![]() ![]() The turbulence comes barely a year after a new executive director took the helm, hoping to clean up an agency still reeling from a 2017 sex abuse scandal in which multiple officers were accused of having or trying to have sex with teenaged inmates. “Since these disruptions, we have worked hard to address those issues that led to these events and have worked closely with staff to ensure that the campus is moving forward and enacting the agency’s reform agenda.” ![]() “Our staff was in control of the facility at all times,” said agency spokesman Brian Sweany. Use of force and pepper spray spiked at the understaffed lock-up, which one employee described as so chaotic that the riot didn’t even stand out. The outburst at Gainesville State School, a scandal-plagued Texas Juvenile Justice Department unit 60 miles north of Dallas, came weeks after facility supervisor Mike Studamire was fired for vague reasons.įollowing the November disruption, the facility went into lockdown, four other top officials were fired, and the agency shuttered the unit’s budding equine therapy program, according to interviews and internal documents. Spurred by boredom, gang conflicts and anger over a lack of guards, teens at a North Texas juvenile prison rioted over the course of six days, assaulting officers and each other during a mass disturbance that boiled over during a football game. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less The therapy program started in January and is at its early stage. brushes one of the two therapy horses, Delano, on the school's Tornado Ranch on Friday, May 11, 2018, in Gainesville. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 6 of6 Gainesville State School student A.W. says he likes to work with therapy horses, Marquis, at the school's Tornado Ranch on Friday, May 11, 2018, in Gainesville. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of6 Gainesville State School student D.R. ![]() ( Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle ) Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of6 Gainesville State School student A.W. feeds one of the two therapy horses, Marquis, at the school's Tornado Ranch on Friday, May 11, 2018, in Gainesville. ( Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle ) Yi-Chin Lee / Houston Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of6 The equine and porcine therapy programs at Gainesville State School were shuts down after a six-day mass disturbance officials have insisted was not a riot. Lee, MBR / Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of6 Lee/The Dallas Morning News via AP) Jae S. But juvenile justice advocates say these problems have persisted at the remote, rural lockups under the state’s control for more than a decade. State officials blame longstanding problems at Gainesville State School in North Texas on the inability to hire and retain qualified staff to supervise hundreds of juvenile delinquents, many of whom suffer from severe mental health and behavioral problems. ![]() 28, 2016 photo, an SUV leaves the Gainesville State School in Gainesville, Texas. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |