Texas lawmakers say they hope to address chronic issues facing the state’s juvenile detention system after a recent report found widespread mistreatment and abuse.
Texas Juvenile Justice Department Interim Executive Director Shandra Carter provided testimony before the Juvenile Justice & Family Issues House Committee Tuesday, admitting that the claims in a report by The Texas Tribune are correct — detained minors were confined to their cells for 23 hours a day, and some urinate in water bottles because they are not provided restroom access in a timely manner.
Carter added that while half of the students held in the detention facilities are on suicide watch, many of them are not actually trying to kill themselves, and have figured out that by exhibiting self-harm tendencies they are able to garner attention to get out of their rooms, she said.
“We are aware that the crisis is having a significant impact on youth. We have the full attention of our team trying to solve this,” Carter said. “We know that the effects of prolonged time in a room and truncated programming are incredibly negative.”
Carter correlated the mistreatment and abuse claims to staffing shortages plaguing the agency.
The TJJD has a turnover rate of about 70% with the agency losing a large portion — 40% — of its newly hired staff in five years or less. She added that 33% of the staff have been there for a year or less. In their exit interviews, staff overwhelmingly claim they are leaving due to pay and the difficulty of the work.
Even though the TJJD has raised the minimum starting salary to $41,000 and has been working to enact bonus structures, Carter said it is still difficult to keep positions filled.
Because staff is so limited, when a high-risk incident occurs such as an attempted suicide or a fight, it takes the full attention of available staff, hindering when they are able to return to their routine schedule.
“In some areas we were literally competing with Buc-ee's and if I have a choice to work at Buc-ee's or work for TJJD with high-risk mandatory overtime,” Carter trailed off … “I can't even guarantee my staff (will) have enough time to go home, sleep, see their families. I can't even guarantee they're going to get a bathroom break on their shift.”
The lack of staffing is not only impacting the minors in facilities but also those on waiting lists.
There are 2,700 physical beds available in juvenile detention centers across the state. However, 60% of them are offline due to a shortage in supervision officers or the county in which they are located could not financially afford them, Carter said.
She said while probation chiefs in other counties do everything they can to help their neighbors, when there is no staff it is unsafe to bring in more youth. Therefore, there are 120 of the state’s 254 counties that do not have functioning juvenile detention centers, leaving them with few options.
There are also more than 150 youth on a waiting list who can remain on the list for months, Carter said, leading to a delay in treatment.
“The only reason that we're not taking these kids is staffing,” Carter said. “I have enough physical beds, but I do not have enough staff to supervise those beds. If I did, I would take every kid on that intake list today.”
She added that the agency is also unable to provide some programming that has been proven to reduce recidivism because there is no one to operate them while also making sure centers are completing minimum functions. By doing so, staff would work unsustainable hours leading to even more burnout and higher turnover, she said.
Carter added that sometimes the only option is to release the minor back into the community with an electronic monitor.
“No one is comfortable with this level of risk posed to the community when a youth who should be detained is released,” she said.
Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for El Paso County Rosie Medina noted that understaffing is not only an issue at the state level but within counties as well.
Medina said the county-operated facilities she oversees are facing the same challenges regarding staffing and the overall wellbeing of the youth.
To combat this, Medina suggested the deployment of state National Guard or Department of Public Safety officers to assist with supervision.
State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, said bringing the National Guard in for assistance is treating the issue like it is a natural disaster, instead of a crisis that has “been brewing for decades.”
Carter said while TJJD has previously called on the National Guard for assistance during the pandemic, they are not trained to interact with children and would only help with supervision. However, she said in making that request, she does not see it as temporary as the issues are systemic.
Medina added that something must be done so that children who are committed to the state are able to receive the needed help and return to their communities without being “more traumatized, victimized or at a higher risk level than they were when our courts committed them.”
“We must invest in our juvenile justice system, appropriately fund our state institutions' probation departments in order for us to be viable and make an impact by increasing community safety,” Medina said.
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