First stop in youth prison system is most abusive, records show

March 20, 2006

Elizabeth Pierson

The Monitor

MARLIN - Ever since 1892 when workers chanced upon a bubbly geyser of hot mineral water, this town not far from Waco has billed itself as a place where visitors come to heal.

Conrad Hilton built an eight-story hotel here to cater to those seeking rejuvenating waters in the years before antibiotics could help.

So it seemed natural in 1995 that this town of 6,000 people would welcome the Texas Youth Commission to open its orientation and assessment unit, the gateway to the juvenile prison system. Here each of the state's most violent and chronic offenders would come to rehabilitate.

Now the windows at Hilton's downtown hotel are broken and workers at the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit on the edge of town are increasingly abusing the boys and girls in their care.

TYC investigators have confirmed employee physical abuse against youth occurred 62 times since 1999, more than any other TYC facility. In 2005, abuses tripled from the year before.

Last year, judges sentenced 2,600 children to serve time at a TYC reformatory.

Each one was sent first to Marlin, a temporary home where they were tested on their academic, psychological and behavioral levels, then sent to another facility to serve their sentence. They leave Marlin within two months of arrival.

It was built as an adult prison, and its architecture doesn't lie. Two razor-wire fences surround the property, one inside the other. Walls and floors are concrete, bunks are metal and bathrooms in each dormitory are in full view of the living space, behind a wall mostly of clear glass. When they arrive, they are strip-searched, deloused, issued an orange uniform adult prisoners make, fingerprinted and given haircuts.

They enter through a sally port in the back and are escorted into a painted concrete room where they see the rules posted on the wall. One reads: "While you are at Marlin, we are going to make sure that you are safe. Likewise, you are not allowed to hurt staff or students."

Most of their 16 waking hours are filled with school, military-style movement drills, behavioral therapy, personal hygiene, meals and recreation. Since most are high-school aged, they work toward their diploma or GED with experienced teachers.

Marlin Superintendent Jerome Parsee said he should have noticed as physical abuse complaints came across his desk, on their way to the inspector general, that the same five juvenile correctional officers accounted for 19 of the 32 cases reported in 2005.

"I wasn't as good as I could have been," he said. "I should have reviewed those more closely and I didn't."

Two of those officers have since resigned, two have TYC investigations pending and one received probation and training, records show.

In all, 18 officers were found to have abused youth here last year - up from 13 employees in 2004, but still less than 1 percent of all workers, state records show.

Parsee has submitted Marlin's plan for improvement to the TYC office in Austin and he is working toward preventing abuse, TYC executive director Dwight Harris said.

The most chronic abuser in 2005 was William Harris, the then-night supervisor of the security unit, where youth that misbehave in the dorms are sent to calm down. Suicidal youth are also sent there for constant supervision.

Harris physically abused youth nine times from April to July 2005, and he was repeatedly protected by other staff members who witnessed it but did not document, report, or try to stop it. In at least one case, another staff member joined in, records show.

One instance happened just before 10:30 p.m. on June 1, 2005, when a boy was standing in handcuffs in the security unit. Harris grabbed him by his head with both hands, shook his head, pushed him to the floor, struck him in the mouth with a closed fist and stomped on his face three times as he lay on the floor, according to summaries of the TYC investigation.

Two officers were within 8 feet of Harris when it happened and did not intervene. Three more officers saw the boy on the ground in the following hour and a half but did not call for help, the investigation found.

A visit to the nurse the next morning revealed he had difficulty moving his left wrist, suffered pain and swelling in his right jaw, had four lumps on the back of his head and had bite marks on the inside of his cheeks.

Still no one reported the incident to administration until six weeks later when the boy mentioned it during questioning for a grievance he filed about a different incident. Harris later resigned before investigators completed their findings for that and other incidents in which he was involved, records show. He could not be reached for comment.

The new night security supervisor is better suited for the rigors of the job, Parsee said. And an administrator is now on site most evenings to prevent and detect abuse.

The violence isn't limited to inmates.

Staff members filed more than twice as many workers' compensation claims for aggression-caused injuries in the year ending Aug. 31, 2005, than the previous year.

Marlin is a company town, and the company is the state. Anyone seeking a steady local job has two choices: a maximum-security women's prison near the banks of the Brazos River, or TYC. Some travel 20 miles north to another large TYC detention center in Mart.

Many officers approached for this story were hesitant to discuss the abuse for fear of losing their jobs or facing retribution. TYC officials said retribution against employees for speaking out is not tolerated.

"I ain't saying nothin' about TYC," one man said as he left home for the night shift in his late-model Ford. "TYC pays for this truck."

One 15-year-old boy who sat down to talk during a recent tour of Marlin immediately said he had been slammed face down on the concrete ground by two juvenile correctional officers not long before, because he made a smacking sound with his mouth to show his disapproval for JCOs slapping the chins of other youth.

He was taken down while standing in an approved position at the foot of his bunk, he said.

He told the story without being asked to discuss abuse or being told a reporter was looking into abuse.

An administrator who was on the tour overheard the discussion and asked the teen more about the incident and said she would report it immediately so it could be investigated.

Many employees insist on treating inmates with respect and fairness, even when their charges can be cruel. That goes a long way toward avoiding physical confrontation, they said.

"I get respect from kids 80 percent of the time," said Benny Dew, who oversees the crowded security unit during the day. "I don't yell at them, I don't talk down to them, and they respond in kind."

Two days before, Marlin administrators had ordered all 18 dorms on lockdown after they saw "diminishing respect" for the rules over several months, including prisoners cursing staff when tour groups visited.

It was a preventative move to keep problems from escalating, Parsee said. If they could spend a few days reviewing the basic rules of Marlin, perhaps bigger problems could be avoided.

After all, here the TYC lays the foundation for rehabilitation that will determine whether the children become adults who tell elderly ladies when they drop their wallets, or adults who steal them.

"We set the standard," Parsee said. "We set the tone."

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Elizabeth Pierson covers the state capital for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Austin and can be reached at (512) 323-0622.