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Ombudsman: TYC overusing solitary confinement

By Gritsforbreakfast

A report from TYC Ombudsman Will Harrell claims the agency is overusing solitary confinement to handle unruly behavior, reports Lisa Sandberg at the Houston Chronicle this morning ("Watchdog: TYC isolating youth offenders," Jan. 16):Contrary to promises for reform, the Texas Youth Commission has stepped up its policy of isolating unruly offenders in solitary cells for days or weeks at a time, sometimes violating its own rules in doing so, the agency's independent watchdog said. In a scathing depiction of life inside the troubled agency, TYC's ombudsman Will Harrell said the agency has embraced the use of isolation as a form of punishment, turning two prisons into de facto segregation camps where hard-to-manage youths languish in individual cells up to 23 hours a day...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 16, 2008 (boomark / email).