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Parole Rejected for 150-Plus
Juveniles
April 13, 2007
By Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas officials
canceled parole for more than 150 young offenders after learning
that many had served only minimal time for violent crimes, including
murder.
The revelation outraged state
lawmakers, who just this spring approved a massive overhaul of the
troubled juvenile system in response to abuse allegations. It also
prompted the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission to review its
parole criteria, officials said Thursday.
The commission was already under
scrutiny for allegations that inmates had been sexually and
physically abused at the West Texas State School in Pyote, and that
employees who knew about the problems did nothing to stop them.
Questions about the parole
recommendation were raised by state adult parole officials, who
supervise released juveniles and reviewed the files. The adult
parole officials told lawmakers that many of the young offenders on
the list could pose a threat to the public.
One juvenile on the list had served
less than three years of a 40-year sentence for the killing of a
classmate. Another was serving time for molesting six children and
was reprimanded for indecent exposure and possession of a weapon
while incarcerated.
"Some of these crimes were
horrendous. There's no way these offenders should be on the street,"
said House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, who on
Thursday demanded the juveniles' cases be reviewed again.
Texas Youth Commission spokesman
Jim Hurley said all those on the list met the standards for release
on parole.
"But after further consideration,"
Hurley said, "we are not comfortable with our recommendation, and we
are pulling all of them back for a much more in-depth review. We are
going to take a good, hard look at all those files."
Current policies require several
agency employees, such as psychologists and superintendents, to
approve such paroles. Hurley said neither acting executive director
Dimitria Pope nor conservator Ed Owens had approved any of the
youngsters for release.
After the abuse allegations
surfaced early this year, state lawmakers overhauled the juvenile
system. They voted to improve the staff-to-inmate ratios, set up a
new citizen oversight board, strengthen investigative powers and
name an ombudsman for inmates. Several agency officials resigned,
and two were indicted. An official appointed to review the agency
also began case reviews to find inmates whose sentences had been
extended unfairly.
"It's incredulous to me that this
could happen after all the work the Legislature did last spring to
clean up this agency," Madden said.
The Texas Youth Commission
incarcerates about 3,800 offenders ages 10 to 21 who are considered
the most dangerous, incorrigible or chronic. It operates 15 prisons
_ two are set to be closed this summer _ nine halfway houses, and
treatment and counseling centers.
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