Mart's Jason Tweedle is a natural in his new role as DBT Implementation Leader
By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications
Mart Superintendent Antonio Houston, Executive Director Shandra Carter
and Jason Tweedle.
Jason Tweedle found his calling when he signed up to work as a Juvenile Correctional Officer at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility 24 years ago, just two months after the campus opened as a secure facility for youth.
He’s now the longest serving employee who's worked continuously at the facility at Mart, east of Waco, and two-plus decades in he continues to love his job, though his role has evolved recently.
Tweedle worked for the first 18 years of his career as a JCO, a job that requires mental toughness, patience and a heart for kids who present challenges and can reflexively provoke others or protectively reject outreach. Some kids could be especially prickly when they’d landed in the Regulation Safety Unit, where Tweedle worked helping redirect youth who were having behavioral issues. For some, this might have been a roller coaster. But Tweedle was clam happy there.
“A lot of our kids don’t have positive role models, much less positive male role models and I always felt like I could build connections with them in an appropriate way, exerting positive influence,” he said.
Others noticed Tweedle’s steady and compassionate touch with the youth, and he was promoted into new positions, but in some of those he missed working one-on-one with the kids.
Last year the stars aligned and Tweedle became the perfect pick for a position at TJJD that takes advantage of his experience and effectiveness in working with young people. He’s the agency’s Facility Texas Model 2.0 Implementation Leader.
In this new role, he will help staff members put into practice ways of working with youth using the skills and methods they are learning that use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy techniques.
This task keeps him in touch with the colleagues he enjoys and still close with the young people at Mart. It’s a natural fit for the preternaturally calm Tweedle, who can be playful or serious with the youths as the situation demands, and never comes across like an overbearing overseer.
"I've never seen someone connect with youth quite like Jason Tweedle does at Mart. His approach not only to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT); but his approach to the wellbeing of all our youth is nothing short of amazing,” said Supt. Antonio Houston. “He has an innate ability to engage with young people, guiding them through the complexities of their emotions with empathy and understanding. Jason's dedication to helping these youth navigate their challenges using DBT techniques is truly inspiring.”
Therapists use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to help people learn to cope with strong emotions by teaching skills they can employ, such as mindfulness, to better tolerate distress, regulate their emotions and accept their circumstances. It was developed for women with suicidal and self-harm behaviors, in the late 1970s through the 1980s, and has been successfully used in juvenile correctional settings. It’s the new component of the “Texas Model” at TJJD, which is an umbrella of best practices that help staff and youth interact safely and productively. (Texas Model 2.0 incorporates DBT.)
Staff are learning DBT so they can be more effective in their jobs and help youth manage their day-to-day issues. JCO staff are not counselors, but they spend every workday with TJJD youths in their care, serving as mentors and guides and, when needed, disciplinary figures. The DBT skills program gives them scientifically tested tools to help them make the most of their daily interactions with the youths.
DBT can engineer a paradigm shift in corrections. It can raise the level of safety at a facility because staff members are better equipped to diffuse stressful or dangerous situations. This improves the overall culture of the correctional environment, enabling more effective rehabilitation.
Tweedle shares a laugh with a youth in a dorm at the Mart campus.
Youth who’ve learned to better regulate their emotions and have skills to handle moments that challenge them are freed to focus on their studies in the classroom and make progress in treatment programs.
Many staff members across TJJD are taking DBT classes conducted by Dr. Henry Schmidt, director of program accountability and a DBT expert. Tweedle’s role is to facilitate DBT practices where the classroom meets real life, at the Mart campus, which is the agency’s first facility undergoing a full DBT-led transformation.
The campus, which has initiated some other changes aimed at improving campus culture, is already seeing some success with a decline in some disciplinary events. The number of incidents requiring the use of restraints, for example, has declined by about one third over the last six months.
Installing DBT and changing the culture at the Mart campus is a big undertaking and a work in progress. But it’s already flowed over into Tweedle’s personal life. He and his wife are raising a 5-year-old great niece, and he’s applying what he’s learned in DBT trainings at home. He reports that his young charge has already absorbed the DBT concept of “acceptance,” translating it to “You get what you get, and you don’t pitch a fit.”
Tweedle smiles as he reflects on this, walking across the Mart campus. On this breezy February afternoon, he’s continually stopped by staff and youth who pass on the sidewalk. “How’re doing?” “I’ve got to talk to you later.” “OK, I’ll see you after this.”
That morning he’d attended the TJJD board meeting where Executive Director Shandra Carter recognized him for his dedication, his 24 years of service, and the important new role he’s assumed.
Stopping in his small office, he goes quiet as he thinks how to sum up what the recognition means to him.
“If you truly believe and have a passion for what you’re doing, you don’t need recognition for hard work,” he muses. “Whatever it is that you’ve been called to do, it has to be ingrained into the fibers of your being to the point you couldn’t do anything else.”
Young welders at TJJD schools fired up to fill a growing niche
By David N. Krough, TJJD Communications
The American Welding Society declared April as National Welding Month - and students across TJJD campuses are honing their skills in what is an urgently needed trade amid a nationwide shortage.
Students in the Vo-Tech Education welding program are fortunate to benefit from the vast experience of the instructors at Giddings State School, Gainesville State School, Ron Jackson, and McLennan County (Mart)
“A lot of people tend to think of welding as strictly with regards to either construction or like oil, but there are so many other areas in the industry that people can work,” TJJD Vo-Tech Education Manager Connie Simon said, adding that welders are needed in offshore underwater operations, crafting, and landscaping, to name a few.
According to AWS, there are an estimated 82,500 welders that will be needed in the U.S. workforce from now until 2028.
That figure is reflected in the numbers showing the forecast growth in industry is only outpaced by the number of workers anticipated to either retire or change jobs going forward.
In 2024, 771,000 welders were considered in the workforce - with around 159,000 approaching retirement age. Welders under the age of 25 make up just under 10 percent of that workforce, according to AWS.
Certification from the AWS and National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) from a typical technical school can take between sixto18 months. VoTech students with TJJD have a great opportunity to get a head start on that as all of the facilities are on par with industry standards to start the certification process. Students aren’t required to be certified once they start, but it is a huge advantage on their way, said Simon, whose full title is Manager of Workforce Development & Education Reentry.
There are two certifications to start out, one from the AWS and a basic construction certification from NCCER.
When a student passes those, results are sent along to an AWS representative who can then help make it all official. It also counts toward high school class credit.
Stoking student affinity for the welding shop
Gainesville instructor Denver Foster got his interest in the trade while at a young age working in his father’s backyard auto mechanic shop and later on, helping to soup up hot rods.
“(I) kind of got a knack for it … I wasn't sure if it was going to be wood shop or auto shop or, or metal shop, but I knew I wanted to be in the shop setting,” Foster said.
After graduating college in agricultural mechanics, Foster obtained his teaching degree and has been with TJJD since 2010. His students seem to reflect his own independent style of work ethic in the shop.
“They kind of turn into your right hand. You know, we don't trust anybody (at first) but you give them, I guess a little bit of freedom when it comes to building things, you can say, ‘OK, here's X, Y and Z - get this done,’ while I go deal with these other guys that are brand new or need help or whatever … You just kind of build that rapport with the kid where they understand what you're saying and you kind of understand what they're saying.”
In his courses, the students study and practice for the core NCCER certification, to prepare them for the dozens of other welding certifications one can go on to obtain.
“I believe very strongly in getting something before you get out (of TJJD). And so, they first rattle out of the box, they get their core (certificate) … it's a basic construction. And I always tell the kids ‘You might figure out you don't like welding, it's hot or it's dirty or you get burned … some people just don't like it. But this certification, you know, you can go work in building a house, you can work on concrete. You can do green energy, anything in the construction field. I had a kid leave out of here and went to work at Lowe's and with his certification and, and a little bit of tool knowledge, they wanted to make an assistant manager like right off the bat,” Foster said.
Foster explained that in addition to teaching the work and life skills, he injects a sense of community into learning.
He and his students have also been working with a Texas Veterans Day group since 2017.
“We do different cut outs and stuff and the boys always ask ‘Well, what do you get paid for this?’ I say, I don't get paid anything.’ They're like, ‘why are we doing this?’ I said because it helps the facility, half the money we raise goes back and it goes to a veterans’ and needs organization.”
“That's the thing in life, is you’ve got to give back. And so, when you explain it that way and they kind of see that you are doing what you say you're doing , then they buy in,” he explained.
This June, student B.P. will have been a student in the shop for one year. He said he plans on finishing his certifications and eventually wants to do underwater welding.
“I've always enjoyed doing physical labor. I've always enjoyed art and the way I look at welding is, I look at it as another form of art because if you don't do it right - it won't be right. So, you’ve got to have the right speeds, the right rhythm or you could mess it up,” he said.
Foster says he and his colleagues, Jeremy Williams at the Mart campus, Robbie Stork at Giddings and Terry Thomas at Brownwood keep in close contact about their students, along with attending vocational and education conferences.
“We've got a really good, tight-knit community with our vocational welding teachers,“ he added. “You know there are opportunities, so once they get their core, then they start welding. And we've partnered with what's called the North American Welding Group - it's a senior level AWS inspector who kind of has the same goals. We want to see these kids successful, and we want to see the welding (industry) be successful with these kids.”
Welding together more than a job
B.P. didn’t take long to answer when asked what he like best about his experiences in Mr. Foster’s class: “His sense of humor and his desire to help.”
Foster helps his students at Lone Star HS North by emphasizing that welding requires precision.
“I'm a stickler … those welds have got to be just right-on, perfect,” Foster said. “It's human nature. To have a really, really good (weld) and it'll just be a little bit off and I'm like, ‘Hmmm … do it again.
He tells his students: “This is why I'm so hard on you is because at the end of the day when you get out, you're already behind the eight ball. Like everybody's ahead of you. You're going to have to work that much harder. So when you go in and have to do a weld test … you'll know how to do it, you'll know how to do it right, where the kid that, that got by (just) because his teacher just let him get by (may not).”
A welding certification can also have advantages beyond the workplace.
“For a lot of our kids, what tends to happen and this is - both female and male - they have a lot of artistic ability (and) just haven't found the right outlet,” said Simon. “When they come in, if they get into an art class, you know, some of them will just absolutely blossom and, and they do absolutely beautiful work. .”
“We focus a lot on the employment part of it, but they really have a skill that they can use for the rest of their life, helping themselves, helping a neighbor, helping family members,” Simon added.
”If you need something at your house, you can build it. Or you got a free Saturday, you can make something and you can set it by the side of the road and (maybe) make you a little extra money,” Foster said.
“Some days are better than others.,” B.P. said. “Some welds are better than others, but it's still a work in progress.”
#NationalWeldingDay
(Photos: Top, a student welding at Lone Star HS Southeast; left top, Denver Foster with a barbecue smoker his class built; right center, welding class at LSHSS at Giddings State School; left bottom, Welding teacher Jeremy Williams at Lone Star HS Central at McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility; right bottom, a student at LSHSC examines a weld he's made. )
TJJD youth pony up a great gift to Ronald McDonald House of Central Texas
By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications
Lone Star High School Southeast completed a months-long community service project to help kids in medical crisis with the delivery on Friday of a small herd of toy rocking horses.
Two youth from LSHSSE who’d helped build and paint the toys joined educators in presenting the colorful gifts to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas, in Austin.
The delivery of the nine rocking horses marks the second year that youth from LSHSSE, at Giddings State School, have built and donated rocking horses for the Ronald McDonald House charities.
“It’s becoming a tradition for sure,” said Kristen Urbanovsky, diagnostician at the school. “The boys in construction class, one of the first things they ask is if they can work on that project.”
Word has gotten around campus about this special project and youth enrolled in the woodworking vocational class, overseen by longtime teacher Martin Rangel, are all in for it, she said.
The young men began work in November on this latest set of toddler-sized rocking horses. After they cut, sanded and assembled the wooden parts, other youth in career and technical classes stepped in to ramp up the adorable quotient by painting the horses with wide happy eyes and eyelashes and other artistic flourishes sure to mesmerize small humans.
The two LSHSSE youth at the presentation, W.F. and E.G., appreciated being a part of the day, providing the gifts to kids in need and hearing about how Ronald McDonald houses become a “home away from home” for families at a critical time, Urbanovsky said.
“They were excited to deliver the rocking horses,” she said. “There were lots of smiles.”
Ronald McDonald staff will distribute the donations to kids, or the young siblings of kids, facing serious medical issues and requiring extended hospitals stays.
Ronald McDonald houses across the country provide free or low-cost rooms for the families of children in medical crisis who must travel away from their homes for hospital care. The Austin Ronald McDonald House serves out-of-town families whose children are in being treated at Dell Children’s Medical Center or another nearby hospital.
Attending the donation presentation today from Giddings State School were Urbanovsky, Asst. Principal Dr. Tracey Walker, CTE teacher Laura Watts and JCO V Gardner Shivers.
Ronald McDonald House Volunteer and Programs Director Paula Tanner and House Operations Manager Giovanna Alanis-Vega spoke to the group and received the donations.
Dallas Pets Alive and TJJD BARK providing a warm and furry public service
By TJJD Communications
Dallas Pets Alive and Texas Juvenile Justice Department have solidified a unique partnership that’s helping dogs in need of temporary fostering care while saving their owners from needless heartache.
The fostering partnership enlists TJJD youth in the BARK program at Gainesville State School to foster dogs for owners who are in medical crisis or transition. As temporary foster dog “parents,” the youth keep the dogs safe and happy and polish up their training, a role that teaches them life skills, patience and responsibility and the satisfaction that comes with providing an important community service.
The dogs’ owners get peace of mind and canines are kept out of shelters.
“We receive so many inquiries for help from people who are in crisis who do not want to surrender their pets,” said Leslie Sans, executive director and founder of Dallas Pets Alive (DPA). “People don’t want to let go of their best friend, and they shouldn’t have to, when they’re going through a crisis.”
Today, DPA released a video explaining how this new partnership helped a dog named Baxter and his owner, who needed someone to foster his pup during a medical crisis.
Baxter was among the first six foster dogs placed at the BARK dorm, with each pup being assigned to a pair of youth who care for the dogs.
The 12 youth at the BARK dorm have earned their way there, keeping up with school studies and good behavior.
The BARK dorm serves as growth experience for the youth and an incentive and beacon to others on campus, said Gainesville Superintendent Darryl Anderson. Those chosen for the BARK dorm have taken to the task, becoming good stewards and bonding with their furry charges, he said.
“They have a lot in common with the dogs. The dogs are going through trauma and so are some of our youth,” Anderson said.
“It’s incredible to see the changes in the dogs, 100 percent turns their life around,” said Sarah McGoldrick, director of DPA’s PASS (Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender) program.
BARK (Building Attachment and Resilience K-9) launched in mid-2023, with several TJJD staffers getting special training in how to work with the dogs from trainer Roman Gottfried, who emphasizes building attachments and a trauma-informed approach.
Another program that completes the training is GoodPup, which works with DPA. GoodPup sponsors weekly virtual training for the BARK youth, with dog trainers offering guidance and answering questions.
(Photo: Dallas Pets Alive)
Governor's Office Appoints Nine to TJJD Board
By TJJD Communications
We’re excited to announce that on Tuesday, Dec. 19, the Office of the Governor appointed nine members to TJJD’s newly structured governing board.
The new nine-member board will be composed of three returning members:
- Chairman Scott Matthew, the Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for Williamson County
- Chief Edeska Barnes, the Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for the First Judicial District in East Texas
- Judge Cindi Wheless, the presiding judge of the 417th District Court in Collin County
And six new members:
- Joe Barton, Ph.D., of Canyon, a licensed professional counselor and the chief juvenile probation officer for Randall County
- Jerry Bullard of Colleyville, a shareholder and attorney with Adams, Lynch & Loftin, P.C.
- William “Will” Durham of Huntsville, the criminal district attorney for the Walker County Criminal District Attorney’s Office
- Stephanie House of Liberty Hill, a school principal at Georgetown ISD
- Luis Leija of Port Lavaca, the chief juvenile probation officer with Calhoun County
- Manny Ramirez of Fort Worth, a Tarrant County commissioner and a 15-year veteran police officer
In a message to members today, Executive Director Shandra Carter welcomed appointees to the TJJD family. She also emphasized TJJD’s quest to use significant investments from state leadership to become a much improved, “unrecognizable” agency.
"We’ve been taking this legislative directive seriously over the past several months, resulting in bold and research-based initiatives aimed at increasing safety, accountability, and transparency – TJJD’s core values,” Carter wrote. “I’m eager to see what we can achieve together for Texans.”
The board’s first public meeting is scheduled for Feb. 16 in Waco.
Please see additional biographical information about the new board members on our website.