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This National Correctional Officers Week we hope everyone enjoyed the lunches, tchotchkes, reusable water bottles, treats and general celebrations that Superintendents and many others put together to honor staff this CorrexWeek 23week.

You do the uplifting but challenging hands-on work of helping young people reform and build a better future. And you deserve this moment. 

As TJJD Executive Director Shandra Carter wrote to staff this week: "Your continued hard work enabled us to overcome significant challenges since last May. Each of you has helped build a CorrexWeek23 2 smlstrong foundation for success, and it is only because your dedication that we are poised to receive the investments and support vital to fully fulfill our mission. Looking forward, we have a hopeful and optimistic future. Your diligent efforts made this future a reality and have not gone unnoticed."

In short, thank you! Now please enjoy these photos of JCOs at various campuses and events from the week.

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By Kevin Hill, Volunteer Coordinator, Gainesville State School
 
Alcohol Drugs 7AsmlGainesville State School hosted a drug and alcohol awareness seminar recently conducted by the Correctional Medicine Interest Group (CMIG) from University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
 
Group members are nursing students, led by Lina Kadhim. Kadhim and her team presented about facts, risks and dangers of a variety of drugs, including alcohol, tobacco and vaping. They highlighted the causes of drug use and the effects of drugs as they explained their slide show to the youth in Dorm 9/10.
 
The youth asked several questions and responded to the information about the negative impact of drugs and alcohol. After the presentation everyone enjoyed snacks and drinks.
 
Alcohol Drugs April2023smlThe UNT college students joined the Gainesville youth in games of volleyball, flag football and pick-up basketball. The CMIG members noted that the youth were positive, courteous, and respectful during the presentation, but took no mercy on them during the athletic competitions.
 
The football game ended with a certain Community Volunteer Coordinator scoring just one touchdown for his team, which lost 35 to 7.
 
Thanks to all the members of the CMIG: Lina Kadhim, Hunter Schneider, Vann Hauser, Yashaswini Nagarajan, Tatiana Yeung, Aishani Khosla, Juyoun Park, Tal Allouche, Samantha Manuel.Alcohol Drugs 6smlr

By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications

Spotlight On Patty Garza smlFor a lot of us, it can be easy to forget how big the state of Texas is.
This isn’t a problem for Patty Garza, the Community Relations and Family Coordinator for TJJD’s South Region.
 
South Region, she explains, “means the region above Waco, down through the Valley and over through El Paso,” she said. “I get volunteers for youth on parole within almost 100 counties and I split my time between the San Antonio Parole Office and Ayres Halfway House, getting volunteers for the youth here, and getting mentors and tutors.
 
“I’m a field instructor for interns – I just counted them up and I’ve had 88 student interns this semester.” She laughed and said, “That’s why I’m so tired.”
 
Garza has been with the agency for 24 years, starting as a parole assistant in San Antonio.
 
“I’ve always worked in social services, working with at-risk kids. I got my degree in Criminal Justice with educational assistance from TJJD and was a parole officer for about fifteen years. I was encouraged to go back to school, and I got my Master’s in Social Work.”
 
“I think I have one of the best jobs in the agency,” she said. “I get to do the fun stuff.”
 
“As a social worker, the playful engagement part of the Texas Model has always been something that I’ve utilized. Kids come here and they’re scared or they’re nervous, and if you engage with them in a way where you’re light-hearted but still taking them seriously, that will usually break down some walls.”
 
Being prepared is also important. “When a kid arrives, I’ve already done my homework on them,” she said. “I’ve done a review of their case. I’m not going to ask them about things that are going to trigger them or ask them something they’ve had to answer a thousand times.”
 
“This has been such a great job for me,” she said. “Working with these kids, working with the students, working with staff, a staff that I’ve worked with for over 20 years. That’s like family. That’s molded who I am.”
 
“It’s very easy for people to come in and say ‘We need to do this’ and ‘We need to change this’,’. I always remind people to be an observer. Learn. Learn from these kids.”
 
Finding new ways to work with the youth is as rewarding as it is challenging, she says.
 
“I love when we bring in new community members. For example, right now I’m processing a volunteer who is a sound healer. And she’s going to start doing ‘sound baths’ for our kids. In the past I’ve brought in people who helped our kids with meditation – I love for our kids to have new experiences. These kids have had limited exposure to so much of the world.”
Rise Above Hardship is another community partner that Garza found to volunteer with Ayres House youth and show them how to work out. “The gentleman who runs it is a veteran and a paraplegic and he really shows them how if he can overcome what he’s been through, they can overcome what they’ve been through.”
 
A job with so much activity and moving around can wear on anybody and Garza is mindful of the importance of her downtime and the need for rest and recreation. “I call myself kind of a self-care queen,” she said. “I do yoga. I have a husband and two kids and they’re all great artists, so we love to go to art museums. We go to coffee shops. We love to be outside in nature and experience new things.”
 
Garza has been inspired by many heroes and people in her work and her life, with her mom and Mister Rogers being at the top of the list. “I’m inspired by Social Justice advocates like Father Greg Boyle (the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program), the volunteers who give their time and support to us.
 
“I’m all about the helpers. When I retire, I plan on helping the helpers, the ones that have been giving and giving of themselves and that are tired.”

 
By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications
 
DonFinley3 smlDon Finley has learned many things in over 25 years serving Texas youth, but when asked what the most important part of the job is, he gave an uncomplicated answer.
 
“First, you have to be friendly,” he said.
 
He tells this to the parole officers he supervises to help them be effective at their job and give their best to the youth.
 
“Show yourself as someone who is caring about them and their situation. You don’t have to overdo it, they’ll think ‘this guy is too much’ but genuinely show concern and have some empathy for their situation and be a good listener. A lot of our kids have already been told what they are and what they’re not.”
 
Finley, a Regional Manager for Parole Services for the East Region at TJJD, describes his job as “one that’s ever-changing. We’re here to provide information and updates to facilities, families, and our community partners,” he said. “I make sure we’re doing our jobs, interacting with the youth and their families. I make sure we’re being an asset to them and not a negative component.”
 
He began his career working in prisons and then in adult parole before joining TJJD when it was still the Texas Youth Commission. He found working in adult parole to be frustrating.
 
“We had caseloads of over 100 people, and we were doing superficial contact and not really being able to help these adults,” he said.
 
One day, he saw an ad for TYC and became curious. “As I started to research it, I felt I could better help with kids before they got to the point of where I’d seen them as adults,” he said. “Being an adult parole officer, interacting with their families, I could see some of their kids headed down the same road. Sometimes the parolees would call me over to talk to their kids to let them know what that road looked like. Some of those kids I would talk to and provide some preventive services for them before they got into trouble.”
 
Over two decades later, he’s still working to help the young people of Texas shape better lives for themselves.
 
Finley is called upon for advice often, from not only the youth and families he’s served, but the parole officers he supervises, especially from those who are new to the job. He stresses the importance of preparation. “Be cognizant of what you’re doing in this position,” he said. “We have a lot of influence with many of these people, these families. Try to know what your job entails so you’ll be able to help the families that we serve. It’s a lot of policy and procedure, and new people are apprehensive, but you can’t help people if you don’t know your job. You’ve got to know the rules. We’ve got people with great ideas, and they’ve got good hearts, they want to help, but it only works if they really know their jobs. And be positive.”
 
In his downtime he likes to spend time with his five children, he likes to fish, and he’s also a candlemaker.
 
“I picked up the hobby of making candles. People used to laugh at me when I’d tell them that. They’d think I was playing. But it gives me a lot of relaxation, the aromas are very soothing. It worked out to my advantage – I get to make some things that smell really good, and it relaxes me at the same time.”
 
“As you go through life, you’ll pick up different things. You’ve got to stay open to picking up new things and don’t be scared to change. If someone gives you the opportunity to learn something, try to learn it.”
 
When asked about how the job has changed him, Finley says it’s not so much how he’s changed but that things he believed about people, both within TJJD and the community they serve, still hold true. “Even though it may sound old and corny sometimes, we’re all connected, and we need each other, we really do,” he said.
 
“Let’s try to help each other. There’s a lot going on with people who are right next to us, our next-door neighbors. Not that you have to be nosy but pay attention and try to help if you can.”
 
 

By John McGreevy, TJJD CommunicationsSound Bath pic 1

The staff and volunteers at our facilities are always looking for new ways to help the youth in our care learn to regulate their emotions. Recently, the youth and staff at TJJD’s Ayres Halfway House, in San Antonio, took part in a sound healing meditation session, led by Jessica Neideffer and her very special assistant, a three and a half-pound dog named Lido.

Neideffer described the session as a process that at a basic level allows the participants to release feelings of stress, anxiety, and physical pain from their bodies.

“I work with sound and vibration to create frequencies to allow the mind to enter deeper brainwave states in order to experience true rest,” she said. “We create a safe space for participants to tune into their self in a new and different way and let go of the outside world. We return our focus inward and listen to the messages that the body is giving us. The sessions provide the opportunity to be aware of the internal dialogue in our mind and give us the chance to change it if we find the voices in our head to be unaligned with how we truly feel. We’re seeking a complete reset of the nervous system and energy of the body and mind.” 

Neideffer was looking to expand where she practices her craft and reached out to TJJD’s Executive Director Shandra Carter, who connected her with Youth Experience Leader Elaine Windberg. Windberg put her in touch with Volunteer Services Coordinator Patty Garza with South District and Ayres House. “Patty already knew about sound healing so she was very excited about doing this with the kids,” Neideffer said.

Neideffer knew that the youth and perhaps even members of the staff at Ayres House might be wary of trying something so unusual to most of them. “Sometimes people are very skeptical about it because it doesn’t really have the credit behind it yet from some parts of the medical world," she said. “In fact, we’ve been using sound and vibrational therapy for many years. When we do ultrasounds, we’re using ultrasonic waves to see inside the body.”

Neideffer has worked with high school youth before and she understood the importance of shaping the session for Ayres House. “Every time I go to work with a group, I try to tap into what the lesson or the message is for that day,” she said. “I bring whichever instruments feel best for that group.”

Sound Bath pic 2“I keep things light, keep things humorous and I start to play one of the instruments while I’m talking just to get them interested and curious about the sound. It’s easy to get their attention once I start playing one of the instruments. As we connect, I tell a story. Then I get them to share with me what they’re feeling as they’re experiencing the sound, so it’s interactive and gets them participating in the experience, in their healing or self-awareness process.”

It certainly didn’t hurt to have Lido along to get the kids interested.

“Lido started accompanying me to different schools that I went to,” Neideffer said. “The kids just love him, he’s got this very big presence to him, for a three and a half pound chihuahua. When we walked through the door at Ayres House, he just ran in, with this sense of ‘I’m going to tell you what we’ll be doing today’. That’s the kind of energy he brings and anytime I feel like I can bring him along to a group session with me, it brings a lightness and it brings the ease and security that comes with dog, even if they’re not big. He has a big personality and he just makes you laugh.”

“Lido totally broke the ice,” Garza said. “This little dog walked into Ayres House like he owned the place.”

“A few of them were a little unsure, but I just asked them to try to have an open mind,” Garza said. “I told them nobody was trying to force them to participate.”

With 10 youth, five members of staff, and three interns gathered for the session on chairs, a couch, or quilts on the floor, Neideffer got things rolling.

“She explained about the sound bath process and about why meditation was important,” Garza said.

“A lot of the youth here have experienced childhood trauma. Trauma is blocked energy and she talked about how vibrations can release some of that energy.”

“We started with a meditation card deck,” Neideffer said. “The cards feature artwork to guide participants into a different perspective and open new conversation. Each participant picked a card, was invited to share their interpretation of the artwork and how it felt to them. Then I led a guided meditation to create safe space in the mind that provides a visual focal point for the kids to work with if the minds wanders.”SoundBath 3

“After that,” Neideffer said, “I played the crystal singing bowls and allowed the kids to close their eyes and rest. The meditation sessions are an opportunity to explore the imagination and listen to what the body and mind are telling us -- notice if it feels loving, or not.” 

When she finished playing, all the kids and staff were invited to share what they experienced while listening to the sounds. The kids got to play the instruments themselves to feel the vibrations. “They noticed how each person that played the singing bowls had their own unique way which created a different sound from the same instrument,” Neideffer said. “This was to show them the beauty of their own unique channel and how they share their energy.”

Neideffer spoke of how gratifying it was to hold this session at Ayres House. “These are the people I want to support, because it’s not just for the kids,” she said. “It’s for the caretakers and people working in the facilities because we all feel anxious, we all feel stress. These sessions help us to quiet the mind and allow the body to rest. That way we can reset our nervous system, we can get out of that ‘Fight or Flight’ for a little bit and really feel that deep breath that we’re missing.”

“When it was over almost all of the kids asked when Neideffer and Lido were coming back,” Garza said.