Gainesville State School Crisis Requires Texas Consider Shuttering Remaining Youth Lockups

Texas lawmakers have a difficult decision to make. Should the state shutter its five remaining youth lockups and admit we're just not capable of finding the money, the staff or even the fundamental competence to keep juvenile offenders safe in large facilities?It certainly doesn't appear that we can keep them safe -- not from predatory guards and not from each other. Reporters for The Dallas Morning News reviewed hundreds of pages of records from the Gainesville State School for delinquent youths. What they found not only shocks the conscience but calls into question whether Texas is capable of running schools like it across Texas without putting the students and their guards at constant risk of abuse, violence and neglect.   Continue reading...