A new juvenile services director was hired after damning reports detailed failings and misconduct at the Dallas County detention center, but the community was excluded from the hiring process despite raising urgent concerns.
A new juvenile services director was hired after reports of mistreatment and misconduct, but the community was ignored in the process.},{ "name":"Editor Picks", "component":"17105533", "insertPoint":"4", "requiredCountToDisplay":"1", "watchElement":".
As people leaving and entering the detention center passed by, the Gathering Experience’s Irie Session issued a fiery demand for accountability. Then Marcus King of Disciple Central Community Church said the kids in the center had been “failed by the system designed to protect them.” But the advocates were there not only to bring light to what had happened, but to begin enacting change in how the future would be shaped. Darryl Beatty, the former Dallas County juvenile detention center executive director, had resigned in July. In his place was Mike Griffiths, serving as interim director while the county searched for a new, full-time director.
Those who had spoken most loudly on behalf of the incarcerated youth for so long went unheard in the months their words were arguably most needed. When county juvenile board officials knew the community was watching, no one was allowed in. Advocates thespoke to are cautiously optimistic about Hadnot’s track record and what that could mean for progress in Dallas County, but the way in which such a pivotal hire was made practically in secret gives Waters and others doubts.
In July 2024, Beatty and other officials denied all allegations relating to poor living conditions and inhumane treatment, including egregious solitary confinement, in the press conference Waters referred to.
“We had issued a demand that we be included as a part of the interview process, but that never materialized,” Waters said in December,that Hadnot had been selected for the juvenile board director role. “So we were never brought in to be a part of the process, and that is certainly in keeping with what has been our experience largely throughout this process.
Technically, the judge is correct. By the letter of the law, the Jan. 27 meeting included a public vote in favor of hiring Handot. But no one is disputing the fact that the decision to hire Hadnot had indeed been made a month before that and the process up until that point was anything but open.
“The debate about who it should be is what was closed,” he said. “What questions did we ask, what did we consider, are the community’s concerns being addressed and what are the applicants’ positions with regards to what the community concerns are? These are the sorts of things I thought needed to be brought to the forefront and be very open about.”
Juvenile Justice Detention Center Mistreatment Dallas Community Involvement Hiring Process
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