TJJD News & Announcements

The Gainesville State School Student Support Council will host its annual Celebrity Wait fundraiser from 5 pm to 9 pm Monday, August 6 at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in Gainesville. The fundraiser will benefit the youth who reside at the facility. The evening will be filled with local celebrities as well as agency celebrities from Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) coming together to wait tables for a great cause. The tips from the evening will be donated to the Student Support Council, which is a non-profit entity whose purpose is to provide support and services to the youth that the state may not be able to provide.  Programs that are currently supported by the Student Support Council include, but are not limited to sports programming, incentives, Christmas gifts, educational tutoring and recognition, on-line driver education, PAWS, Tornado Ranch, audio/visual training program, family programs, chaplaincy programs, and the Men of Distinction program. Some of the loc...

The annual National Day of Prayer on May 3 prompted multiple gatherings across TJJD campuses. McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility held a prayer breakfast with several speakers and a bounty of food delivered by volunteers. Eligible youth attended, bowing their heads in prayer along with Mart Chaplain Larrye Weaver and other pastoral leaders who visited and spoke. At the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Facility, a large group of volunteers arrived to lead a service in the chapel and also provide one-on-one prayer with youth who asked to participate in this very personal moment. Other secure facilities received volunteers and mentors, who organized events and prayed with youth. At Giddings State School, more than a dozen youth participated in a balloon release outside the chapel. At the Gainesville State School, an Epiphany group visited with youth. PHOTO: Youth at the Giddings State School release balloons.

Gainesville staff are proud to announce that one of their school’s basketball players, KA, was named to the All-State Basketball, Second Team, in the TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) League. This same student was named Offensive Player of the Year in the district, where he averaged 18 points per game, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals. He led the Tornadoes Basketball Team to a 13-6 record overall, and 7-3 in the district. The Tornadoes tied for second place in the district during the regular season. But they lost in the state playoffs to Colleyville Christian, the #1 ranked team in the state. KA has been “a great example in both football and basketball this year,” said Henry Thomas, Athletic Director and Basketball Coach for Gainesville’s Lone Star High School North. This student athlete also excelled off the court, making the A/B honor roll multiple times and completing his GED (high school equivalency diploma) in  October 2017, Coa...

Several staff members from Gainesville State School participated in murder mystery theater event benefiting the Visto food bank last week. The food bank assists more than 17,000 people in crisis in the Cooke County area and has raised more than $140,000 for these families. The Visto (Volunteers In Service to Others) Vintage Murder Mystery posited a crime in which “Barry Underwood” met his doom somewhere in wine country. The mission: Sniff out the perpetrator. Team Gainesville was on it, interviewing Underwood’s fiancé “Tina Bubbles,” his cousin “Ralph Rottingrape,” beauty queen “Marilyn Merlot,” Hollywood movie star, “Hedy Shablee,” owner of a neighboring vineyard and “Papa Vino,” who helped develop the Underwood Wine Estates. There’s more, but you get the idea. Game participants each got to interview two suspects and then came together with their respective teams to deliberate and try to solve the murder. After putting on their Colombo hats, (but not really) the team determi...

This year’s winners of the Innovation Grants include practical new programs that will help TJJD youth learn how to make simple house repairs, maintain cars and improve their physical fitness and emotional well-being. The grants, which total $10,000, are made possible by the State Volunteer Resource Council for Texas Youth. Judges report they had a difficult task winnowing the many deserving proposals to the eight winning projects announced last week. Here are the winners: HOME REPAIR MADE EASY (WILLOUGHBY HALFWAY HOUSE) Grant Award: $700 In this project, community volunteers will teach the youth at the halfway house how to make simple home repairs through hands-on learning. They will focus on repairing floors, drywall and painting, and landscaping, and youth will complete a 12-week course. Grant funds will be used to purchase supplies, equipment and tools for the repair projects. CAR SMART (MCFADDEN RANCH) Grant Award: $500 Community volunteers will te...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – Staff and volunteers at Gainesville State School recently honored longtime volunteer Bill West on his 90th birthday. West has been enrolled as a volunteer at the Gainesville State School since February 2000, where he is a former employee, having worked as a grounds keeper and the warehouse manager. Since his retirement in 1995 he has helped with Catholic religious education of the youth.  He and his wife Mary organized monthly birthday parties on the dorms, as well as Christmas parties. He has participated and organized many Catholic chapel services, ACTS Ministry retreats, as well as mentored many youth while they were here. West has been very active in his church and in the area volunteer resource council, where he is a past president and vice president. In 2009, West was part of the Group of the Year awards winner for the work in the ACTs retreat. At the volunteer appreciation banquet in October 2015, West and his wife Mary received the Family Volunt...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – The Gainesville State School “Men Of Distinction” arose early on Valentine’s Day, with one thing on their minds: To bake valentines cookies. The cookies they prepared were oval shaped sugar cookies adorned with red and pink hearts. The youth collected them into little red gift bags with a shimmery gloss. They added three chocolate heart shaped valentine candies to each carefully packaged bag, taking pride in ensuring each one was just right. They arrived at the Pecan Creek Nursing and Rehab center in Gainesville with their goodies in tow. They met up with the Activity Coordinator Meagan Arrington who identified the residents who could have a goodie bag. Gainesville Dorm Supervisor  Carla Lane said the residents were very excited to see the boys and find out that they were bringing Valentine’s Day gifts. “Are those for us?, I haven’t had a sweet in a long time,” said one of the residents. The young men presented each of 25 residents with a  ...

TJJD has just launched a new FB page to promote our Pairing Achievement With Service (PAWS) program and to find families to adopt trained dogs. Please like the page and share it with your friends! PAWS at TJJD PAWS pairs TJJD youth with shelter dogs and service dog candidates. Qualified boys and girls age 15-18 are responsible for providing daily care, training, and companionship to their dogs. The dogs live with their human trainers for a minimum of 12 weeks while they while... they increase their adoptability by training them for the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Certification, a test designed to ensure basic good manners, while the youth gain skills such as relationship-building, patience, communication, perseverence, teamwork, and how to set and achieve goals to help them as they prepare to reintegrate into society. Youth who are interested in the PAWS program must apply and meet strict behavior criteria, while the dogs are fostered from local animal shelter partners after being ...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – The Gainesville State School broke ground Wednesday, Dec. 20, on a new, unique facility and program that will help students in custody learn agricultural skills and access a special type of horse therapy that has been proven to help at-risk youth with complex trauma, attachment disorders, and mood disorders. The dedication of Tornado Ranch, as it’s named, honored retiring TJJD Director David Reilly, who has championed animal therapy programs as a way to reach and help troubled teens. Reilly was the impetus behind both the equine program, which will begin operation shortly at Gainesville, and the PAWS (Pairing Achievement with Service) canine program, already in place at the Gainesville, Giddings and Ron Jackson campuses. Gainesville Superintendent Mike Studamire and Assistant Superintendent Deidra Reece presented Reilly with a handcrafted metal Texas “badge” made by youth in the metal shop and also unveiled photos of the new animal shelter...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – High School youth from the Denton Police Youth Summer Program, along with four Denton Police Officers, enjoyed a tour of the Gainesville State School in July. The School Resource Officers hand select students from the assigned campuses. There are middle school, high school, and girls programs that have been operating since 2010. Officer Keith Adams who coordinates the tours each year states, “I am involved because I want to continue to help make positive changes in kids’ lives. There is no greater feeling than to be in the position to open up a kid’s imagination, keep them out of harm’s way, and steer them in the right direction.” While on campus, youth see what a dorm looks like, hear from young residents, tour the security unit, and see campus life. When asked why he chooses to bring youth to the Gainesville State School, Officer Adams replied, “I felt that the facility would provide the kids with the opportunity to see what the inside of a confined facili...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – Late at night on July 21, a young man escaped from the Gainesville State School, and an exceptional team effort ensured that he was found the very next day. Employees from TJJD State Programs, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, local law enforcement, and TJJD Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigators from Gainesville, Brownwood, Mart, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin all answered the call that night. Sgt. Gabriel Medellin was contacted at approximately 2:00 a.m., on July 22. He left San Antonio for Gainesville at approximately 6:00 a.m. to meet with other investigators and begin searching for the youth. At approximately 12:25 p.m., Sgt. Medellin observed a male walking down a highway in Gainesville who matched the description of the youth. Sgt. Medellin made contact, confirmed his identity, and made the arrest without incident. He was assisted by OIG Sergeants Walker Willey (Ron Jackson) and Tom Hamilton (Mart). OIG Chief Forrest Mitchell s...

GAINESVILLE, Texas – On January 19, 2017, Gainesville State School hosted Breakfast and Bingo for the Gainesville youth and their families as well as their mentors. Youth and family members enjoyed breakfast, played bingo, took pictures and enjoyed visiting with one another. A total of 100 people were in attendance for this event. The Gainesville Student Support Council sponsored the event and provided the meal, bingo prizes, and photographs for both the youth and the family. Due to the great success of the event, Gainesville State School plans on making this an annual event. Photo: Family members visit with their youth at the Breakfast and Bingo event.

Every six weeks, all TJJD education departments participate in a Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) incentive program, which addresses the youth’s individual ability to reach a set of identified expectations and behavior goals. This helps facilitate and shape behavior while building and reinforcing coping skills through targeted skill development. Overall, this offers the students directed practice, staff opportunity for modeling of pro-social skills, and positive reinforcement of targeted progress. The goal is to help youth reduce negative behavior while developing corresponding positive behaviors to build longterm, internalized changes in behavior. Below is a description of the PBIS Incentive Day held agency-wide on September 16, 2016. Gainesville: PBIS is going strong at the Gainesville State School. The last incentive was the largest yet with 68 students participating. The teachers came in early and prepared a home cooked breakfast for the students that included scra...