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.
Due to the current winter weather event, all non-essential staff at TJJD will be on a delayed start time until 12 pm (noon), tomorrow January 16, 2024. (Please use the CAPPS code EMG-WT, and contact your local HRA for more guidance.)
If you are able to telecommute tomorrow, please coordinate with your supervisor.
Direct-care staff scheduled to work tomorrow will have a regular start time. If you have any questions, please contact your direct supervisor.
To stay updated on the status of closures, please use the following:
- Call the agency weather line: 512-490-7200; or
- Go to the agency website at www.tjjd.texas.gov and weather message will be posted at the top.
Please stay safe and limit travel to only what is necessary.
If driving is necessary, motorists are encouraged to check DriveTexas.org. The Risk Management team will continue to send out winter weather alerts.
By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications
Juan Quiroga, left, and Javier Rosales
It almost sounds like a Hollywood “buddy movie." Two longtime friends and coworkers with more than 40 years of service to their community. One day, one of them retires. Three months later, he comes back and his partner kept his old seat in the van ready for him the whole time. Okay, comparing it to Hollywood might be a bit of a reach, but the value of good communication and effective teamwork are what TJJD encourages for the youth in our facilities every day. At the Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, there might be no better example of this than their very own Javier Rosales and Juan Quiroga.
Rosales and Quiroga are juvenile corrections officers in the regulation safety unit (RSU) at Evins and they’ve got more than 45 years of service between them.
It's a partnership that has served them and the people at Evins a great deal.
"With the two of them, the job is never finished as they always want to meet higher and higher standards," said Yariel Matute, regional safety manager at Evins. "They pride themselves on their experience, leadership, and the teamwork they display."
Rosales has over 20 years of service at Evins and Quiroga is in his 26th year at the facility. He retired but returned to his position after three months. His reasons for doing so aren’t complicated. “The biggest reason I came back is working with Javier with these kids,” he said. “It means a lot to be able to help some of these kids get a chance to make their lives better.”
They both talk about the satisfaction they get from seeing when a youth is able to learn from their time at Evins. “We’ve been here so long and we’ve seen many youths who’ve been here, that it’s good to see the ones who go on to contribute something to society," Rosales said. “We’ve met so many wonderful people who have worked here. Very good, hard-working people. It’s something I love about this job.”
Juan Quiroga, left, and Javier Rosales
Their day on the facility starts at 5 am. “When we come in, the first thing we do is get updates from the late-night staff and find out if there might be something going on with one of the youths that we should know about,” Rosales said. “At 6:30, we escort the staff and the youth from the dorms to the cafeteria. We make sure there are no dysregulated youth. If there are, we talk to them and try to figure out what we can do about their problem. We’ll talk to the case manager and the team leader. If the youth are particularly upset, we take them to the regulation zone where a member of the staff will do various exercises and breathing techniques with the youth. Hopefully, this helps get them calm and gives them the reset they need so they can go back to the dorm.”
Their peers have noticed their consistency and the teamwork they display. “They show up every single day to work and assist the facility as much as possible,” Matute said. “The members of the staff look up to them and want to be like them.”
While having the respect of your colleagues is rewarding, the work they get to be a part of is what keeps them coming back every day. “We really do try to help the youth,” Rosales said. “We try to help them rehabilitate themselves. We work really hard to ensure the safety of these youth and the staff. Our leadership here help and support us so much and we’re only getting better.”
Quiroga shares the sentiment. “This is my second home,” he said. “Everything I have is because of this job.”
Ask them why they make such a good team and they keep the answers simple. “We communicate,” Rosales said. “We’ve developed a really good chemistry together and we know the other will respond in a situation. I know what he’s going to say.”
“We finish each other’s sentences a lot,” Quiroga said.
This isn’t to suggest that they have an easy time of it at Evins. There’s no shortage of challenges and the tasks they may be called to handle can change every day. Both of them can be relied upon to assist and support in various capacities, Matute said, and this can go a long way toward ensuring the safety of the campus. This might mean responding to security referrals or aiding with movements and managing OIG (Office of the Inspector General) traffic. It’s not often they have a day that could be called “ordinary.”
As with any job, being effective means making sure they take time for themselves so they’ll be sufficiently recharged and at their best. For Quiroga this means hosting barbecues for his family and friends.
For Rosales, it means peace and quiet at home with his family. “I’m a family man,” he said. “A lot of people ask me why I spend so much time at home. Well, I paid for the house, I might as well enjoy it. I enjoy the peace and quiet.” He said it took him many years to develop a balance between his job and his home life.
That’s not to say they don’t like to get out and look around. “We both take little trips, to San Antonio, for example,” Rosales said. In 2019, they went to Disneyworld together with their families. “One day we just said to each other ‘Let’s go to Disneyworld’ and we did. I took my parents and my family and Javier took his family.”
For Rosales, taking trips is something he intends to do more of in the future. “I plan to travel,” he said. “I want to get to know the world.” He says the top of his travel wish list is the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.
Rosales and Quiroga are mindful of the responsibilities of their jobs and Quiroga points out that safety is always the number one priority at Evins, but they sometimes wish the public knew a little more about the work going on at Evins. Being honest and direct with the youth is a big part of that. It’s one of the lessons both of them learned early on.
“Don’t lie to the youth,” Rosales said.” If a youth tells me they need to talk to an administrator, I make sure it happens. The youth see that. It’s all about communication. These kids have had people lie to them their whole lives. We always try to be very respectful and professional in front of the youth. We’re straightforward with them.”
“I had very little when I was growing up in Mexico. This job changed my entire life,” Quiroga said.
By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications
TJJD staff at secure facilities and halfway houses strive to help youth make better decisions and correct poor behavior. But, as at any place with troubled teens, some incidents require further discipline.
The staff and youth need to know that youth aggression and misbehavior will not be overlooked, and that youth will be held accountable.
Recently, Leah O’Leary joined TJJD as a staff attorney and the due process supervisor, charged with overseeing and improving Level II hearings. These are the forums in which staff review and adjudicate serious disciplinary violations that happen in TJJD facilities.
“My role was created to fill a need for the agency,” O’Leary said. “My directive was to evaluate the processes and implementation of the processes and figure out what problems exist. We have a huge backlog of major allegations that have not had hearings. We have hearings that are not happening in a timely manner.”
Assault, upon one another or members of the staff, is the most common major violation. Others include being disruptive, sexual misconduct, and possession of a weapon.
“An allegation is not enough,” O’Leary said. “We want to make sure the incident actually happened, and that the youth is given due process before we impose any kind of consequence.”
Level II hearings are confidential. In attendance will be the youth, the hearing manager (who acts as the judge), the staff representative (who acts as the prosecutor), the advocate for the youth (they can push back on any evidence, question witnesses, explain what's happening to the youth to make sure they understand), and any witnesses who need to testify.
“During a hearing, if an allegation is proven true, a disposition will be issued, which is the consequence,” O’Leary said. “It might be a loss of privileges or a referral of that youth to a program in the violence continuum. The consequence goes into effect immediately. The youth can appeal, but if the appeal says that the finding was correct, that major violation becomes part of the youth’s disciplinary record.”
Anyone who completes Level II training can be an advocate. The youth can request a particular advocate, such as a juvenile corrections officer. “Ideally it’s a case manager, but it’s important that it be someone the youth trusts,” O’Leary said. Level II training certification is a 90-minute online course that takes place on the TJJD training portal.
O’Leary, a native Texan from Laredo, attended the University of Texas for undergrad and went to law school at St. Mary’s in San Antonio. She worked at the Texas Attorney General’s office, as deputy chief of the law enforcement defense division for 11 years. “In that division we only represent law enforcement agencies and their employees when they are sued,” she said. She represented TJJD for two years during the ongoing Department of Justice investigation of possible youth rights violations.
“I spent a lot of time at all the facilities,” she said. “I got to know the general counsel really well, I got to know the executive director really well and also some of the executive team. I really liked the culture and the direction the agency is going, and I really liked the agency’s purpose.”
O’Leary has spent several months evaluating the Level II system.
“I’m always looking for ways to make things more efficient. Hiring more hearing specialists is one of the immediate things that we can change.”
The biggest concern she has faced has been trying to ensure that the hearings take place in a timely fashion. This can be difficult when some facilities have been short-handed on staffing and a large number of alleged incidents have occurred.
If too much time elapses between an incident and the hearing, “accountability can be lost because the youth aren’t always going to be able to take accountability for something they did a month ago,” O’Leary said. “In order to teach accountability those hearings really have to happen on time.”
When hearing specialists are overwhelmed with filed allegations, the Level II process can be challenging and procedures may suffer.
“There’s also a need for additional training of the existing hearing specialists,” O’Leary said. “I’ve gone out to the facilities and observed hearings and watched the process. It’s different at each facility, which is fine, but it requires some brainstorming on how to make the process more efficient for these facilities. The training is something I need to offer more of as more specialists are hired, because if the specialists don’t really have a fundamental understanding of what the process looks like, the result can be hearings being overturned on appeal. While I’m not going to overturn something because of a minor paperwork mistake, if a paperwork mistake or a process mistake is so egregious that due process was not provided to the youth, then it has to be overturned.”
“A lot of youth don’t have the basic skill of understanding cause and effect; that behavior equals consequence. That’s what accountability means to me in this process. A youth can know that they engaged in a certain type of behavior they shouldn’t have, but they’re never going to internalize and learn from it and take accountability if they don’t feel like they got a fair shake. If they don’t feel like the process was fair to them, they will never learn from their behavior; they will never take accountability.”
O’Leary further explained the other fundamental function of Level II hearings is to enhance safety and security. The staff need to trust that the Level II process will hold youth accountable for aggression and misbehavior.
While improving the implementation will always be ongoing, O’Leary believes in the in the Level II program. “The process really does a good job of protecting youth rights and making sure that they get a fair shake,” she said. “It’s a tool that helps youth, even if youth aren’t always happy about it. Skill-building and accountability are important parts of their rehabilitation.”
By TJJD Communications
The Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center unveiled its new Education Complex on Tuesday, showcasing the building’s 10 classrooms, indoor recreation center and office suite for the Lubbock ISD staff.
Construction on the $3.4 million education addition, which the county funded, began in 2022 and will be completed shortly. It will allow the Juvenile Justice Center to move the youth out of the temporary portable classrooms that they had been using.
“Education of the youth we serve remains a key component to the rehabilitation process,” said Lubbock County Chief Juvenile Probation Officer William Carter. “The Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center has been very fortunate to have in place a top-notch group of educators who care about the future of the youth we serve. Now, with this significant investment in providing the best environment for learning, LCJJC can say we have one of, if not the best, education complexes in a detention center in Texas.”
“We are grateful to the leadership in Lubbock County for making this possible. Our County Commissioners Court, our Judicial branch, and state leadership have all supported this effort and to them I say, ‘thank you,’” Chief Carter said.
“Today marks the beginning of the best chapter yet for Lubbock County and neighboring county’s at-risk youth.”
Several local and state leaders attended the unveiling and tour of the facility on Tuesday, including State Senators Charles Perry and Kevin Sparks, Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish and TJJD Executive Deputy Director for Probation, Reentry and Community Services Lou Serrano.
Parrish said that offering educational opportunities to young offenders can help change their life trajectory.
Others attending echoed that sentiment. State Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) told KCBD-TV in Lubbock that said the education provided at the new facility will help young people see other paths forward that could help them stay out of trouble.
“It’s important that we give them access to the opportunities,” Perry said.
“That this Am
erican economy, this American dream, if you will, still has to offer for those who choose to participate.”
Senator Sparks (R-Midland), also speaking to KCBD-TV, said he plans to promote a similar facility in his district, which spans several counties in West Texas.
(Pictured: Sen. Kevin Sparks, Chief William Carter, Judge John Grace, TJJD Deputy Exec. Director Lou Serrano, Sen. Charles Perry, General Counsel Rob Callen.)