‘BAD SITUATION’

Juvenile Inmates Are Spending 22 Hours a Day in Cells in Understaffed Texas

Departmental leaders are crying out for help, saying inmates will be forced to stay in detention longer because they’re not getting the rehabilitation they need.

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is locking up kids in their rooms for up to 22 hours a day because there’s not enough staff to care for them, department officials said. The agency had a 71 percent turnover rate last year, and officers are working up to 16 hours a day, interim executive director Shandra Carter said. “This could cause a significantly impaired ability to intervene in the increasing suicidal behaviors already occurring by youth struggling with the isolative impact of operational room confinement,” she wrote in a letter released last week. The staffing problem is so severe that not only did the department halt new intakes, many inmates will be forced to stay longer because they’re not getting the rehabilitation they need, Carter said. “It’s really a bad situation. Young people, if they stay in care too long, it actually increases their chance of recidivism and decreases the rehabilitative value of their time in care,” said Brett Merfish, youth justice director at Texas Appleseed, a public interest justice center.