The agency is so understaffed that teens have reported spending up to 23 hours locked in their cells, using water bottles to go to the bathroom. A staggering number have hurt themselves or been placed on suicide watch.
Texas’ juvenile prison system is nearing total collapse.
And more and more, children are hurting themselves — sometimes severely — out of distress or as a way to get attention in their isolation. Nearly half of those locked in the state’s juvenile prisons this year have been on suicide watch. Ultimately, the answer comes down to money. TJJD leaders and independent legislative analysts have said the agency first needs more money to hire and retain officers, while juvenile justice advocates and lawmakers have pushed for closing the state’s five prisons and investing in better care at the local level, or creating smaller, narrowly focused facilities in urban areas with more mental health resources.
TJJD leaders were able to implement emergency 15% raises for staff earlier this year by postponing reentry programs and using savings from unfilled positions. But they said salaries are still too low, and the current economy puts them in competition for workers with far less strenuous jobs, like cashier and retail positions.
"What is it going to take to say we need to do this?" she asked, noting the emergencies that are already taking place. "Is it going to be kids left in their cells for 22 hours a day? Is it going to take suicide rates going up by X%?" But the children who remain in the state’s five prisons are generally the most difficult to manage and care for, often because of violent behavior, severe mental health needs or both. The needs of the detainees have changed, and providing adequate safety and rehabilitation requires more resources.
And as staff flee for easier work with the same pay, kids can be locked up almost all day, often exacerbating mental illnesses. Without at least two officers in a dorm of 16 detainees, teens have to remain in their individual cells.Basketball and football seasons have been canceled. A popular program for imprisoned children to foster and train shelter dogs is on pause. Often, meals are eaten in dorms instead of the cafeteria, and students get work packets instead of being taught in classrooms.
Under the harsh conditions, children are also more often engaging in suicidal behavior and self-harm, out of depression, protest or both. Some told inspectors they hurt themselves as a means to get relief from their isolation. They were distraught about being left in their cells so much of the time and said if multiple people in a dorm were placed on suicide watch, it would typically lead to a second officer being assigned to them — meaning they could get out of their cells.
The result is a lack of control over the workforce. Employees regularly skip their shifts, knowing the agency would be hard pressed to fire them, officials reported at an advisory council meeting. And new staff are often thrown into the job without adequate training just to fill the gaps. "They let us know on Friday that on Monday we would be working the [control room], and they gave us no training on it," he said. "They weren’t sure where we were going to be or what we were going to do until literally we were walking out the door."
The state of crisis has led the agency to scrap planned programs to help teens avoid being arrested again when they are released, and it canceled therapeutic programming targeting violent behavior. The intensive program, which aims to teach teens how to manage their emotions and reactions to stress while keeping them out of isolation, is one of three anti-violence programs that coincided with a 33% reduction in acts of aggression from 2020 to 2021, the agency reported last year.
For agency leaders and legislative analysts conducting a decennial review of whether TJJD should continue to exist under the state’s Sunset Review process, one answer to TJJD’s problems is more money from the state. The agency gets about $130 million a year for its state-run lockups and halfway houses. Another nearly $190 million goes toward community services, including probation, parole, and other oversight and administrative roles.
"Only then can Texas make the vital transition toward fewer large, scandal-ridden state facilities in the future," the state report said.
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