a sex-abuse scandal triggered a top-to-bottom overhaul of Texas’ youth cor-
“This is the third time in the last 10 years that we’ve seen a crisis emerge in TJJD’s facilities.” Deborah Fowler, executive director for Texas Appleseed
rections system, including closure of nearly half of the state-run centers and the diversion of more than three-fourths of the youths to local programs.
Recidivism remains high in the state-run lockups, all located in remote areas, and is much lower in the county programs where youths remain closer to their home where they can participate in rehabilitation and treatment programs.
‘More harm than good’
Thursday’s call by the groups came in a letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus.
The groups called for the state Senate and House to create a joint legislative committee to come up with solutions “that keeps youth safe, supported, and near their home communities.” House and Senate leaders for weeks have been discussing much the same goal since the reports of new sex-abuse issue surfaced.
While Texas downsized its system of state-run locks significantly after the most recent scandal, its systemic problems date back to the 1970s when the state faced federal court action over confirmed civil-rights violations and violent conditions in the state system.
“This is the third time in the last 10 years that we’ve seen a crisis emerge in TJJD’s facilities,” Deborah Fowler, executive director for Texas Appleseed, said in a statement. “This highlights what experts have been telling us for years, and what Texas-based research confirms: large facilities in remote areas cause more harm than good.”
A 2015 report by the Council of State Governments Justice Center revealed that youths who are committed to TJJD facilities are 21 percent more likely to be rearrested and three times more likely to commit a felony when they do re-offend, than those who are placed under supervision closer to home.
“The need for real reform is urgent,” said Sharon Watkins-Jones, director of political strategies for the ACLU of Texas, echoing sentiments from Lindsey Linder, policy attorney for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, who called for a solution “that demonstrates our state’s responsibility to ensure a safe and rehabilitative environment for all kids.”
“Not only must we close dangerous juvenile facilities, but we must ensure that youth are not simply absorbed into the adult system, where they would be at greater risk of harm and less likely to successfully return to their families and communities,” Linder said.
The advocacy groups call for closing all six remaining state-run youth lockups in favor of alternative programs located closer to where the youths are from — mostly in Houston, Dallas and other urban centers.
Several alternatives
Those alternatives could include community-based treatment programs, supervised juvenile probation initiatives and small group homes that could focus on intensive rehabilitation.
Those types of alternatives were recommended a decade ago as part of the reforms enacted at the time and, while many youths were transferred, closing more of the state-run lockups that more resemble prisons than therapeutic and treatment communities proved politically impossible as rural lawmakers blocked more closures to protect local jobs.
The advocacy groups said youths who are in state-run lockups who are age 15 and younger should be an initial focus of the state’s new reform initiatives.
Legislative leaders in the Senate and House have criticized the juvenile-justice agency for continuing to co-mingle many of the younger offenders with the older ones, most of whom are being held for violent crimes.