The Joint Select Committee on Operation and Management of the Texas Youth Commission will be holding its first meeting today at 1:30pm in Room E-1.036, in the underground extension of the Capitol. Invited testimony only, and there’s no word yet on who will be speaking out today or how far they’ll get in sorting out the horrors of the TYC. With Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-Mission, (the man who first took TYC to task on the Lege record in early February) and Rep. Debbie “String ‘Em Up” Riddle, R-Tomball, asking the questions, no one’s expecting too much soft-pedaling.
Maybe, however, they’ll listen to fellow committee member Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, who has made possibly the wisest suggestion so far. The problem isn’t staff; it’s the whole system of shipping mostly city-living kids to the furthest reaches of the state, where they are deprived of contact with family and, importantly, any real form of state oversight. He’s calling for an end to the underage Cool Hand Luke fantasy that TYC has inflicted on the state and a replacement of these desert penal colonies with smaller facilities, nearer to the cities and closer to where supportive family members can become involved in the rehabilitation of inmates. Better yet, he suggests, why not try crazy plans like, oh, trying to make sure that at-risk kids don’t become offenders in the first place.
Want some scary stats? In 2006, the average young offender sent to a TYC facility was 16 years and 2 months old, had an IQ of 88, and had only completed eighth grade with sixth-grade-level reading skills and fifth-grade math skills.
This article appears in March 2 • 2007.
