Gainesville, other Texas juvie detention centers cited by federal DOJ

Per press release from the DOJ's Eastern Division of Texas, it's disgusting:

“Children are committed to TJJD facilities to receive treatment and rehabilitation so that they may return to their communities as law-abiding, productive citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the release. “Our investigation showed that, far from achieving those objectives, TJJD engaged in a pattern of abuse, deprivation of essential services and disability-related discrimination that seriously harms children and undermines their rehabilitation. State officials have an obligation to keep these children safe, to teach them, to provide them necessary health services and to treat them fairly, without discrimination. The Justice Department is committed to protecting the rights of vulnerable children in juvenile facilities. We look forward to working with state officials to remedy these violations, institute needed reform and improve outcomes for Texas children.”

The full investigation, of more than 70 pages? Worse. Re Gainesville, here's a couple of the findings:

A December 2019 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics provided TJJD with additional notice of a pattern of abuse in its secure facilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that, in three of the five TJJD secure facilities, children reported some of the highest rates of sexual victimization in the country. At Ron Jackson, fourteen percent of the children reported being sexually victimized by staff or other children. The rate was even higher at Gainesville and Mart, where one in six children reported abuse.

 And:

In August 2022, the Office of Inspector General sustained allegations that a boy at Gainesville forced another to perform oral and anal sex.

Disgusting.

But, like the years-long foster care scandal here in Tex-ass, I suspect Kenny Boy Paxton and TJJD staff will try to run out the clock on this as much as possible. Already, in an email to an online news organization, we have hand-waving as part of the response:

TJJD worked closely with DOJ investigators during their site visits in 2022, the peak of the agency’s unprecedented staffing shortages. We provided extensive responsive material and appreciate the DOJ’s professionalism throughout this process.

Yikes.

"Unprecedented staffing shortages" is one thing at a widget factory. Entirely another, here.

Semi-yikes? This Samuel Gaytan of Lone Star Live letting that TJJD email run anonymously, unless it was part of an official on-background guarantee.

But? A separate DOJ press release from the Southern District of Texas essentially called bullshit on that:

“The conditions in the facilities are unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. “Our investigation found that children in these facilities face sexual abuse by staff and other children. Tragically, this is not the first investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at TJJD facilities. Since the early 2000s, other investigations by Texas state agencies and the Texas Rangers substantiated sexual abuse allegations of the children at TJJD facilities, yet this horrifying problem persists. Working with Texas’s other U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Civil Rights Division and the State of Texas, my office hopes to provide protections to the vulnerable and help right wrongs that have existed for far too long.”

There you go.

Speaking of 2022? Here's the bottom line, from Texas Public Radio, about the TJJD facing Sunset Commission review at that time:

TJJD has been in perpetual crisis since it was formed in 2011, according to Sunset Commission staff. It was formed after the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Department were merged.

Other than staffing, one big reason is leadership changes.

And, Abbott stealing money from it for Operation Lone Star and Schwertner focused on new buildings rather than more staff exacerbated the issue.

Per the site where I saw this, TJJD promised a statement by yesterday afternoon. As of 4:30, nothing.

Side note: The Trib was way behind the curve on this. As of 4:30 yesterday no story. (It finally dropped something later yesterday evening.)

Gainesville, from what I know, beyond the current report, has long been considered one of the worst of the worst of the current and former juvenile state schools. 

Oh, speaking of? The claim that school location makes it hard to hire people is bullshit, at least in this case. Gainesville is just 30 miles from Denton and an hour from the Metromess proper. Beyond that, the TDCJ, while it has had some degree of shortages itself, has prisons all over the state.