TYC Will Abandon Remote Youth Prisons

It looks like some interesting news came out of yesterday’s hearing on the joint select committee overseeing the Texas Youth Commission:

The Texas Youth Commission’s conservator is taking steps toward abandoning the state’s long-time strategy of farming youth offenders out to large, remote prisons.

Richard Nedelkoff said Wednesday that he has the wheels in motion to move juveniles to the facilities closest to their homes – which will probably mean phasing out or closing less-populated rural prisons.

Lawmakers believe the isolation of the youth prisons, which were the subject of widespread reports of physical and sexual abuse last year, contributed to their poor conditions.

“Right now we have kids all over the place,” Mr. Nedelkoff said at a legislative hearing on the TYC. “We’ve got to put the kids in the community, closer to where they belong, and build the services there. That’s what we’re attempting to do.”

Certainly, that’s an excellent proposal. Naturally, it is one that will cost money, since closing the other facilities will naturally necessitate building new ones.

The closure of the other facilities is also prompting outrage from local officials due to the impact the closure will likely have on the economy in some of those areas:

But closing rural youth prisons won’t come without strong local opposition. Traditionally, plans to shut institutions – which are major employers in their communities – have caused outrage in the towns where they are located.

If the West Texas State School in Ward County is closed, “anywhere from 150 to 200 families would be affected in terms of their job situation,” County Judge Greg Holly said. “It would have a tremendous negative effect.”

Of course, there is one alternative: the TYC prisons being shut down could be converted to adult penal drug rehab facilities, which would actually make sense.

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