TYC investigation prompts release of 226 youth inmates

[Joanne98]

Source: San Antonio news

AUSTIN — A special review of Texas Youth Commission inmates has resulted in the planned release of 226 youths whose sentences were determined to have been improperly extended, the agency announced Friday.

Agency spokesman Jim Hurley said the youths will be processed out as soon as their parents or guardians are able to receive them. He said the agency also will make sure there are adequate social services and follow-ups for the youths, who will be on parole.

"These are 226 kids who would have been sitting in TYC if this review had not been done," Hurley said.

TYC has been under intense scrutiny this year amid a scandal over staff sexual relations with inmates and violence in the system. Among the complaints was that some youth were kept in the system for years beyond their minimum sentences for minor rules violations.



Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051907.05B.TYC.30c1ecf.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Would I be correct in calling this the first major impact of the review?

I know a bunch of staff had been suspended and stuff but... releasing 226 youths early, that's a lot, even in Texas, isn't it? That's a lot of malfeasance at work. Big stuff.

[Joanne98]

3. I think you would be,

[seemslikeadream]

2. seems like a job for a

United States Attorney

[Joanne98]

4. LOL! It's coming!

[keopeli]

5. These people should be prosecuted for child-slavery. Truly abominable! n/t

[rodeodance]

6. I am astounded that this was allowed to go on for years and years!

[Kagemusha]

8. I'm astounded it ever stopped.

Texas, post-Bush governorship, shutting a prison down? Over anything? Astounding.

[stillcool]

7. un-believable...

Great to see something...anything...being done. This story...epitomizes..for me, what our country has become. Moral values and all.

[Heidi]

9. Kick.

:kick:

[intheflow]

10. Texas to release 226 juvenile prisoners

Source: AP

AUSTIN, Texas - The agency that runs the state's juvenile prison system said it will release 226 inmates after a review found their sentences were improperly extended.

Advocates for Texas Youth Commission inmates and their families have complained that sentences are often extended inconsistently or in retaliation for filing grievances.

Jay Kimbrough, who is heading an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the agency's facilities, formed a panel to review the records of nearly all inmates with extended sentences. The six-member panel, which included community activists and prosecutors, reviewed the cases of 1,027 inmates whose sentences were extended.

...

The review is one of many ongoing reforms to the state's juvenile system after the disclosure of allegations of sexual abuse of inmates by staff and a possible cover-up by agency officials. The commission incarcerates about 4,700 offenders ages 10 to 21.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070520/ap_on_re_us/juvenile_prison_abuse

---

Punitive prison extentions for youth in Texas? Who'd have thought it? :sarcasm:

Glad to see the whole system hasn't been completely corrupted and that justice has been served for these families.

[lildreamer316]

11. Do we really need to incarcarate TEN YEAR OLDS??

Maybe I don't understand fully; but you've got to be kidding.

[Kagemusha]

12. I have no idea what the 10 year olds had done.

Maybe it's pretty horrible. I wouldn't know. I think some prosecutors have moved to have people that age tried as adults in case of murder or something?...

Britain had a famous case involving people just shy of 12, I think?

[acmavm]

13. Horrible is possible...

<snip>

10-year-old Florida boy found guilty in homeless beating

Prosecutors say the boy, another 10-year-old and 17-year-old Jeremy Woods, ganged up on John D'Amico as D'Amico and a friend walked through a Daytona Beach neighborhood.

The other 10-year-old faces up to a year in juvenile detention after pleading no contest to misdemeanor battery. Woods has been charged with aggravated battery and could spend 15 years in a state prison, if convicted.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=54556


I don't understand this at all. Not at all.

[Kagemusha]

15. Still better than tossing another kid his age in front of an approaching train

That's stuff people would want 10 years old tried as ADULTS over. My skin crawls when I have such conversations with people but it has happened.

[acmavm]

18. Oh, I agree. A 10-year old caught shoplifting or being a continual truant

or who's homelife is one that consists of uncaring parents who do anything BUT parent do not belong a lovely system such as is run but the state of Texas. But the ones like the killer ten-year olds, is trying them as an adult the answer either? Maybe, but I'm not sure. Part of prosecution is also redemption. You sure as hell won't redeem a ten-year old that's spent time in an adult prison.

We need to figure out what's going wrong here with these kids and do something to turn the situation around.

OPPS! Silly me. That would require money, wouldn't it. And we all know that there is no money for things like this, or for the poor, or for the homeless, or for the aged, or for the uninsured, or for the hungry...

[Kagemusha]

19. Sadly you nailed it right on the head re: requiring money.

Society seems to think redemption is simply too expensive to bother with. Governments have been spending the last 20 years proving this to be the prevailing common thought on the matter. Ugh.

[Breeze54]

14. I worked in Juvenile Detention (internship) and

we had NINE and ten year olds that had murdered their mothers.

Not unheard of at all! Pretty scary, actually.

Ten year old's that raped or tried to rape three year olds.

It's mind boggling but it happens in the real world.

[Kagemusha]

16. Yeah, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of. What a world.

And society needs to deal with the consequences SOMEHOW. Unfortunately, Texas seems to have followed the "two wrongs make a right" principle.

[Breeze54]

17. Well, it is Texas, afterall.

:grr: They're the top state for executions too.

I'm glad these groups stepped in and went through the files though.
Justice is justice and the law can be wrong!