TYC still can't get its sh$! together

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/texas-youth-commission/advocate-abolishing-tyc-could-be-best-fix/

Texas Appleseed, Advocacy, Inc., Center for Public Representation and National Center for Youth Law sent a letter to the Department of Justice this week urging for help with the Texas Youth Commission. 

TYC underwent (some) reforms three years ago after the tragic scandal broke involving physical and sexual abuse of the children by the guards.  The DOJ letter alleges that despite efforts, children at TYC report not feeling safe.

"Safety concerns, particularly at lockups in Corsicana and Beaumont, were the most urgent problems advocates identified. Every single youth interviewed at the Al Price Unit in Beaumont reported feeling unsafe, Fowler says. “They described riots and frequent fights. The first youth we talked to had a broken jaw,” she says. Staff members at the unit were so concerned that the young man would get reinjured, she says, that they placed him in secure confinement. “This kid just sat in security for over a month because they were so afraid to put him with the other kids,” she says."

The letter also cited to a major lack of mental health care.  "[I]n Corsicana, a facility specifically intended to house up to 145 mentally ill youths, there are just four staff psychologists, one psychologist intern and a part-time psychiatrist — and no social worker." 

TYC officials responded that it had made significant improvements since 2007.

TYC continues to be a troubled institution.  This is one of those things about Texas that makes me mad.  We do not have to re-invent the wheel everytime.  All other states have juvenile offender units and programs.  What are they doing?  What works?  How can we bring the best other states have to offer to Texas?  Why are juvenile offenders in other states not being beaten and raped but our children are?