Lawmakers Address Concerns About History of Abuse at Texas Juvenile Justice Department

By Mackenzie Sams, masams@ttu.edu

At a meeting for the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, Reps. Gene Wu and Jolanda Jones questioned executives from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department about their response to a DOJ report alleging the department violated children’s constitutional rights. 

“Every time we come back, we say, ‘hey, tell us what you need.’ Like, there’s all these problems, so let’s fix them,” Wu said. “We give the money, and we come back the next time, and the problem’s still there, and it’s actually gotten bigger.” 

Shandra Carter, the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, told the committee that she had to put the facilities into a 22 hour lockdown due to staffing issues when the report was made. 

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department was created in 2011 after allegations of sexual abuse led lawmakers to combine the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. Since then, the agency has been plagued with accusations of neglect, abuse and misconduct. 

A 2019 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that children in three of Texas’s secured facilities experienced some of the highest rates of sexual victimization in the country. 

The DOJ report, published in 2024, described a “pervasive atmosphere of sexual abuse, grooming, and lack of staff accountability and training at TJJD.” 

According to a report from the Texas Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, at least 11 staff members of Texas juvenile justice facilities have been arrested for sexually abusing children. 

Though staff are required to wear body cameras, the DOJ report found that 63% of staff turned off their cameras when interacting with children. 

Shawn Grove, Executive Deputy Director of the TJJD, said that the department has made changes to their body cameras, including restrictions on when they can be put into sleep mode. He denied any accusations of constitutional violations at the agency. 

The DOJ report also alleges that children weren’t able to make reports to the Office of the Independent Ombudsman, the agency which oversees the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. 

Children are supposed to be able to use landline phones to reach the ombudsman tip line directly, but staff would often deny access to the phone by sending kids to bed as early as 11:30 a.m. or by hovering nearby while the calls were being made.

Lawmakers accused Sean McCleskey, the office’s Chief Ombudsman, of focusing his attention too much on reports of youth-on-staff violence. 

“If we screw up with kids, they’re going to be more screwed up adults,” Rep. Jones said. “And for me, it’s unacceptable that you say we’re basically trying to put out the fire with the fire hoses in our face.” 

Jones, who is a lawyer and member of the juvenile justice subcommittee, said she has cousins who were taken out of school at eight years old by their mother and forced to sell drugs. When she was on the Houston City Council, one of them died. 

“People saw my cousin as a drug dealer,” Jones said. “I saw him as a kid that was failed by everybody.” 

The report also alleged an excessive use of force on children, including spraying them with mace meant for crowd control. The Texas Juvenile Justice Department claimed it has changed the type of mace canisters used in its facilities. 

Children at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department attend one of five high schools based on which facility they’re at. They average five grade levels behind their peers in math and six in reading. 

The westernmost facility is Ron Jackson, located in Brownwood, Texas. It’s a 3 ½ hour drive from Lubbock and a 5 ½ hour drive from Amarillo.

According to the DOJ report, children at the department spend 30% less time in school than required by Texas law. All coursework is done through an online program called Apex Learning, and teachers only answer questions from students if asked. In the Regional Services Unit, teachers spend only five minutes a day with children, handing out a packet for them to fill out. 

In Texas, schools are required to follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. One of the provisions of the law is that schools must create individualized education plans for children with disabilities. 

The report found that the Texas Juvenile Justice Department made significant changes to the education plans of students with disabilities, often deleting behavioral intervention plans completely.

When children behave aggressively, even if their behavior is related to a disability, they are placed in the Violence Intervention Continuum. There, they don’t have access to programs required to complete their sentence. 

The review and release panel in charge of deciding if children are fit to be released voted to extend the sentences of 100% of disabled children at least once in a period of 13 months. They also recommended 100% of disabled children for transfer to prison. 

Shandra Carter said the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is working with the justice department on implementing the report’s recommendations.

“I do believe we are in an excellent place compared to where we were,” Carter said. “But I’m also very clear on the work we have ahead of us.” 

Carter said the details of the work her agency is doing with the DOJ is not public information, but she assured lawmakers that they could schedule a private meeting to discuss it.