TJJD News & Announcements

Discussing racial and ethnic differences and the disparate treatment of people of color can be difficult. It’s one thing to put it out there that you love tomatoes or fast cars or hate kombucha. These are not emotionally charged matters – well, unless you’re a kombucha brewer. It’s a far more sensitive matter to probe those unconscious, implicit biases around race and ethnicity. Yes, we’re talking about stereotypes but also the seemingly innocuous snap judgements that we all make every day in our jobs, in traffic, out shopping and recreating.  Picture this: A white woman crosses the street when she sees a young black man in a hoodie walking her way. A guard dismisses an outcry from a youth of color as histrionics. A teacher groans audibly in front of a youth of color who’s struggling to read at his grade level. But was it really histrionics, or was there a serious emotional backdrop or event leading to that outburst? Was that young man really threatening or just ...

You’ve likely heard the terms “implicit bias,” and “racial and ethnic disparities”(RED). These phrases are being absorbed into our culture and serving as guideposts toward more equitable systems. At TJJD, the RED Working Group has promoted several changes as it strives to create a better workplace and improve the environment for youth at TJJD, said Shelley McKinley, chairwoman of the TJJD RED Working Group and assistant superintendent of education at TJJD. To kick off its efforts, the RED group trained with a national expert in juvenile justice, Mark Soler. (See him here speaking about disproportionate minority contact .) Soler offered guidance as the group set goals and reached to elevate the conversation about racial and ethnic inequities. RED IS VITAL TO BEST PRACTICES Soler worked with TJJD as part of the YICPM program – Youth in Custody Practice Model -- in which the Texas agency is aligning its operations with national, research-based, best practices. YICPM requires par...

The RED (Racial and Ethnic Disparities) Workgroup, begun in 2016 at TJJD, includes about two dozen active members from central office and staff at facilities. In 18 months of focused work, their brainstorming has produced significant changes at the agency aimed at reducing racial and ethnic inequities and unfair treatment that can arise when these issues are left unexamined. RED REPORT CARDS One major accomplishment has been the establishment of RED Report Cards. These are used to track “security referrals” and “use of force” incidents by race and ethnicity. This tracking, done twice a year at each secure facility, enables staff to look at whether use of force and security referrals are meted out disproportionately. A security referral is when a youth is asked to go to a security setting to maintain safety for others. TJJD statistics reveal that over the years African-American youth have received security referrals at a higher rate than their white and Hispanic counterparts in t...

Black and Hispanic youth have historically been disproportionately represented in juvenile justice systems in Texas and most states across the US. They are more likely to be committed to residential detention facilities than whites, and in many cases, end up “deeper” in the system. The reasons are complex, but what providers of services – healthcare, criminal justice, juvenile justice – are learning is that the impacts can be blunted or reversed if they are willing to dig deep to study how racial and ethnic disparities affect their practices. In 2017, Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) launched a Cultural Equity Course to help staff examine and address biases that can affect outcomes for youth of color. The course is just one part of an umbrella effort known as RED (Racial and Ethnic Disparities) that touches many aspects of operations. This three-hour interactive training helps raise awareness of the intrinsic biases that can lead to disproportionate impacts on bl...