2 say TYC was warned

[Joanne98]

2 say TYC was warned

Officials in Austin had denied knowing about abuse allegations
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/050107kvuetyc-eh.278289f5.html

08:37 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 1, 2007

By GREGG JONES / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Texas Youth Commission officials in Austin were warned as early as November 2004 about alleged sexual abuse of inmates at a West Texas prison, two agency insiders have told investigators.

Also Online
Investigative Series: Abuse scandal rocks TYC
Senior managers, including the former executive director, have previously denied knowing of alleged sexual abuse by administrators at the West Texas State School in Pyote until Texas Rangers launched an investigation on Feb. 23, 2005.

But Bill Parker, a former TYC case manager at the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit, said he alerted his supervisors about alleged sexual abuse at West Texas and other facilities in 2003. When his supervisor and an assistant superintendent at Marlin failed to act, Mr. Parker said he mailed copies of the inmate sexual-abuse claims to TYC headquarters in November 2004.

"I was treated as if I was a troublemaker," the former TYC staffer said Monday.


A case manager who still works at TYC's Marlin unit, Anthony Mikulastik, confirmed Mr. Parker's account. Both men gave sworn statements to the Rangers in April and provided copies to The Dallas Morning News .
TYC officials "could have stopped this at West Texas," Mr. Mikulastik said. "They didn't want to do anything about it but cover it up."


'Scared to death'

Mr. Parker and Mr. Mikulastik told investigators that in 2003, two inmates who had previously served time at the West Texas prison alleged that high-level staff granted them privileges and special favors in exchange for sex.

In his statement, Mr. Parker said one of the inmates recalled how he and others would be summoned "to clean certain parts of the building and during that time that's when the sex with staff would occur."

A second youth said "if you wanted your stay shortened or an easy time all you had to do is have sex with certain staff members," Mr. Parker said in the statement.

"Neither kid knew that I was talking to the other so they didn't have time to discuss or collaborate on the stories," Mr. Parker said.

The two inmates who alleged sexual abuse at Pyote were afraid to have their names revealed, Mr. Parker said. One of the inmates "was so scared to death about talking about these things" that he wouldn't even put his experiences in writing, Mr. Parker said.


Assistant named

Mr. Mikulastik said in his statement that the two inmates specifically mentioned the assistant superintendent at Pyote as trading favors for sex.

One inmate told Mr. Mikulastik "that in the West Texas School, you can get out on your minimum stay if you play ball with the assistant superintendent," according to his statement.

"I asked the boy what that meant and he said that if you let the assistant superintendent do certain things with you he would give you snacks and let you watch porno movies with him," Mr. Mikulastik said in his statement. "I asked the boy if 'certain things' meant homosexual stuff and the boy said, 'Yes, sir.' "

Mr. Mikulastik, 56, said the second inmate separately described similar experiences, including "special favors for 'partying' with the assistant superintendent and watching porno with him."

In an effort to build trust with young inmates who had been released and then resentenced to TYC, Mr. Parker said he had started a group session called "Get It Off Your Chest" in which youth were encouraged to discuss and write about past TYC experiences.

"As time went on it got more detailed and I started hearing about youth having sex with staff and staff allowing fights among other students," he said. "I also started noticing different kids at different times telling similar stories about the same state schools they had come from."


Allegations dismissed

Mr. Parker said he sent copies of more than a dozen inmate reports to TYC headquarters that alleged sexual abuse at several prisons. He said he also sent reports alleging dealing in drugs and other contraband by staff and guards. Most of the inmates refused to put their names on the reports for fear of retribution, he said.

TYC headquarters staff never contacted the case managers about the allegations, they said.

Mr. Parker, 49, said his two supervisors at Marlin dismissed the allegations as fabrications or hearsay. Later, his immediate supervisor told him that senior Marlin administrators were "out to ruin my career at TYC," he said.

Mr. Parker joined TYC in June 1997 after 17 years with the federal prison system, he said. He forwarded the inmate statements to TYC headquarters when he resigned from the agency, he said.

After the Rangers reported finding evidence of sexual abuse against Pyote inmates, the facility's assistant superintendent, Ray Brookins, resigned. He pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing young inmates. The school's principal, John Paul Hernandez, later resigned and pleaded not guilty to sex-abuse charges.

A Ranger investigative report and an internal TYC review allege that Mr. Brookins and Mr. Hernandez offered such favors as birthday cake and help getting into college in exchange for sex. They threatened to extend inmates' sentences if they failed to comply, investigators have said.

When news of the West Texas scandal broke in February, Mr. Parker said, "I felt vindicated, but then I got real angry. These kids weren't angels, but they didn't deserve to be done the way they were done in these facilities."
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/050107kvuetyc-eh.278289f5.html

Staff writer Doug J. Swanson contributed to this report.

[Joanne98]

1. The State's Youngest Offenders Could Be Headed to Bell County

The State's Youngest Offenders Could Be Headed to Bell County
Updated: Apr 30, 2007 8:14pm
http://www.kcentv.com/news/c-article.php?cid=1&nid=12842
Safety issues are why the Texas Youth Commission is trying to send the youngest youth offenders to the Bell County Juvenile Justice Center.

Officials say there are safety issues when housing kids with such a large age gap because of their different developmental stages.


Bell County accepted the proposal and agreed to house the offenders for $105 per child per day.


TYC tried to negotiate a price of $95 per child per day, but the county didn't agree.


Bell County Judge, Jon Burrows said. "There's no sense in us loosing money to help the state out. On this part er need to protect the tax payers of Bell County who pay for the facility and who actually pay the salaries of everybody that works there. We need to be reimbursed for our cost from the state."


The county is looking to house between 30 and 32 of the young offenders.
http://www.kcentv.com/news/c-article.php?cid=1&nid=12842

[Joanne98]

2. Welfare Reform! Take away the mother's $400.00 a mo check BUT

Give the child molestors and the sadists $100.00 dollars a DAY to take care of them!

[Joanne98]

3. kick

[Joanne98]

4. I'm always the lone soul on the TYC scandal!

;(

[Joanne98]

5. kick

[stillcool]

6. Thanks for the info!!

I'll stop back later when I have time to read and actually comprehend.

[Joanne98]

7. Okay!

:hi:

[ninkasi]

8. K&R

The system of criminal justice should be overhauled. Our country has far, far too many people in detention, and many are in prison for minor offenses. The best way to begin to overhauling justice, is to rewrite the drug laws, and use a rational approach.

Locking people up has just become too profitable,and I agree that it's ludicrous to spend so much on punishing people, and so little on trying to prevent the problems that often lead to crime. These kids were placed in hell.

[Joanne98]

9. kick

[Joanne98]

10. Texas Criminal Justice News Roundup/Fired TYC supervisor may be related to Perry

As I've been focused on the Texas Lege, I haven't followed criminal justice stories from around the state as closely as I'd like, but here are a few items that might make longer blog posts if I had the time:

Fired TYC supervisor may be related to Perry

Lydia Barnard, the Texas Youth Commission supervisor who allegedly ignored allegations of sexual abuse at the West Texas state school in Pyote, was finally fired yesterday. In comments to Monday's Grits post on TYC, a couple of TYC employees insisted that Barnard is actually related to Governor Rick Perry - a cousin, supposedly - and in January directly reached out to the Governor to protect her. Another source described her as an "old family acquaintance" of Perry's. I can't confirm either rumor, but if correct it casts a different light on why Governor Perry's appointees took so long to release her - more than 55 others, most of whom had nothing to do with the scandal, were terminated or forced to resign before they got around to the supervisor who actually failed her duties! Then, instead of telling her, she found out in the Dallas Morning News. What a fiasco.

Private Prison Problems Prompt Warden's Departure

A warden has resigned at the private prison in Dickens County following allegations of abuse against out of state prisoners when an inspection team of Idaho Corrections officials found conditions and prisoner treatment inadequate.

Re-entry Struggles Dictate Recidivism or Success

The Statesman ran a good story on Monday detailing barriers to successful re-entry faced by those returning from prison. I've been disappointed this session that more legislation hasn't been proposed to address some of these problems, though a few good re-entry bills are moving that I'll detail soon.

Jesus in the Jailhouse

The Dallas Observer ran an interesting feature last week on Texas' participation with Chuck Colson's Inner Change Freedom Ministries, and had this followup on their blog Unfair Park.

TDCJ Undercover

TDCJ officials and the Officer of Inspector General ran an undercover operation in Palestine over the weekend where an unarmed suspect was shot. The sting targeted someone believed to be attempting to smuggle marijuana and crack cocaine to an inmate. The case leads me to wonder two things: Are TDCJ and OIG officials really trained and equipped for outside-world undercover work, or should they have let DPS or another agency handle it? Given the botched outcome you have to raise the question. Second, it's interesting to me that a sting on the outside world targeted non-TDJC employees. I wonder if the agency applies similar undercover resources at TDJC to discovering corrupt guards?

Militarizing Both Sides of the Border

As the Texas House prepares to hear the Governor's homeland security bill (HB 13) tomorrow on the floor, the feds have announced that "The U.S. government is giving a computer system to spy on people using telephones, e-mail, chat rooms and other communications technology, to thwart terrorists and drug traffickers." Because we all know that such high tech gadgetry and attacks on civil liberties have virtually eliminated drug sales in the United States.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/may/02/texas-criminal-justice-news-roundup/