TYC denies rights were violated at Evins, asks for two years of monitoring

AUSTIN — Texas Youth Commission leaders are rejecting federal findings that young prisoners’ civil rights were violated at the Edinburg lockup, according to a letter from a state lawyer to the U.S. Department of Justice dated Tuesday.

The agency that oversees Evins Regional Juvenile Center is proposing two years of federal monitoring while the facility changes its ways, according to the letter from the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, which represents the TYC. It’s a counter-offer to the four years of monitoring the federal government had proposed.

The letter, obtained by The Brownsville Herald, also details changes state leaders have made at TYC in recent months that they think will address grievances the Justice Department had with Evins, as well as problems at the entire 15-prison system.

The letter is the latest in a series of negotiations between the state and federal governments as they try to settle the case.

Following a months-long investigation, Justice Department officials in March called conditions at Evins “chaotic and dangerous,” and said officials there failed to protect prisoners from youth and staff violence.

Specifically, they saw as problematic the high number of youth-on-youth assaults, inadequate staffing levels that left one guard in charge of 24 young people, insufficient programming, problems with youth placement, a dysfunctional grievance system and staff-on-youth violence.

TYC officials have agreed with Justice Department about many of the problems and worked to solve them, but its administrators did not want the language in the settlement to say they violated civil rights, the letter said.

Abbott’s office would not comment on the letter.

“We are in discussions with the Department of Justice, but beyond that we are not going to say anything,” said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for Abbott.

TYC agreed with most of the Justice Department report when it was issued in March, but has since either fixed the problems or in the process of fixing them, said Jim Hurley, TYC spokesman.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to convince the Department of Justice of that,” Hurley said.

In the last three years, Evins has been the site of youth riots and inmate abuse, and has been sued by parents and employees.

Abuse at Texas youth prisons had been on the rise for several years statewide when a sex-abuse scandal at a prison in West Texas attracted wide attention in February and prompted state leaders to begin overhauling the entire agency.

The letter detailed changes the state has made to improve not only Evins, but the entire Texas Youth Commission. Gov. Rick Perry removed the board and replaced it with a single conservator. The Legislature enacted sweeping reforms, including Senate Bill 103, which “promotes a fair, safe and integrated juvenile corrections system for committed youth,” the letter said.

The new executive staff is also working toward a “cultural shift” in operations that focuses on children first, the letter said.