AUSTIN, Texas — In this week's edition of Texas This Week, Jolie McCullough, criminal justice reporter for The Texas Tribune, discusses the current conditions plaguing the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Three things to know in Texas politics
1. Texas Medicaid program for new mothers under review
The future of Medicaid coverage for new Texas mothers is uncertain as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reviews Texas's application to expand coverage for new mothers from two months to six months. Because Texas lawmakers voted to expand coverage to six months and not a full year, as medical experts recommend, the State has to fill out extra paperwork.
Austin State Rep. Donna Howard told KVUE she was told the holdup is linked to the eligibility requirements. During the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers voted to extend coverage for low-income women who deliver a baby or have an "involuntary miscarriage." That term, involuntary miscarriage, is likely what's causing the issue. It's not a medical term and there are questions about who falls into that category: mainly, is it a move to deny women who have abortions? Abortion is set to become illegal in Texas later this month unless a mother's life is in danger or she's at risk of serious harm. Texas is one of a dozen states where lawmakers have not expanded Medicaid.
2. El Paso community remembers Walmart mass shooting victims
This week marked the three-year anniversary of the mass shooting inside an El Paso Walmart. Members of the community held a rally and memorial to honor the 23 people killed by the white gunman who targeted Hispanic shoppers and the 53 immigrants killed in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio in June. Organizers hope the memorial will renew calls to action against gun violence, white supremacy, xenophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
3. Texas busing migrants to NYC
Texas is now busing migrants who unlawfully cross into the U.S. at the Texas-Mexico border to New York City. Gov. Greg Abbott announced the expansion of the Operation Lone Star initiative on Friday. According to the governor's office, Texas has bused more than 6,500 migrants to Washington, D.C., since the state started the voluntary relocation program, and 50 migrants were taken to NYC on Friday.
Jolie McCullough on the Texas Juvenile Justice Department situation
A dire situation is happening within the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Staffing is so low at the prisons for underage Texans that teenagers are reportedly spending up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells on the weekends, without even having access to a bathroom.
Jolie McCullough, criminal justice reporter for The Texas Tribune, joined KVUE to talk about what's happening.
Ashley Goudeau: You describe the juvenile prison system as being on the brink of collapse. Big picture, tell us what is happening.
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah. So the Texas Juvenile Justice Department has five state-run prisons for teenagers, essentially, and they have long been in crisis. Generally speaking, it's hard for them to keep people employed, working in these prisons. Following the pandemic and this "great resignation" where people have been leaving their jobs, they're left with a startlingly low number of officers who are able to supervise these children. And as a result, as what you said, you're seeing kids who are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day. These are cells that don't have bathrooms. So kids have reported having to use water bottles as toilets. Suicidal behavior has skyrocketed, which is obviously very concerning for any young people who are in the State's care."
Ashley Goudeau: Yeah, you talked a little bit about it, but I want you to describe for us the living conditions that some of these teenagers are reporting, particularly what it's like for them being in these cells. These are not nice cells, frankly.
Jolie McCullough: "Yes. So these are really big campuses. There's five campuses and they're mostly in rural places around the state. So generally speaking, there's dorms and cells. And so each each child has their own cell, which is really just, you know, maybe a bookshelf that's mounted to the wall and a concrete block with a very thin mattress on it. Not all of them have windows to the outside. And so that's really all it is. It's this very cramped space and they are in there for a lot of the time, especially on the weekends, because what is happening is they're using teachers and caseworkers to fill in for officer positions. But since those roles, they're not there on the weekends, a lot of the time you're seeing these teens left in their cells."
Ashley Goudeau: You mention that the incidents of self-harm are skyrocketing now under these conditions. These teenagers are sometimes doing this to try to get attention, right?
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah. So we've been looking at reports. There's inspectors that go in once a month to each of these prisons to talk to kids, to talk to staff. And there's assessments done for self-harm behavior, which is gone up a lot. And some of the times these kids are saying they're doing this to themselves, they're hurting themselves, because if they get put on suicide watch, they might have heightened supervision and then they can actually get out of their cells."
Ashley Goudeau: Let's talk more about the lack of staffing. You found that detention officers in the TJJD have the highest turnover rate than any other position in Texas government. Any indication of why that is?
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah. I mean, it's always been a hard job to build. And like I said, these are rural areas; prisons, they struggle with this, too. It's generally there's a smaller labor pool because they're outside of cities. And also it's a hard job and the pay is not great. And so the agency has been saying, you know, this is something they really need to pay more, because in Giddings, which is one of the prisons, which is about an hour east of Austin, you could be making the same amount if you're just working as a cashier at the local Buc-ee's, which is obviously a much less strenuous job. And so this is really something that they've been struggling with. In the last fiscal year, they had more than 70% turnover. And they're saying they're desperately trying to hire new people. But the majority, more than half of the people they hire, have already left within six months."
Ashley Goudeau: Wow, astonishing statistics to listen to there. So funding, playing a very large role in all of this. And of course, we can't ignore the fact that the TJJD has had a lot of funding diverted from them over the past few years, some of that money going to Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott's border initiative. Are the higher-ups at TJJD saying they need more money?
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah, they're saying they need more money, and it's actually, the agency is up for review. There's a review every 10 years for state agencies to say, for lawmakers to decide if this agency should still exist, and it's under that review. And so the analysts are also saying they need more money to pay for salaries and to try to move away from this five-big-prison-in-the-middle-of-nowhere structure. Some lawmakers who are heavily involved in criminal justice and juvenile justice are hoping to get maybe some smaller facilities in urban areas that can have more mental health resources, just more resources in general. And then there are other advocates who are pushing to close the state-run system in general completely, to not have state-run prisons and to just provide better resources to local detention centers and local probation departments to help kids at home."
Ashley Goudeau: Jolie, when we talk about some of these funding cuts, they're also extending to the programs to help keep these kids out of the system in the first place, right?
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah. So there was a 5% cut for the budget at the beginning of the pandemic that almost all state agencies had to do. And one of the programs that TJJD cut was, you know, prevention programs, intervention programs, trying to get to kids before they're engaging in criminal behavior. And so essentially, at this point, we're in a situation where kids are committing crimes. These are often violent crimes or repeat crimes that they're committing and they're being sent to the state prison system. And now conditions are so poor there that many are arguing that it's essentially setting them up for failure in the rest of their life."
Ashley Goudeau: So we've got the Sunset review happening, obviously, the Legislature meeting in January. Are there any other plans in the meantime to fix some of these issues? You know, here and now, when I think folks hear this, teens spending 23 hours a day, having to use water bottles as restrooms: I mean, that's just completely unacceptable. What is the plan? What are you hearing?
Jolie McCullough: "Yeah. So the agency was able to, because they have so many unfilled positions, they were able to implement a 15% raise for all the security staff that is currently working there. And they're hoping that can kind of keep people there a little bit longer, can maybe bring a few more people in. Of course, that goes from a starting salary from about $36,000 to about a little less than $42,000. And, you know, other than that, there hasn't been that much talk. I reached out to the governor's office. I asked if this was something worth consideration of a special session. They did not respond to that question, simply saying that the governor supports the agency and it continues to be a priority for him. But it's unclear in terms of what we do now. It seems like it's still up to the agency at this point."
McCullough found most of the children and teens sentenced to juvenile prisons spend an average of 14 to 15 months there, but most of their sentences are so long that they will age out and be transferred to adult prisons. While all of these teens were found guilty of committing felony crimes, they are not all violent crimes.
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