This week's trip Cast is sponsored by Texas Medical Association. Access to care does
not equal access to quality care. No matter where you live, you deserve
the highest standard of care. Removing physicians from the healthcare team is not a
solution. Find out more at tx m eed dot org and Raise your Hand
Texas. No matter what an education voucher is called, the policy is the
same boucher's divert public funds to private schools and vendors. Find out more at
Raise your Hand Texas dot org. Hello and welcome to the Texas Tribune trip
Cast for May one, twenty twenty three. We're coming at you days late
as I returned from some time away from work. My name is Matthew Watkins,
Managing editor of News and Politics for the Tribune. This week, I'm
joined by our criminal justice reporter, Jolie McCullough. Hey, Jolie, Hey,
thanks for joining us today. We are going to talk about the state's
troubled juvenile justice process, a topic that has come up on this show before
but has kind of resurfaced in the news due to information about you know,
children being transferred from tjj D, the state's criminal juvenile justice agency, to
adult prisons, particularly the case of Joshua Keith Beasley, who recently died by
suicide in one of those adult facilities. A kind of warning ahead of time
for listeners, this story might at times veer into, you know, somewhat
graphic descriptions of violence or or suicide. So um, you know, if
you are not comfortable hearing that, you this maybe an episode you you to
skip. But Jolie, you know, you had a very powerful story last
week on this topic. We've talked a little bit about the problems at tjj
D before, but for those who might not have heard that, I think
maybe we should start by just kind of summing up, you know, what
we had already known about this agency and the problems it was facing, particularly
last year. Yeah, so last year, the Texas General Justice Department tjj
D, UM it's five prison it's five youth prisons around the state. They
were struggling with severe understaffing, like historical levels of short staffing. For months,
they had less than fifty percent of their officer roles filled. And this
kind of had a you know, as one would expect, negative impact on
the youth in these detention facilities. UM, children were locked in their cells
or up to twenty three hours a day. UM. And in many cases
these are cells where it's very small, just kind of a concrete slab with
a mattress, a thin mattress on top. There are no toilets in these
cells. So there were children using water bottles, they were using lunch trees
as makeshift toilets. UM. They were not getting to go to class for
education time. They were getting work packets instead handed to them on their dorms
or in their cells. And this UM, during this time, we saw
self harm behavior among the youth's skyrocket UM. More and more youth were hurting
themselves. UM. There were some spikes at some of the facilities, of
assaults on staff as well. UM. And this was just it was just
UM. The agency itself said it was. It was near total collapse.
UM. This was as big as an emergency. They could even be calling
for themselves. They were just they were really struggling and the kids were hurting
because of it. Let's let's take a step back very quickly and because help
people kind of understand how, how and why this agency exists and how it
compares to the adult criminal justice system. What is the difference between someone going
through I mean aside from their age of course, someone going through the you
know, juvenile justice system compared to what you might experience if you're a you
know, twenty three year old convicted of a felony going going to a state
prison or something like that, or seventeen year old in Texas. UM.
Yeah, So basically what we see here is there's been a lot of changes
with how we've handled juvenile justice in the last fifteen years or so. Given
that you know, these the Youth Justice Agency never really seems to be able
to climb out of crisis. It's kind of always in a state of turmoil,
just with spikes of intensity with that, which is what we I saw
last year. UM. And so what we've seen more and more over the
last decade or and change is that generally speaking, when a child is um
you know, commits a crime, they are intended to be kept as like
as as shallow in the system as possible. So generally speaking, they're meant
to be handled on the local level with local probation departments in cases where maybe
they just have not been able to get the services they need at the local
level, or the crime is um is so violent that they are unable to
be adequately watched at the local level. They the last resort is meant to
be these juvenile prisons, these five prisons across the state. And so right
now there's in for the last year and change, there's been fewer than six
hundred youth in these five facilities, and they to be there, you have
to have committed a felony. Um. And generally speaking, you're the local
officials have deemed that they can't help you at the on their end, either
because of violent behavior, severe mental health needs oftentimes both. Um. So
that's kind of where we're at in terms of what these facilities are and who
they're meant to handle and are we is it a more rehabilitative process than you
would see in the adult prisons too? I mean, is is there a
different kind of philosophy or approach to how the people are treated in these Yeah.
So the thing with youth, the youth prisons, they are meant to
be rehabilitative, they are meant to be treatment based. Um. Like you
know, obviously public safety being a factor as well. But nowhere in like
their mission statement, like in their in their description of themselves, nowhere does
a safe punitive, whereas you know, the adult prison system, there's you
know, discussions of like re entry and abilitation, but the main point of
it is public safety and punishment. Right You're being punished for the crime that
you have committed. And so it's they're incredibly different, just you know,
from the from the studs, from the foundation, they're meant to handle these
things differently. Now, obviously, when you get to short staffing and you
end up having these kids in severe isolation a lot, the way that it's
changes in practice is obviously different. But the intention here is this is a
rehabilitative environment. This is a treatment based environment versus the adult system, which
is a punitive environment. Okay, So with that in mind, you bring
up in your story and we have written separately as well about the case of
Joshua Keith Beasley. Tell us about him and what he went through. Yeah,
So Joshua Keith Beasley Jr. And this was actually written by a freelancer,
Lisa Armstrong. She wrote about him last year year when we had our
bigger story about how what we talked about earlier, how t JJD was nearing
total collapse, she had a story on him. Essentially, this is a
child who was struggling since early childhood with behavioral issues with you know, mental
health issues, and at age eleven, was deemed that the best the best
solution for him was to be put into a t JJD prison. So this
is a child who at age eleven, he was originally on probation for vandalism
and then after kicking a school safety officer in violation of that probation, he
was sent to a youth prison. In there, he deteriorated. He had
countless, countless episodes of self harm during the pandemic when visitation was halted,
he wasn't able to see his mom anymore. He was hospitalized about a dozen
times for self harm behavior within less than two years. And then obviously there
were instances where this is a child was severe mental health needs. He would
have some violent outbursts at times. So eventually what happened to him was he
in September of last year, was transferred to the adult prison system, essentially
because at age sixteen, he had been you know, charged with the crime
of assaulting an officer in in the youth prison. So he had hit,
he hit, hit and spit at an officer, and that crime can make
you eligible to be if you've had multiple crimes at this point, it can
make you eligible to be transferred up to the adult system. And so after
age sixteen, so essentially he turned sixteen and d J J d UM you
know, pushed him up to the adult prison system seemingly, you know,
as as they've said, like they thought it's the best decision for him,
given that he wasn't succeeding UM in the youth prison system. And within six
months he was found UM in his cell at a psychiatric prison and at the
adult psychiatric prison, and he he died by suicide UM six months after he
was transferred up at age sixteen. Still, so it's just a tragic story
of just a youth entering the system at a very young age, struggling with
mental health issues throughout it, and shortly after he was sent up to the
adult prison system, reportedly he took his life. Let's pause from it.
In here from our sponsors, Texans Care for Children, Texas moms need health
coverage for a full year after childbirth. HB twelve by Representative Tony Rose delivers.
Learn more from Texans Care for Children at TX children dot org and Texas
Conference for women. Don't miss the latest episode of Women Amplified, featuring barrier
breaking Ballerina Misty Copeland and Target EVP and Chief External Engagement Officer Lesia Ward.
Find out more at Conference for Women dot Org. Okay, Sually, we
highlighted this story because it's an individually tragic story, but also, as you
have reported, it is an example, a very tragic example of a practice
that has become more common in the past year by t JJD, the practice
of transferring juveniles under the age of seventeen two adult prisons. Tell us why
is that happening? Yeah, so it depends. I mean, essentially,
as we've said, right, t JJD was in this crisis. They as
the years have gone by, they have narrowed down their population to generally the
most difficult population to deal with. Right, these are the most high needs
youth they have either for behavioral issues or mental health or both. As I
said earlier, So this is a generally, generally speaking, a difficult population
to work with. T JJD has said that in the last the increase in
transfers, which for context, there were fifty one transfers last year of youth
up to the adult prison system. And you know, again, out of
less than six hundred youth and the year before, in twenty twenty one,
there were twenty nine of those fifty one twelve of them were sixteen or seventeen,
compared to five of them being that age in twenty one. So this
is a big jump. Um. Obviously, it's small numbers of any of
these youths because the TJJD system is meant to handle a few youth but it's
a big percentage, and it's a big jump, and it's a big change.
And so basically what we saw was the youth the youth justice system was
you know, at its just struggling to survive at this point. UM,
they were scrambling to recruit and to retain more officers. And you know,
one of the one of the biggest complaints of officers who are leaving is the
work conditions, the you know, the dangerous conditions that can come with this
job. So in in this in this world, they're increasing transfers. T
JJD has said because more more youth are being committed with with um after having
after having committed violent offenses. So there's like a more the population itself,
they're arguing is more violent. But you also hear from some of the lawyers
who represent these children at these transfer hearings, and they're saying there there are
instances where you see like Joshua Keith Beasley, who yes he has was found
to have hid an officer. But it's very like, it's very clear that
this is a child with severe mental health issues and he's hurting himself a lot
as well. And you also don't know how severe any of these incidents are.
For example, I know there's been situations where officers are grievously wounded,
um. You know, they might be end up in the hospital after after
an assault from the youth. But there's other instances that I've heard of,
you know, a child resisting being restrained or pushed into their cell and in
that resist during that like resistance UM, an officer you know might fall down
um or you know, sprain their wrist um. And these are the same
types of cases that you're seeing that are that youth that are being pushed up
to the adult system. What needs to happen? How do they how do
they do that? Is it getting permission from a judge? Yes, So
there's only so many youth who are eligible, right, and so there are
two ways that one enters the juvenile prisons, and one is you're either on
a determinate sentence where you've committed a crime that they that you've been found generally
speaking, it's one of there's a list of crimes that it can be generally
serious violent offenses for example, murder, aggravated robbery, things like that,
and you've been found in court to say, okay, it's a juvenile court
still, but you are sentenced to stay up to it can be up to
forty years. So say there's a child committed of aggravated robbery. He gets
a twenty year sentence, but he's only you know, fifteen, and then
before he turns nineteen is when he ages out of the youth system. Then
there's another hearing where that same court decides, okay, do you serve the
rest of the sentence in prison and the adult prison or do you go now
onto parole. And that's largely based on how well you have been seemingly how
well you've done in the youth prison system. The other way is for youth
that youth more youth go into the youth prison system having committed crimes that they're
never supposed to enter the adults system, right, they're lower level felonies and
or they've just gotten lesser sentences, so they're supposed to be there at the
youth prison system for between at least nine months in two years, and then
after that it's really just up to tjj officials to say, you know what,
Yes, you've completed all the treatment we have on this and you're you're
doing well, so you can go now, and you're just you're done.
But if you commit another crime within t JJD, you can become eligible for
that other offense, and then you're now on You're now able to be TJD
is now able to request this transfer, which again has to go before the
juvenile court judge who in almost every case approves the transfer. And essentially what
you're talking about here, and you have in your story of advocates sort of
making this point right where you have the agency, you know, making the
argument that this child is too dangerous to be held in the youth facilities for
whatever reason, committing you know, crimes danger to the staff or other children
as well. They need to go up to a adult system where there might
you know, be fewer services available to help them. But you have the
advocates kind of coming back and saying, well, part of the reason they
have gotten to this point is because they've been in a facility and an agency
where things are making it worse. You know, we talk about them this
this individual story, you know, where a kid is, you know,
starting to do self harm after he's been unable to see his family from visitations.
Um. You know, all different kind of people being isolated in their
cells, having to use the rest bathroom, in water bottles and lunch trays
because they can't you leave their cells because of staffing issues and everything like that.
And so like this kind of like you know, like vicious spiral right
where you go to an agency that may make it worse than your mental health
crises, which then the agency says, because you're showing these this behavior in
part due to mental health crises, you need to go to a facility that
might be more dangerous or might have fewer services for you. It just seems
like it's a not a not a great situation in that realm, and it's
not. It's a horrible situation all around. Um. And you know,
advocates have argued that this is this is you know t JJD saying this is
how we're having to move the most disruptive youth so the other youth in our
facilities can thrive. Advocates saying this is a way essentially to throw kids away
um and to you know, to kick the can down the road, UM,
make it somebody else's problem. And it's it's you know, tragic to
hear of these situations and where where this is happening, especially with kids like
Joshua UM. And it's just you know, in t DCJ, like one
of the arguments being well, they have a youthful offender program. There are
currently or as of last month, there were thirty four UM people under eighteen
who were in the adult prison system and they're supposed to they have a program
four you know, their inmates under eighteen, and it's meant to be you
know, to have more services like education, UM and treatment, but jet
you know, in the in the grand scheme of things, t TCJ is
also always struggling with staffing UM. And there you know, Joshua ended up
in a psychiatric prison because he had he had hurt himself again once in the
adult prison system. They sent him to a psychiatric unit. And what you
saw, according to TDCJ, who is now moving to fire UM seven employees
at that unit. They there was a level quote level of complacency um U
quote that was essentially unacceptable. They weren't checking on this on this child as
much as they were supposed to be UM Whereas, like you know, in
in t jj D on if if the youth is on suicide watch, essentially
they're being checked on every you know, three to ten minutes at most UM
and TDCJ said this youth was supposed to be checked on every fifteen minutes,
and then that wasn't happening. So you just get into these really like it's
a different it's just a different environment and it's meant for different types of people.
And you see t DCJ generally has a large number of suicides every year,
so this is something that has kind of been baked into, like you
know, there is just some accepted level of suicides. But when it's a
sixteen year old who was never originally meant to go into the adult system in
the first place, I mean, it's just it's it's hard to it's just
it's really it's really tragic. Yeah, I mean, and we just have
this situation we were in a legislative session right now. There's a lot of
focus and attention on child you know, the welfare of children, the safety
of children in this session, and it just like you keep seeing these reminders,
whether it's the problems with the state's foster care agency, the Juvenile Justice
agency that you know, one of the most dangerous places to be a kid
in Texas is under the custody or responsibility of the State of Texas. And
of course, you know, you could argue, and you know it should
be noted in that situation that there's somewhat of a you know, cause and
effect question there, right of course, because you know, these agencies are
designed for kids who are at risk and having problems, but they're just continues
to be evidence that the state is not doing a good job of taking care
of the children it's supposed to be taking care of. But speaking of that
legislative session, what's happening, you know, we have less than a month
left in that session. Is there any momentum, any action being taken to
address some of these problems that you've highlighted. Well, so one of the
things that we that I focus on in the stories, there is actually a
move in the legislative such in the legislature by the Texas Senate to to pass
legislation that would an all likelihood increase the number of transfers of youth from t
JJD to the adult prison system. One of which, so both of these
bills have already passed the Senate and WAND is the major sunset bill, which
is essentially, you know, every ten years at least every state agency goes
under review and lawmakers decide how if it should continue to exist, and so
you have to pass this bill or else t JJD would just cease to exist.
It's one of those must pass bills. So in that bill from the
Senate side, there was what language that would essentially move more it would move
more t JJD detainees to the adult system, essentially saying you become eligible for
like that tg g D. It's hard for me to say that tjj must
require like it takes away their discretion. It must request a transfer hearing for
anyone in their facilities over sixteen who has been found to have assaulted a police
a peace officer, which is their prison officers. So that is a situation
where t JJD. Now you know, again, if I push back when
I'm being restrained. They have the discretion to say like, Okay, we're
not going to like this is a this is a reaction to something that's going
on with you, but it's not so aggressive that we need to transfer you
to the adult prison system. And it would take away that discretion to make
it go before the judge. Another another bill that has passed the Senate,
and some of its language would essentially make more youth eligible for transfer. So
right now you have to commit one of certain crimes or having multiple felonies to
be eligible for this transfer. And this would say, um, way more,
way more. It would open it up to be way more crimes that
would make you eligible, including a single assault against a prison officers. So
it would likely increase these transfers. And it's unclear it hasn't moved one of
the one of the bills hasn't moved in the House, and the Sunset Bill
is actually reworked in the House committee to take that language out. So it's
really unclear how these things are going to pan out the rust to session.
But on the Senate side, at least there is bipartisan agreement that there needs
to be more, more pathways to tea from t JJD to t DCJ because
they're saying t JJD is so is just so overburdened. All right, Well,
it's something that we will be closely watching over the next month. Thank
you Jolie for joining us, and thank you for reporting on this. Thank
you to our producer Justin, and thank you for our sponsors, the Texas
Medical Association, Raise Your Hand, Texas Texans Care for Children, and Texas
Conference for Women. We'll talk to you all again later this week. You
have to join us on May night in Midland and online for a conversation with
experts about water infrastructure in Texas and what it will take to keep the state's
water safely flowing. Rs VP at Texas Tribune dot org, slash events