A Brief History of the Texas Youth Commission
from the roots of Texas Juvenile Justice through the present
Pre-TYC Years
The roots of the juvenile justice system in Texas go back to the middle of the 19th century. In the 1850's the Texas legislature passed laws to exempt children under age 13 from criminal prosecution in certain situations and authorized a separate facility to house children. Building the facility was delayed by the civil war, but Gatesville State School for Boys finally opened in 1889. A training school for girls, Gainesville State School, was established in 1916.
The idea that motivated the 19th century reformers was that children who are in danger of maturing into adult criminals should be rescued - not by imposing on them the disabilities that result from criminal conviction, but by placing them in protective environments and teaching them about discipline, morality, values and productive work. This fundamental idea that adjudication for delinquent conduct is not conviction of a crime is preserved today in the current Texas laws regarding juvenile justice. It is an idea that has produced tension throughout the history of juvenile justice about our goals - between the interests of individual welfare and public protection, and nurturing care or just punishment.
TYC Created
The Texas Youth Commission was originally established as the Texas Youth Development Council with the adoption of the Gilmer Aiken Act in 1949. The original purpose of the Youth Development Council was to coordinate the state's efforts to help communities strengthen youth services and to administer state juvenile training schools with the goal of rehabilitation and successful re-establishment of delinquent children in society. A reorganization in 1957 brought administration of the state's juvenile training schools and homes for dependent and neglected children (former orphanages) under a single state agency, the Texas Youth Council.
Reforms: 1960s – 1970s
From the mid-1960s through the 1970s, the emphasis of juvenile services shifted from the delivery of services in institutions toward more community-based programs as alternatives. Following national trends, the Texas Youth Council increased use of foster care and community-based alternatives for dependent and neglected youth. The Council initialized a county juvenile probation subsidy program, which was subsequently transferred to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission when it was created in 1981.
Two U.S. Supreme Court cases, Kent v. U.S. (1966) and In Re Gault (1967), fundamentally changed the character of the juvenile court by substituting basic due process guarantees (notification of charges, protection against self-incrimination, right to counsel, right to confront witnesses) for the more informal practices that had characterized these courts until that time. Virtually every state was required to redraft its juvenile code to conform with the Supreme Court's mandate. However, the leading case in the nation for reform of the juvenile justice system began in 1971, and originated in Texas.
A Landmark Lawsuit: Morales v. Turman
Alicia Morales was the oldest of eight children and, at 15, was forced to work and turn her earnings over to her father. She protested and her father had her committed to TYC for disobedience. Her commitment amounted to little more than an agreed judgment by the parents to send their child away to a state institution - no notice of charges, no court appearance, no representation. Alicia hired an attorney and the federal court lawsuit, Morales v. Turman, was filed in 1971. Dr. James Turman was the Executive Director of TYC at the time.
Judge William Wayne Justice sent a letter to all 2,500 TYC youth asking them whether they had a court hearing and an attorney before being sent to TYC. Most said they had had a hearing, but over a third had not been represented by counsel. The state agreed to a declaratory judgment that gave the Texas Legislature time during its session in 1973 to reconsider the bill it had defeated the previous session that had incorporated the due process rights the Supreme Court had mandated in 1967. The bill was enacted as Title 3 of the Texas Family Code.
Judge Justice in 1972 granted the plaintiff's motion for an opportunity to interview all the youth confined in TYC institutions with the assistance of law students from the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University. These interviews caused the plaintiffs to amend their pleadings to focus on what they viewed to be a constitutional right to treatment of incarcerated juveniles. It drew national attention. The two original plaintiff's attorneys were joined by five from the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department and two from the Mental Health Law Project, a public interest law firm that specialized in the rights of institutionalized persons.
The testimony at the six-week trial in the summer of 1973 revealed that 60% of the boys were there for stealing, 19% for disobedience and immoral conduct, and only 9% for crimes of violence. Of the large number of girls in TYC then (housed at the training schools in Brownwood, Gainesville and Crockett), 68% were committed for disobedience or immoral conduct and 4% for crimes of violence.
After years of negotiations and various court proceedings rising to the U.S. Supreme Court, a Settlement Agreement was reached in 1984 and a monitoring committee finished its work in 1988 - seventeen years after the case was filed.
The Court of Appeals rejected the plaintiff's assertion of a constitutional right to treatment for incarcerated juveniles. Nonetheless, the Morales case established the first national standards for juvenile justice and corrections. In Texas, it prompted a number of changes, including the prohibition of corporal punishment, extended periods of isolation, and all forms of inhumane treatment. The case also required the establishment of an effective youth grievance and mistreatment investigation system; minimum staff qualification and training requirements; individualized, specialized and community-based treatment programs; TYC-operated halfway house programs; and a county assistance program to help reduce commitments to TYC by providing state funds for probation services for youth in their local communities.
Reforms: 1980s, 1990s, and the Turn of the 21st Century
In 1983, the Texas Legislature changed the name of the Texas Youth Council to the Texas Youth Commission.
Beginning in the mid-1980's there was an explosion in the rate of juvenile crime. From 1988 to 1993 in Texas there was a 69% increase in all referrals to juvenile probation for delinquent activity and a 161 % increase in referrals for violent offenses. The Texas rate for homicides by juveniles was almost twice the national rate (12.8 per 100,000 vs. 6.6) and there was a 285% increase in youth committed to TYC for violent offenses.
In 1987, in response to what was already seen as a shocking increase in violent juvenile crime, Texas became one of the first states to adopt "blended sentencing" where a criminal sentence is blended in some fashion with a more traditional juvenile court disposition. This allows youth who receive a determinate sentence to serve the first portion of the sentence in TYC with the possibility of being transferred to the adult system to complete the sentence.
The alarming rise in juvenile crime continued. In Texas, from 1990 to 1998, the juvenile proportion of total arrests increased from 23% to 35%. Juvenile violent crime arrests also increased. The 74th Texas Legislature passed the most expansive juvenile reform legislation since 1973. This legislation that took effect in January 1996 has been described as a "get tough, balanced approach" that reflected the public attitude that we want to punish youth in some meaningful way, and yet not abandon rehabilitation as a principal aim for our children. The Texas Youth Commission implemented a "back to basics" philosophy - public safety and punishment for criminal acts are balanced with the need for rehabilitation.
To accommodate the “get tough” or “zero tolerance” approach, during the 1990s and early 2000s, bed-space and the youth population at TYC dramatically increased. In 1991, the total number of TYC youth in residential care (institutions, halfway houses, or contract programs) exceeded 2,000 for the first time. In 1996, the population crossed the 3,000 mark. The next year, it was 4,015. In 1999, there were more than 5,000 youth in TYC residential care. The population peaked in 2001 at 5,599.
Over the next few years, TYC began to struggle with recruiting and retaining juvenile correctional officers to properly staff its facilities. Increases in youth and staff injuries, and concerns about mistreatment and abuse of youth led to increased parent and staff involvement with the media and Legislature. Advocacy groups became increasingly active in calling for changes in the agency.
2007 Reforms and Conservatorship
During the 80th Texas Legislature in 2007, the Texas Youth Commission was the subject of intense scrutiny. Allegations of abuse and flaws in the application of the agency’s treatment programming led to sweeping reforms - primarily detailed in Senate Bill 103.
The chief and most immediate concern was to ensure the safety of the youth in TYC’s care. Much of the critical focus on the agency stemmed initially from the revelation that two senior TYC administrators from the West Texas State School in Pyote, Texas, stood accused of sexually abusing several youth in 2005, but had not been prosecuted. Questions arose whether youth and staff felt comfortable, at any TYC facility, reporting allegations of abuse or kept quiet out of fear of retaliation.
As an immediate stop-gap measure, in March 2007, Texas Rangers, investigators from the Attorney General’s Office, and law enforcement agents from the Office of Inspector General for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice were dispatched to every TYC facility, and TYC established an abuse reporting hotline. The 24-hour hotline recorded thousands of calls which resulted in as many investigations.
The directive from state leadership and lawmakers was clear: stop the abuse of children in the state’s care; solve safety issues; and begin emphasizing programs that provide youth the best possible chance at rehabilitation and a respectable future. To ensure the timely and effective execution of reforms, the TYC Board was disbanded and the agency was placed under conservatorship in March 2007.
Under conservatorship, staff at TYC spent 2007 and 2008 implementing reforms outlined by the Legislature. Some of the most extensive reforms mandated by Senate Bill 103 included: the establishment of the Office of the Inspector General, the creation of the Office of the Independent Ombudsman, the formation of the Release Review Panel to ensure youth were not being held in TYC unnecessarily or longer than beneficial, the reduction of the maximum age of confinement from 21 to 19, the elimination of misdemeanant commitments to TYC, the reduction of residential populations, the adoption of a Parents’ Bill of Rights, and the creation of a new general treatment program called CoNEXTions©.
On October 14, 2008, Governor Rick Perry removed TYC from conservatorship and named an executive commissioner to head the agency.
Renewal
The present focus is on changing the culture of TYC system-wide, which takes time. TYC must concentrate on its basic mission with the dual responsibility of providing public safety by holding youth accountable and providing treatment to youth in hopes they will learn to become law-abiding adults. Primarily, the agency will see a continued departure from housing youth in large, centralized institutions and, instead, develop community-based, regionalized treatment programs. These treatment programs will be evidence-based and will incorporate national best practices. They will better serve youth, because youth services will be focused and individualized. Much progress has been made since 2007, but much work remains. The 81st Texas Legislative Session, beginning in 2009, will be significant in the history of the agency as lawmakers and state leaders decide the future of TYC and the state’s juvenile justice system.