The Texas Youth Commission's reforms were cited as examples for other prisons to follow at a national hearing in New Orleans last week, the commission's ombudsman said.
UT public affairs adjunct professor Michele Deitch said that two offices created by the youth commission in the wake of the TYC scandal and reforms could have helped prevent the abuse scandal had those offices previously existed.
Deitch provided the lead testimony on prison oversight at the hearing. She said that prisons across the country suffer from the same problems because of prisons' nature: lack of internal accountability and transparency. The abuses at the youth commission provided one example of these overarching problems, she said.
"Oversight does not solve the problem, it is one piece of the puzzle," Deitch said.
The lack of accountability and oversight that contributed to the youth commission abuses revealed in February also plague prisons across the country. In 2003 Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which created the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to address these issues.
Last week's hearing was the eighth in a series hosted by the national commission.
The youth commission reforms include two interior oversight positions: the Office of the Independent Ombudsman and the Inspector General. The positions were created as part of Texas Senate Bill 103, passed during the 80th Texas Legislature and enacted in September.
The two offices collaborate with one another to provide advocacy for inmates who file complaints. They now allow parents to get involved with their children's cases and monitor the administration and facilities, youth commission Ombudsman Will Harrell said.
"The office is an investigative body and proactive. We don't just investigate past abuses, but we look forward and address agency policy," Harrell said. "We address individual complaints but with an eye toward larger, systemic issues - most offices are one or the other. The key to our success is the unfettered access to juveniles and all the TYC records."
Harrell cited these new oversight programs in his discussion at the hearing. He said that it is difficult to judge the success of his office because it is so young, but that progress is being made.
Harrell said the youth commission's ombudsman position is a model for others because the structure is unique, monitoring many departments, but an ombudsman is only as good as the administration it monitors.
The commission's Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in West Texas is isolated and no one was monitoring it, but conditions should improve with inspectors routinely talking to the youths, Deitch said. Commission officials closed the facility after reports surfaced of filthy conditions. Harrell also recommended at an October House Corrections Committee hearing that officials shut down the Victory Field facility in North Texas, citing deplorable conditions and graffiti-covered walls.
"Even the most effective correctional oversight mechanism will not solve the problem of sexual assault in prisons," Deitch said in her testimony. "External oversight is a piece of the puzzle, a way to ensure that the public knows what happens in prisons and jails, and a way to ensure that wrongdoers will be punished for criminal behavior."
Be the first to comment on this article!