TYCGIDDINGS

"The alarming rise in juvenile crime continued. In Texas, from 1990 to 1998, the juvenile proportion of total arrests increased from 23% to 35%. Juvenile violent crime arrests also increased. The 74th Texas Legislature passed the most expansive juvenile reform legislation since 1973. This legislation that took effect in January 1996 has been described as a "get tough, balanced approach" that reflected the public attitude that we want to punish youth in some meaningful way, and yet not abandon rehabilitation as a principal aim for our children. The Texas Youth Commission implemented a "back to basics" philosophy - public safety and punishment for criminal acts are balanced with the need for rehabilitation.

To accommodate the “get tough” or “zero tolerance” approach, during the 1990s and early 2000s, bed-space and the youth population at TYC dramatically increased. In 1991, the total number of TYC youth in residential care (institutions, halfway houses, or contract programs) exceeded 2,000 for the first time. In 1996, the population crossed the 3,000 mark. The next year, it was 4,015. In 1999, there were more than 5,000 youth in TYC residential care. The population peaked in 2001 at 5,599.

Over the next few years, TYC began to struggle with recruiting and retaining juvenile correctional officers to properly staff its facilities. Increases in youth and staff injuries, and concerns about mistreatment and abuse of youth led to increased parent and staff involvement with the media and Legislature. Advocacy groups became increasingly active in calling for changes in the agency..." and  "The directive from state leadership and lawmakers was clear: stop the abuse of children in the state’s care; solve safety issues; and begin emphasizing programs that provide youth the best possible chance at rehabilitation and a respectable future. To ensure the timely and effective execution of reforms, the TYC Board was disbanded and the agency was placed under conservatorship in March 2007." 

DOES ANY OF THAT SOUND FAMILIAR TO YOU??

No, there's nothing much positive to say today.

It's probably a GOOD THING that a blog post I'd just been writing on got poofed out into the ether after I got a little trigger-happy on the mouse and blitzed it off to never-never land.  I was getting just a WEE BIT testy there towards the en d... and while I can never hit all those exact same keys in the exact same order, below is the gist of what I had written. Enjoy, and keep posted.  Sure there will be more fairly soon. GRRR.  Topics included were:

Constantly having to work with not enough staff, too many kids. Danger factors are having TYC "look bad", or, having staff or youth look bad after they've been assaulted/raped/killed... stuff like that.   This all the time being out of ratio is illegal and I'd imagine still contributes to the ONGOING sexual and physical abuse of youth and staff.  Any disagreement so far?

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225's not even finished being written by the time youths return to dorm, even after being referred for a CATAGORY ONE assault.  We've got youth inciting riots, threatening to kill/spit on/kick in  staff's face -- with no consequence.  No doubling up in Security cells, even though this was common practice in the past when necessary.  Why not now?  Are the 225's getting round filed and never entered on the kids' records?  What if they ARE?  Hmmmm.

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Pepper spray NOT being used judiciously, when it can and should be... the kids know it's a "last resort", which means that they MAY get it AFTER JCO staff have been assaulted.  Guess we're expendable, in order to keep those figures lookin' good, huh?  Again, what "looks good" may actually not be what it seems in terms of costs and benefits... but spraying kids IS justifiable in certain circumstances and needs to be employed when appropriate if TYC wants to keep healthy employees.

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I was just getting ready to access the Gateway intranet here from my home computer but gee... seems like I USED to  be able to get the Employee Handbook and some other functions at home... but surprise surprise!!  The kludgey mess that is Gateway seems to be denying me access to most everything I want except my timesheet.  Imagine that.  I'm beyond being disappointed, having complained about the system to the head office at least a couple times over the past few years, with nothing having been done other than a couple pass-the-buck emails from people in who don't deserve whatever the State pays them to run their computers or whatever else they're supposed to be doing.

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Again, probably for the best that I didn't make it that far.  I certainly had a few things I needed to look up, but will apparently have to wait to use the institution's computers, slow and awful as they are... and will just have to be patient.   Gots lots of other things to do today.

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Smile.

The kids wore orange clothes.
They marched, and called cadence.
They all did "parade rest" etc etc.

They could lose their stage if they exhibited poor behavior.
High state youth acted as mentors.
Zero tolerance meant zero tolerance and everyone knew what that meant.

There's soooo much history a Newbie here will never know unless told about.  Anyone who worked here prior to the 2007 sex scandal revelations really knows what the "old days" were like... ASK THEM if they don't tell you about how situations were back then. 

And ask the veteran staff to tell you about being thrown on a dorm with basicly NO training and given a set of keys and told to figure things out on their own. 

No matter how short of a time you've been working here, I can only imagine your horror at the comparison of what was explained in Corsicana (which took TWO weeks?!?) and the reality of The Floor here at TYC Giddings.   Sorry... it must seem like apples and oranges, right? 

BE ADVISED ~ This video is a bit disturbling. Click on link: http://youtu.be/FT1w2hJ34Ug

Getting better at this; click on the link below for a pretty exciting YouTube video.  I'm still wanting to work it out so  the video shows are in a regular window here on the blog, but for now I'm happy to have got this working as well as it does.  Smile.

I'm NOT suggesting we do anything like this at TYC Giddings, necessarily, but I can see it WORKS.  When these guards say ZERO TOLERANCE, they MEAN it.

PRISON SHAKEDOWN

Word I hear is that 3 (new?) JCO staff all quit on one day on one of the dorms... 2 to 10 folks, as I hear.  Not good.

Why would people FLOCK out like that?  My assumption is that they found that The Floor wasn't ANYTHING like what was painted in Corsicana.  The reality of the situation lately -- that is to say, the kids totally in control -- probably wasn't something brought up in their two week training course.  How to handle these situations?

Disipline would help.  Chairs would maybe work.  WORK might work... heaven forbid.  At least get them marching again. 

Immediate and potent consequences and sanctions seem to be the best bet.  And as much as everyone knows it but few openly discuss -- get rid of the CoNextions crap and get back to FIRM, fair, and consistant JCO authority instead of handling the kids with kid gloves. 

OK, OK...call me crazy.  But if anyone has better ideas, speak up.  I'LL LISTEN. 

OK!! So far, so good. Made some changes to the first two pages, and will work on the Shout Box on the Thinking Reports page next.  Will be putting on -- or figuring out how, hopefully -- some videos here soon... so keep a look out.

Wondering why there was extra SECURITY STAFF on a dorm to make the ratio legal yesterday?  Never seen that happen before.  I know we're short handed, but this is nuts!  What if I have to work SECURITY next??!  NO WAY.

Kids were better than usual... think they got the idea that there is a backlash gonna be coming down the pike ... maybe ... who knows?? -- and that an accounting WILL be made.  Eventually.  I hope.  Before who knows what happens, eh?

I am new to blogging, but I've used computers since '81... so this will take a little while to figure out and get in the groove.  Looks like it works, though, so HERE WE GO!  Your comments and opinions will be appreciated; otherwise I'll just rant on.

Give me a little time.  I need some sleep right now.