Mission Redefinition for TYC
June 30th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
The Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted the “Mission Redefinition at the Youth Commission” policy primer, June 25, to discuss past legislative reforms, outline priority issues facing the ’09 legislature, and determine the best future role for the TYC.
The juvenile justice experts, officials and advocates who spoke at the primer shared a common belief that, in order to reduce the more than 50 percent recidivism rate of Texas youth offenders, there must be a move to smaller, regionalized TYC facilities, an increase in community-based programs, and expansion of state mental health services.
“While we’ve made improvements, we have a whole long way to go,” said Richard Nedelkoff, TYC conservator. “The TYC population needs to decrease, but the more important thing is, we have to build up the other end, reintegration and community-based programs.”
The capacity crowd ranged from conservative to liberal organizations. The fact that the conservative TPPF hosted the meeting may indicate that this path forward for juvenile justice reform has bipartisan support.
Rep. Jerry Madden, House Committee on Corrections chairman, kicked off the discussion by evaluating the SB 103 reforms. Madden said that, while the bill resulted in some significant achievements, such as increases in TYC oversight, there were also significant failures. The most notable, he said, was the inability to reduce the state’s high recidivism rate.
There was much talk of transitioning from large, rural TYC detention centers to smaller, urban facilities, which would keep youth offenders closer to their families, increase community involvement and allow for specialized treatment.
Mike Griffiths, executive director of Dallas County Juvenile Probation, presented a model outlining these costs, and though it may pay off in the long run, this change would be a big expense for urban counties to absorb. According to Griffiths’ model, a 20-month rehabilitation cycle of 216 juvenile offenders would cost a county $11 million.
Along with the regionalization of facilities, more community-based programs are needed to keep youth integrated in society. Joella Brooks, deputy executive director of Southwest Key Programs, said that keeping youth in the community and including the families of offenders in treatment programs are the key components of successful rehabilitation.
Nedelkoff said the lack of community-based programs, like halfway houses, makes it difficult to reintegrate youth into the community and increases the length of offender stays at TYC.
Fundamental to improving the juvenile justice system are broader state mental health reforms, which could reduce the number of youth entering TYC facilities. Because Texas mental health services are unable to keep up with the state’s growing population, many youth in need are turned away for lack of available beds. As a result, they often end up at TYC instead.
Griffiths said he hears families say they were told to “get their child arrested so they can get mental health treatment.”
“I was not trained as a mental health counselor, but that is what we’ve become,” he said.
Nedelkoff said meeting the needs of youth with mental health issues is a nationwide problem that has haunted him in every state he has worked in throughout his career 29-year criminal justice career.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:19 am
As someone who has worked for TYC. CPS, and MHMR/DADS, the need for more services on the “front end” of the problem is desperate. If we spent a quarter of what we spend on prisons on community-based programs and mental health care, we’d avoid much of the prison/TYC overcrowding and recidivism we have today. Unfortunately, by the time a youth makes it to a TYC facility, it’s too late for them to change….