AUSTIN, Texas — Texas' juvenile detention facilities say staff shortages have forced them to keep youth confined to their rooms for up to 22 hours a day and cut off new intakes.
Leaders at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department warn the staffing problem is so severe it could lead to an “inability to provide even basic supervision for youth locked in their rooms.”
“This could cause a significantly impaired ability to intervene in the increasing suicidal behaviors already occurring by youth struggling with the isolative impact of operational room confinement,” said a letter sent out last week by the agency’s interim executive director Shandra Carter.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department had a 71% turnover rate in the 2021 fiscal year and is struggling to retain staff, Carter recently told state lawmakers. Juvenile correctional officers are regularly working 12 hour shifts, plus required overtime that sometimes pushes the workday to 16 hours or longer, she said. Each month the agency is spending more than $1 million on overtime and contracting costs.
“Our people are exceptionally exhausted,” Carter told the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission on June 22. “We have placed so much strain on the system and asked so much of people that it is collapsing.”
The lockups house minors found responsible for felonies, including aggravated robbery, burglary or aggravated assault. As of May, the population hovered at around 570 youth — one of the lowest levels in the last decade, according to state records.
Carter told county officials last week the state agency would temporarily halt new intakes. It’s not clear when the suspension might lift. At least 140 youth are awaiting transfer to state lockups, including 13 in Dallas County, according to officials.
Meanwhile, youth already housed in state detention facilities are spending up to 22 hours secured in their rooms during “lockdowns” — not for safety reasons, but because there’s not enough staff to watch them elsewhere, Carter told lawmakers last month.
“An unfortunate consequence of this is that youth will likely end up staying with us longer,” Carter testified last month. “The full rehabilitative programming they need to return to their communities with a lesser risk is just not available when they’re alone in their rooms.”
Typically, juveniles held in state lockup resume their education in addition to therapy or treatment that will help them return to their communities.
“It’s really a bad situation,” said Brett Merfish, Director of Youth Justice at Texas Appleseed. “Young people, if they stay in care too long, it actually increases their chance of recidivism and decreases the rehabilitative value of their time in care.”
The staffing issues are just the latest problem for an agency long troubled by reports of widespread mismanagement and abuse.
Most recently, the U.S. Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse in five of the state’s juvenile detention facilities. The probe, which launched last fall, is ongoing.
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(Dallas Morning News staff writer Krista M. Torralva contributed to this report.)
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