Evins namesake meets with lawmakers, new TYC leaders

AUSTIN - The beleaguered Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg is on the road to improvement, Texas Youth Commission recently told lawmakers and the youth prison’s namesake, according to some of those who attended the meeting.

On Friday, the top brass from TYC met at the Edinburg youth prison with Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, state Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, and Joe B. Evins, a retired judge who worked to have the facility built in the 1980s.

Ed Owens, who is the conservator of TYC, said he requested the meeting after speaking with Evins a couple of weeks earlier.

Evins had stopped by the Edinburg youth prison on a whim and was upset with news in recent years of problems there. An administrator there put him on the phone with Owens in Austin and Owens promised to meet him at the facility, Owens said.

It was Owens’ first visit since he became conservator to the facility that was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year. It has suffered from various problems since late 2004 when youth rioted there and staff members physically abused them in the wake.

In more than 30 years of visiting prisons during his career, Owens has learned to sense what type of atmosphere exists in a facility, he said. The Edinburg facility is better than it was, he said.

“My gut feeling is that the facility is in much, much better shape than it was,” Owens said Tuesday. “From what I’ve read versus what I saw when I was there last Friday, I can see a remarkable difference.”

Evins said he stopped by the facility to investigate problems after hearing about them in newspaper accounts and through word of mouth. The retired judge said he asked how he could be involved in the reforming of the facility, acknowledging that he is 81 years old and has stopped working.

“I told the group, I said I’m here because my name is involved; I should have gotten involved a long time ago, but now am here,” Evins said.

Owens said he advised the former judge to visit the youth, but leave the day-to-day operations to state employees paid to run the system.

Most of the major reforms the Legislature made to the Texas Youth Commission will go into effect after Sept. 1, when the state fiscal year begins.

But Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said Evins is already safer than a year ago because employees know they are being watched closely by a new TYC administration, lawmakers and the public.

Hinojosa sponsored Senate Bill 103, which reorganized TYC after cases of sexual abuse at a West Texas youth prison surfaced in February. It requires guards to have more training, sets up a stricter investigation system of youth abuse, and directs a commission to explore the idea of closing or moving some youth prisons.

“I don’t think you’ll see the same type of riots,” Hinojosa said of Evins. “You’ll see better trained guards, there’s more people on their toes, and there’s a lot more professional people. They know they’re being watched.”

Already facilities have additional security cameras installed and more site visits and general oversight from officials in Austin, Hinojosa said.

Pena said the meeting Friday was productive and a chance for he and Hinojosa to remind TYC officials they would continue to oversee improvements, and for TYC to start fresh with a new Evins superintendent.

“They were saying look guys, we want to have a new beginning, we’re not the old guys, we want to se this work,” Pena said. “Myself, Chuy (Hinojosa) and the judge (Evins), were saying this is our community, these are our people, we’re not going to go away, you’re going to have to get used to us being in your face.”

Also at the meeting were Dimitria D. Pope, TYC Acting Executive Director; Stan DeGerolami, interim assistant deputy executive director for juvenile corrections; and Eddie Martinez, superintendent at Evins, Pena said.