Recent events have brought to light the extensive and overwhelming problems of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). Most of us have a hard time understanding how what happened at TYC facilities is possible, and most of us cannot understand how an agency charged with the welfare, treatment, and rehabilitation of our youth could have allowed the corruption to go on for so long without doing anything to stop it.
Those of us in positions of public service are outraged that others also charged with the job of protecting the best interest of Texas citizens acted in such criminal, unethical, and outright disgusting manners that allowed the systematic abuse of our youth. Not only were these people allowed to violate these children and teens, they picked up a paycheck for the time they spent doing it.
I, myself, am angry, but not just with TYC. I am angry because this is an example of what happens when the welfare of the state is superseded by political and economic agendas not reflective of our state's real needs.
This system didn't just breakdown overnight. As a state, we have been on a dangerous and destructive path that has led us to where we are now. Budget cuts have been especially devastating for the preventative programs that might have kept the youth that have been victimized out of TYC to begin with.
Those of us that have warned that systematically chipping away at much needed preventative services and treatment programs, such as counseling and therapy, medical care, public education, drug education and treatment, and gang-intervention, hope that this scandal serves as a wake-up call for our colleagues that have spearheaded and supported these policies. This is not the moment to be petty and say "I told you so", but it is the moment to take stock of what our past legislative sessions have done to the youth of our state. It is also the moment to start to correct some of these mistakes.
We can start by admitting that the Texas Legislature had a hand in creating a system that essentially didn't give these kids a chance to begin with and then locked them up, threw away the key, and didn't look back.
For that, legislators need to hear from their constituents. The public can help to ensure that we don't have another generation of victims by demanding that legislators act in the best interest of the state and not the ideological sectors that currently dominate Texas politics. Call on legislators to take responsibility for the role they have had in creating a system that allows children and teens to have to endure this kind of abuse. You can do this by checking your legislators' voting records and then calling, emailing, and/or writing them with your concerns. Ask them why they voted to continually take funds away from an already underfunded and overwhelmed Juvenile Probation Commission that is supposed to provide services to keep youth out of TYC facilities. Ask them why the Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) that are supposed to serve as institutions that help students that are not suitable for regular schools due to behavioral problems have virtually no state requirements or accountability and have essentially become conduits to TYC. Anyone that has ever visited or worked with one of these DAEPs can attest to the fact that these institutions lack sufficient funding, staffing, and services to even begin to facilitate a change for the better in the students they are responsible for.
Perhaps they can explain why after-school programs, drug prevention programs, gang reduction programs, teen pregnancy reduction programs, domestic violence programs, counseling programs, community-based organizations, and the like have all been struggling since they voted to take away their funding. Another issue that needs to be addressed is why one of the persons accused of abusing so many youth at the Pyote TYC facility, a person with an extensive criminal history, was not properly screened before being hired. Could it be that TYC was also underfunded and understaffed to do this?
There is still time to address these budget issues before the legislature votes on the budget in early April. Both the House and Senate have the ability to set this as a priority.
Again, I am angry, and I think we should all be angry. We should be angry enough to demand that the powers that be understand that their actions have consequences, and we are seeing them now. We all owe at least that much to the youth that have been victimized by the system we have all helped to create.
Farrar, a Democrat, has represented Houston's District 148 in the Texas Legislature since 1994. She currently sits on the House Committee on Juvenile Justice and Family Issues.
