Justice Department finds that conditions at five Texas juvenile justice facilities, including Gainesville State School in the Eastern District of Texas, violate the Constitution

PLANO, Texas - The Justice Department announced today its findings that the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) is violating the U.S. Constitution, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

"Children are committed to TJJD facilities to receive treatment and rehabilitation so that they may return to their communities as law-abiding, productive citizens," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "Our investigation showed that, far from achieving those objectives, TJJD engaged in a pattern of abuse, deprivation of essential services and disability-related discrimination that seriously harms children and undermines their rehabilitation. State officials have an obligation to keep these children safe, to teach them, to provide them necessary health services and to treat them fairly, without discrimination. The Justice Department is committed to protecting the rights of vulnerable children in juvenile facilities. We look forward to working with state officials to remedy these violations, institute needed reform and improve outcomes for Texas children."

The department's report details findings from a comprehensive investigation of five TJJD youth facilities, including the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, Gainesville State School, Giddings State School, McClennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility, and Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex. The report concludes that:

• TJJD routinely violates the constitutional rights of children in all five facilities by:
  • Exposing them to excessive force and prolonged isolation;
  • Failing to protect children from sexual abuse; and
  • Failing to provide adequate mental health services.
• TJJD violates the IDEA by failing to provide special education and related services to children with disabilities.
• TJJD discriminates against children with disabilities in violation of the ADA by:
  • Not providing reasonable modifications necessary to permit their participation in programming required for release and
  • Denying them an equal opportunity to benefit from education.

These violations of the Constitution and federal law place children at substantial risk of serious physical and psychological harm and impede successful outcomes for children.

"States that receive federal funds to help educate children with disabilities are required to use those funds appropriately for the benefit of these children," said U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs for the Eastern District of Texas. "Systematically failing to evaluate children suspected of having disabilities inevitably deprives these children of the special education these funds were meant to provide. Texas received funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but failed to meet their obligation to ensure that children with disabilities would receive adequate education according to their special needs, among other things. Without appropriate services, children with disabilities in Texas juvenile corrections facilities cannot access the general education curriculum, preventing meaningful rehabilitation and progress. We look forward to working with Texas to rectify the issues we identified in our investigation so that these children, through meeting their educational needs, may have a better chance to succeed when they return to our communities."

The Justice Department launched its investigation of TJJD's juvenile justice facilities in October 2021, under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which authorize the department to address a pattern or practice of deprivation of constitutional and federal rights of children confined to state or local government-run correctional facilities.

The Civil Rights Division's Special Litigation Section and the U.S. Attorneys' Offices in Texas investigated the case.

For more information about the Civil Rights Division and the Special Litigation Section, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/special-litigation-section. You can also report civil rights violations to the section by completing the complaint form available at https://civilrights.justice.gov.

To provide information related to the department's investigation of TJJD's facilities, please call 1-866-432-0438 or by email at [email protected].

Spanish translation forthcoming. (La traducción al español estará disponible próximamente.)

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