Gov. Greg Abbott largely remained silent as dangerous conditions caused by a lack of staff persisted at Texas juvenile facilities during the summer.
Last year, the turnover rate for detention officers hit 70%, and although the state has desperately tried to recruit new employees, most new hires leave within six months. Without enough staff to supervise the youth, children locked in their cells have increasingly engaged inOmbudsman reports from May to July at the state’s five youth prisons detailed several instances of self-harm behavior, including at least two that required hospital care.
“These unacceptable and horrible instances are the result of the dangerously low staffing numbers directly affecting the lives and well-being of youth, and run counter to the structured and rehabilitative environment TJJD strives to provide,” the agency said in July. Still, four days after the new plan was enacted, a youth told inspectors he still had to wait one or two hours to use the bathroom, but couldn’t hold it.
In late June, the agency also began shifting detainees to better match staffing availability. This included transferring 12 boys from Giddings to a youth prison in the Rio Grande Valley, which emptied a dorm at the Giddings lockup.of halting the intake of sentenced children at its facilities, putting further strain on county juvenile detention centers. Shortly afterward, the agency again began accepting a few children into its facilities on a limited basis.
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