Recruitment Manager Jim Espinoza loves helping people find their career niche at TJJD
By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is always working to recruit new staff for our secure campuses and halfway houses, and the best way to hire driven and dedicated people is to have someone driven and dedicated to seeking them out. There might not be a better example of that kind of person than TJJD’s Jim Espinoza.
Espinoza, who's worked at TJJD since 2003 when he started as a case manager at Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex, in Brownwood, became a recruiter in 2019. This month, he was named the agency’s Manager of Recruitment and Retention, a role in which he’ll work with all campuses as they strive to find the very best staff for the diverse career roles at TJJD.
Sit down with Espinoza for a few minutes and he’ll tell you right away how much his work as a recruiter has meant to him.
“I’m a people person. I’m comfortable with people. There’s a joy for me, as a recruiter, to help open up doors for career opportunities. There’s a gentleman who started with us as a coach, became a case manager, and now he’s our Operations Manager at Ron Jackson,” said Espinoza, a Brownwood native who earned his degree in Social Work from Texas Tech University, in Lubbock.
One of his favorite parts of the job is working alongside TJJD’s other recruiters, from various campuses, at recruiting events and job fairs held across Texas.
“I love being able to hold big, hiring events and bring people on. Our state benefits are amazing and the person or people we bring on will be doing something possibly on the level of a schoolteacher where they’ll make an impact on a kid’s life. They’re going to make a difference, and these kids need our help.”
Espinoza’s always mindful of the importance of his job and how much it matters that he finds dedicated people to work in TJJD facilities, where the direct-care jobs require employees who have special heart and patience for working with young people.
“Recruiting is how you build departments. I want as big and as strong a team as we can have, because we’re trying to get these kids back on track.”
In his own department of Human Resources at TJJD, Jim is much appreciated, said Lea Ann Johnson, a fellow TJJD recruiter based at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility.
“Jim is always willing to pitch in to get our candidates assessed and hired,” she said, and he understands what appeals to job candidates for direct-care positions at the agency.
The majority of TJJD job seekers interviewing, she said, “are excited to become role models to our youth and share their wisdom and knowledge to help the youth succeed in the future and make better choices.”
TJJD salaries have gone up, and jobs also offer a chance to make a difference for young people
Recruiters do have one new powerful tool: TJJD announced a 15 percent pay raise for direct-care staff earlier this July. That pay raise brings starting pay for a Juvenile Correctional Officer (JCO) to $41.7K a year. Case managers, cafeteria staff, parole officers and other positions also are getting the 15 percent pay bump.
In addition to the improved pay, Espinoza believes that TJJD jobs offer career satisfaction that rises above so many other jobs. He stays optimistic that when the right people see what a career at TJJD can bring to their lives they’ll have a hard time wanting to look elsewhere.
“People are kind of blown away when they sit down and talk to us about a job because they usually don’t realize the teaching opportunity. I tell people when they come on board that the measuring stick we use is when you see progress in a youth’s life. That’s going to bring you joy. You’ll see the difference (in the youth). When you walk on the campus, when you walk onto the dorm and you see some of these kids light up to see you, that means you’re doing something right. That’s a great feeling,” Espinoza said.
He concedes that the pandemic and current national hiring crisis have presented challenges to recruiters and have him working harder to find fresh ideas.
“It’s just a tough time, hiring people right now. We ask ourselves ‘What can we do differently to recruit?’ We’re trying to recruit people who want to be here. We want people who have a desire to help these kids. We don’t want someone who’s just coming for a job. That’s not what we’re trying to do.”
Espinoza puts great care and energy into finding the right jobs for the people who want to come on board.
“When we promote a job fair, we’re inviting people to come make a difference in a youth’s life. Our Juvenile Correctional Officers maintain safety and accountability, but being a positive role model, being a mentor, is key. A JCO wears a polo shirt and khakis and that alone makes them more approachable to most of these kids. A youth in one of our facilities sees them, a therapist, or a teacher and we’re all dressed the same.”
The job is critical to a youth’s future and to assuring community safety. A good Youth Development Coach may just be the person who helps turn a life around and save a young person committed to TJJD from falling deeper into the justice system.
“We’re trying to help the youth build social skills. We’re trying to help them build coping skills,” Espinoza said. “We have a good model in the Texas Model (guidelines) and we have all the tools we need. We just need more applicants who want to do something different. We’re really trying to help these kids. I think that makes working for TJJD a great opportunity.”
If helping somebody brings you joy, you may just find you’re in the right place at TJJD, he said.
“I’ll see people (he recruited) two or three years along into their jobs, maybe someone will wave to me in the parking lot at Ron Jackson or in the grocery store, and they’re happy.”
TJJD Announces Pay Raises
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department announced pay raises of 15 percent on Friday, July 8, to make TJJD salaries more competitive.
This permanent pay raise, effective July 1, 2022, will apply to all direct-care positions. Those are:
- Youth Development Coaches (Juvenile Correctional Officers III-V)
- Team Leaders (Dorm Supervisors)
- Case Managers and Case Manager Supervisors
- Cooks, Food Service Managers
- Youth Safety Managers
- Parole Officers and Parole Supervisors.
This raise will increase the starting annual pay for Youth Development Coaches (JCO IIIs) from $36,238 to $41,700. (See chart below.)
“We are so pleased to make this change for our dedicated TJJD employees,” said Interim Executive Director Shandra Carter. “Our staff work hard and are completely deserving of better pay that is commensurate with their highly skilled jobs and more competitive in this tight Texas job market.”
“We also hope that these new pay scales will help boost recruitment and stem the high staff turnover that has created a more challenging work environment at TJJD campuses,” Carter said. “Recruiting and retaining qualified staff is critical to meeting our responsibilities to keep communities safe and rehabilitate the youth in our care and custody.”
TJJD is funding these raises, which make permanent a temporary pay hike that began in April, through cost savings from vacant positions and de-prioritizing other planned expenditures. The agency will shift funds from certain contract services that are not being used and from planned re-entry enrichment programs that will be postponed at this time.
TJJD projects it will be able to absorb the cost of raising salaries this biennium (FY 2022-2023) through appropriated general revenue.
The career ladder below illuminates how pay for Youth Development Coaches will improve under the new salary plan.
Giddings State School celebrates its Spring 2022 graduates, hosts a special speaker who overcame the odds against him
Yancey said that he turned his life around, became a Christian and got his GED and two associate’s degrees while incarcerated. He began a life that was the polar opposite of his previous one, reaching out to help people. With the support of people such as State Sen. John Whitmire, Yancey was eventually released from prison after serving 27 years. He started a ministry called Faith Beyond Incarceration and has spoken to numerous groups inside and outside of prisons. He also started his own freight business.
The young men turned over their tassels and joined family members and teachers afterward for a cake reception. Other TJJD schools will be celebrating spring graduations in coming weeks. Schools run on a year-round schedule at TJJD, and campuses award diplomas and certificates and recognize graduates in the fall as well.BARK alert! Ron Jackson's canine program gets a refresh with focus on building attachments
By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications
TJJD is relaunching its canine program, with a new name, BARK, for Building Attachment & Resilience K9 Program.
BARK kicked off at the Ron Jackson campus with a series of trainings over the weekend.
TJJD’s Lisa Broussard, the director of Texas Model Leadership Development, is overseeing the roll out and brought in a holistic dog trainer, Roman Gottfried, to discuss how to work with dogs in a kind, more trauma-informed way.
Gottfried’s work mirrors the approach that BARK will take, focusing on building healing attachments that help dogs and their owners or foster “parents.”
He demonstrated several techniques for coaches and administrators at Ron Jackson in classes held this past week. The dog trainer, who has worked extensively with foster dogs, explained that his trauma-informed training is more effective for dogs, as opposed to using punishments, and will be better for the TJJD youth paired with them.
“When we put the child who had trauma, and behaves a certain way, together with a dog who had trauma and behaved a certain way, when we put them together, we can see there’s this magic intervention happening,” Gottfried said.
When he started dog training, Gottfried said he used punishments, as many trainers do. But he came to see that he was falling into a learned pattern, recycling ineffective and violent interventions from the past.
“I recognized this was just a re-creation of my personal trauma and it helped me shift to a better place, to stop punishing for bad behavior and creating a situation where I could reward good behavior,” he said.
He began teaching more compassionate methods. He told his clients, dog owners and dog foster parents, to take time to consider why their canine was misbehaving and to redirect that behavior so that dog and owner could find a successful, no-harm path forward, without boxing the animal into a corner and forcing a bad reaction.
He offered this same message to staff at Ron Jackson, telling them that taking the extra step of understanding the ‘why’ of the dog’s behavior will pay off. To just demand compliance, he said, may change that single interaction but it won’t bring lasting change.
“I hope that recognizing from a dog’s perspective what a safe space looks like (to the dog), what secure attachment looks like, what trauma looks like, what a behavior looks like – how all these things come together in this perfect gearbox -- then we can make that connection and I can apply that to the child too,” he said.
Broussard also noted how Gottfried’s trauma-informed approach tracks with TJJD programming.
“When you’re talking about not going to forced compliance with dog training, it’s exactly the same thing we’re trying to get away from with our kids. And the neat thing is, when you’re working with this program, you’re going to start seeing the connections,” said Broussard, who has previous experience with a dog program that served at-risk kids.
Gottfried demonstrated several specific techniques for the Ron Jackson Youth Development Coaches, mental health and other staff who attended his classes. In one, he and a staffer pulled on a leash, to show how to find a neutral posture.
“We are not always aware of our emotions. So one thing I did with the leash, was to feel how it feels to be in a neutral space. Because we usually pull or push. But we have to find this middle way, where we grow...and I can push it a little bit,” he said.
The exercise also illustrated “how much power not pulling has, and how much power not pushing has, by giving the other one the choice and (then) acting accordingly.”
BARK will replace the PAWS program at Ron Jackson, but will continue to pair the youth with shelter dogs, as PAWS has done since its inception in 2010. PAWS (Pairing Achievement with Service) placed rescue dogs with youth, who trained them with a goal of receiving a Canine Good Citizen certification.
BARK also will strive to help rescue dogs become better behaved and adoptable, but the means is also the goal: Building strong, loving attachments with their attentive youthful caretakers.
Dogs for BARK will be provided by the Austin Pets Alive rescue program, Broussard said.
You can watch a video of Gottfried’s training at TJJD at the agency’s YouTube: https://youtu.be/xb4VJRl8ocs
TJJD youth typically experience high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); mental health treatment can help
People with just one of these ACEs factors have a 200% to 500% increased chance of attempting suicide. At four ACEs, the chances of a suicide attempt rises to 2400% higher.
Studies of ACEs showed a remarkable link between childhood trauma and experiencing the adult onset of chronic disease and mental illness.
The CDC estimates that about 12% of the general public have four or more of these factors, raising their risk of present and future mental and physical health issues.
In contrast, 52% of TJJD youth in secure facilities have four or more ACES, according to agency statistics. When broken down, about 50% of TJJD boys have four or more ACEs and 87% of girls in residence have four or more.
Our mental health staff members in secure facilities and halfway houses serve in a support role to make sure that these youth get the assessments they need, that their case plans are just right for them, and that they get the personal and group therapy they need.
Their goal: To help TJJD youth move past traumatic experiences so they can better succeed in life.
“If any youth hits our system, they’ve had trauma,” said Scott LePor, TJJD’s Chief Medical Officer. “We’re doing everything we can to assess appropriately the root causes for their misunderstanding of how to best thrive in a healthy community and give them the tools to be successful in such a community.”
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