Youth prisons across Texas were on lockdown for several days beginning last week, according to an email sent to families and guardians of children in Texas Juvenile Justice Department custody.
That was because of an “exceptionally brutal” assault by youth on a correctional staffer and another at a halfway house, TJJD Executive Director Shandra Carter told board members at their meeting Friday.
“I wanna be unequivocally clear: this is not punishment, and inherently it is not a violation of youth rights,” Carter told board members.
Carter said an officer she referred to as “JCO Hernandez,” a woman, was hospitalized after an assault by a boy at the Gainesville State Juvenile Correctional Facility. The boy was sent to TJJD after violating probation for stealing his mother’s gun, Carter said.
He had been at the facility for two weeks. Carter said the incident occurred on a Friday but didn’t specify when.
There was nothing in his record that indicated he was a high risk or highly violent youth, Carter said.
The boy was moved to a maximum security unit in Mart, near Waco, and will remain there. JCO Hernandez has been discharged from the hospital, Carter said.
“It’s evident that the youth in TJJD, and in our county detention facilities, are becoming more violent and more aggressive,” said board chairman Manny Ramirez, who is also a Tarrant County commissioner.
All five TJJD secure facilities are under “lockdown, shutdown and slowdown” procedures on an individual dorm basis, Carter said, with the “lockdown” phase being the most strict and the “slowdown” phase being the least strict.
Each dorm at each facility is evaluated individually multiple times a day, Carter said. Each dorm also needs her approval before it moves from one phase of the three-part protocol to another.
According to Carter, most dorms are moving into shutdown, and some are already moving into slowdown. Shutdown involves some small group activities, Carter said. Visitation has also resumed at some facilities.
“It's a deliberate operational assessment designed to evaluate and enhance safety and functioning of every dorm and reinforce fundamental core correctional practices,” Carter said. “Let's make no mistake, we are a prison first.”
An Aug. 14 email obtained by KERA News and The Texas Newsroom said at the time, the lockdown meant in-person and virtual visitation were suspended at TJJD's five facilities across the state, along with “personal property deliveries/items.”
“Personal property deliveries/items" were also suspended, according to the email, but kids could still receive phone calls based on their assigned dorm schedule.
"The duration will depend on the participation and cooperation of every youth across the agency," Michelle Yelton, the agency's family liaison, wrote in the Aug. 14 email. "Our goal is to return to normal operations as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so."
Elizabeth Henneke, founder and CEO of the Lone Star Justice Alliance, which represents kids in the juvenile justice system, said that her organization has been in touch with parents of kids in TJJD custody since the lockdown.
One mother told Henneke that her son was only allowed out of his cell for 30 minutes a day, according to a text message Henneke shared with KERA News and The Texas Newsroom.
Henneke also shared a text message she received from a staff member at the Giddings facility alerting her of the lockdown. “No youth allowed out of their rooms unless shackled and cuffed for bathroom breaks,” the message reads.
Henneke declined to share the name of the mother or staff member, because both feared retaliation by the TJJD.
“I've never seen lockdowns — which cause isolation — as a management tool in the toolbox of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department,” Henneke said.
The agency has not responded to questions from KERA and The Texas Newsroom seeking confirmation of the details Henneke shared.
A 2023 report by the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission indicates that during lockdown situations, “TJJD must secure youth in their individual rooms and allow them out only for basic needs when backup is available. As a result, wait times even for youths’ bathroom breaks can take three or more hours.”
That report also cites letters written by youth in TJJD custody about their experience during previous lockdowns.
“It doesn’t help the brain to function at all. How do you expect for us to learn by just sitting in a room all day long?” one letter says, according to the report.
The lockdown comes two years after the Justice Department found TJJD exposed children to "excessive force and prolonged isolation" and sexual abuse in its youth prisons, violating their constitutional rights.
TJJD has previously imposed statewide lockdowns because of staffing shortages.
Texas state senators passed two bills last year that would have sent more kids to adult prisons and limited advocacy groups' access to youth prisons.
The legislation, approved unanimously by state Senate Republicans, sought to impose harsher punishments for kids who assault TJJD employees, according to bill author state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock. Both measures ultimately failed.
Brett Merfish, director of youth justice with the advocacy nonprofit Texas Appleseed, sees the lockdown as creating more problems than it solves.
A Texas Appleseed report issued this month showed an uptick in suicide risk assessments conducted for youth in TJJD facilities over the past three years. The agency is also losing veteran juvenile correctional officers, according to the report.
"All of these things kind of combine to create an environment that is not ideal for youth," Merfish said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Neena Satija is The Texas Newsroom's investigative editor and reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org and Neena at nsatija@kut.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
