Fed probe launched on abuse at youth lockups
The Justice Department has launched a statewide civil rights investigation into physical and sexual abuse of children housed at five Texas juvenile correctional facilities, all in fairly remote locations.
The inquiry was prompted by a pattern of misconduct evident in public records, officials said at a video news conference Wednesday.
The probe seeks to determine whether there is “a pattern or practice of physical or sexual abuse of children in Texas’ secure facilities” as well as “a pattern or practice of harm as a result of the excessive use of chemical restraints, excessive use of isolation, or a lack of adequate mental health services,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights unit in Washington, D.C.
The breadth of violations flagged by federal law enforcement includes nearly a dozen incidents of staffers sexually abusing children, kicking and body slamming them to the point of unconsciousness, excessive use of pepper spray, protracted isolation and supplying children with drugs and pornographic material.
Clarke also highlighted a significant increase in reported suicides and inadequate healthcare and mental health services for children who in state custody who cannot seek it elsewhere. Officials will review potential violations of federal law and the Constitution under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, she said. The intent of placing children in locked facilities is to provide treatment and rehabilitation, not to punish them, she said.
“This is the very reason that the juvenile justice system exists,”
Clarke said. “But all too often, children in correctional facilities, like those at issue here, are abused, mistreated and deprived of essential services. And because they are children, still growing and developing, they are uniquely vulnerable to harm and abuse inside these institutions. Being subjected to harmful conditions does not rehabilitate children — it only leads to worse life outcomes.”
Many of the victims are children of color, Clarke said. She noted that Black children and children with disabilities are over-represented in juvenile facilities.
Camille Cain, executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, said in a statement that her staff will “cooperate fully” with Justice Department officials, adding that her agency and the Justice Department had the same mission.
“We all share the same goals for the youth in our care: providing for their safety, their effective rehabilitation, and the best chance for them to lead productive, fulfilling lives,” Cain said.
Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit justice advocacy group in Austin, contacted the Justice Department a year ago calling for a civil rights inquiry into abuse and constitutional violations at all five of the state’s juvenile facilities — Evins Regional Juvenile Center north of McAllen; Gainesville State School north of Dallas; Giddings State School between Houston and Austin; McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility west of Waco; and Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood, southeast of Abilene. In the group’s October 2020 complaint, Appleseed officials note staffing shortages and inadequate health services as well as concerns about assaults, sexual victimization, suicide attempts and youth violence against staff.
Some of the Appleseed allegations have also garnered media attention. At Evins in Edinburg, a veteran youth development coach was arrested on charges he had sex with a minor. A corrections officer at Ron Jackson near Abilene was fired following allegations he’d had sexual contact and proposed marriage to a youth who informed officials she was pregnant. At the McLennan facility, a staffer was fired after an allegation he sexually assaulted a boy. The child later attempted suicide, according to Appleseed’s account.
Special investigators from the civil rights division in Washington, D.C., will work jointly with staff from the four Texas U.S. Attorney’s Offices to review all five Texas facilities. After similar inquiries in other states, the Justice Department has mandated reforms to protect the rights of young people in juvenile facilities.
“Too often children held in juvenile detention facilities are subject to abuse and mistreatment, and deprived of their constitutional rights,” Clarke said. “State officials have a constitutional obligation to ensure reasonable safety for children in these institutions..”
Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery of the Southern District of Texas said young people “confined in a juvenile facility should not be abused, mistreated or deprived of essential services.”
“We have a duty to ensure young people incarcerated in our state are held under safe and constitutional conditions,” Lowery said.
Clarke said the inquiry will be “independent, thorough and fair.” At this point, she said, investigators have not reached any conclusions about the allegations documented in public records and news reports.
Michele Deitch, a distinguished lecturer at the University of Texas and expert in independent oversight of correctional institutions, detention conditions and juvenile custody, said it will be important for the Justice Department to assess how much the location and size of facilities and severe understaffing may have contributed to the problems identified by the probe.
“I think everyone who works on youth justice issues in the state, from advocates to researchers to the agency itself, recognizes that no one would design the system we have today,” Deitch said. “The prison-like facilities we have for youth go against everything we know about best practices, and they undercut the agency’s efforts to implement trauma-informed practices.”
“We need to reduce the number of youth held in secure facilities, and for those rare kids that have to be locked up, they should be in much smaller, homelike facilities, closer to large urban centers, where they can get access to the treatment professionals they need,” she said.