Last month the Gainesville State School celebrated its 100-year anniversary. The school has had a long and vital history during that time, beginning as a school for girls and then transitioning to a juvenile detention facility for the Texas Youth Commission in 1971. I want to acknowledge the hard work of Mike Studamire and Deidra Reece for organizing the event. I enjoyed the celebration and was proud to take part in burying a time capsule that will be opened in 50 years. And, as a bonus, our beloved football team, The Tornadoes, won their homecoming game later that evening.
TJJD implemented the automated certification exam for juvenile probation officers in September. After many years in the making, I am happy to see its existence come to fruition and believe it will be an additional level of credibility to our field for certified juvenile probation officers. Our goal is ultimately ensuring the mandatory topics are adequately trained so staff can successfully perform the duties of their position. Work on the juvenile supervision officer certification exam will soon begin and we are anticipating that this exam will begin an extensive pilot in January.
I’m also happy to report that we continue seeing success with the Regionalization efforts with our county partners. To date we have received 115 diversion applications, 59 of which have been approved, and 44 of those youth have had a hearing and sent to the approved placement by the local juvenile court.
The agency’s new school year is off to a good start and I am proud of the efforts that have been and continue to be made to transition to a new schedule. I am excited about the flexibility it provides for additional programing. Our education department continues to look for ways to improve youth learning and academic and I’m especially thankful to our state facility staff who are able to think outside the box on how to apply our resourcefulness in providing meaningful activities for our youth while they are not in class.
From a population perspective, from January to December, 2015, TJJD saw a 10.8% increase in residential average daily population (ADP). Since that time the population has showed some signs of stability, but has remained elevated: the ADP through the end of FY 2016 was 1,330.65. This was above what we were appropriated by 5.3%. In FY 2017, our budget drops to a lower projected population, making the overage at the start of the year jump to 7.5%. We obviously will be monitoring this trend closely.
During the past few months, TJJD has made two presentations in the lead up to the 85th Legislative Session which kicks off in January 2017. In August, we presented our legislative appropriations request (LAR) in a hearing to staff of the Governor’s office, the Legislative Budget Board, the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor’s offices, and other House and Senate staff. We were pleased by the interest of those who participated in the hearing and were asked many good questions. We have met less formally with many of those offices to discuss our LAR in more detail. These conversations have gone well and we are cautiously optimistic for the outcome of some of these requests during session.
Early in September we traveled to Dallas for a House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues hearing. We were asked to discuss four topics: data sharing between TJJD and DFPS, regionalization, potential raise the age legislation, and our initiatives and focus since last session.
It is also important to me that we be in lockstep with our county partners throughout session. We are one juvenile justice system. We met with many representatives from the field on September 21st to discuss how we can share information during session and be one voice. This was a productive meeting and I hope the first of many. I also intend to engage the presidents of the seven regions as a mechanism for communication during session and beyond. Historically this has been called the Presidents’ Council. We are looking for a date in November to meet with this group to ensure that the avenues for communication between the agency and the field are wide open and consistent.
TJJD implemented the automated certification exam for juvenile probation officers in September. After many years in the making, I am happy to see its existence come to fruition and believe it will be an additional level of credibility to our field for certified juvenile probation officers. Our goal is ultimately ensuring the mandatory topics are adequately trained so staff can successfully perform the duties of their position. Work on the juvenile supervision officer certification exam will soon begin and we are anticipating that this exam will begin an extensive pilot in January.
I’m also happy to report that we continue seeing success with the Regionalization efforts with our county partners. To date we have received 115 diversion applications, 59 of which have been approved, and 44 of those youth have had a hearing and sent to the approved placement by the local juvenile court.
The agency’s new school year is off to a good start and I am proud of the efforts that have been and continue to be made to transition to a new schedule. I am excited about the flexibility it provides for additional programing. Our education department continues to look for ways to improve youth learning and academic and I’m especially thankful to our state facility staff who are able to think outside the box on how to apply our resourcefulness in providing meaningful activities for our youth while they are not in class.
From a population perspective, from January to December, 2015, TJJD saw a 10.8% increase in residential average daily population (ADP). Since that time the population has showed some signs of stability, but has remained elevated: the ADP through the end of FY 2016 was 1,330.65. This was above what we were appropriated by 5.3%. In FY 2017, our budget drops to a lower projected population, making the overage at the start of the year jump to 7.5%. We obviously will be monitoring this trend closely.
During the past few months, TJJD has made two presentations in the lead up to the 85th Legislative Session which kicks off in January 2017. In August, we presented our legislative appropriations request (LAR) in a hearing to staff of the Governor’s office, the Legislative Budget Board, the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor’s offices, and other House and Senate staff. We were pleased by the interest of those who participated in the hearing and were asked many good questions. We have met less formally with many of those offices to discuss our LAR in more detail. These conversations have gone well and we are cautiously optimistic for the outcome of some of these requests during session.
Early in September we traveled to Dallas for a House Juvenile Justice and Family Issues hearing. We were asked to discuss four topics: data sharing between TJJD and DFPS, regionalization, potential raise the age legislation, and our initiatives and focus since last session.
It is also important to me that we be in lockstep with our county partners throughout session. We are one juvenile justice system. We met with many representatives from the field on September 21st to discuss how we can share information during session and be one voice. This was a productive meeting and I hope the first of many. I also intend to engage the presidents of the seven regions as a mechanism for communication during session and beyond. Historically this has been called the Presidents’ Council. We are looking for a date in November to meet with this group to ensure that the avenues for communication between the agency and the field are wide open and consistent.
On a final note, I want to make you all aware of an act of kindness on the part of one of our staff members that received a great amount of attention. Lester Brown’s selfless act of giving to help a school teacher in San Antonio resulted in a school supply company donating supplies for every student at Francis R. Scobee Middle School in San Antonio, an appearance on the Rachael Ray show, and a national movement with its own hashtag (#HundredDollarDeeds). It’s a great story and one worthy of a few minutes of your time. Take a look here. Thank you Lester!
As this issue of TJJ Today goes to press, we just learned that Teresa Stroud, our Senior Director for State Programs and Facilities, has just been elected to a seat on the American Correctional Association Board of Governors. This reflects positively on Teresa and on TJJD. We’ll have more information about this honor in an upcoming newsletter.
PHOTO: David Reilly