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By Pat Nolan|Published Date: June 29, 2009
According to the Dallas Morning News, over a period of years several top officials in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) repeatedly abused juveniles in their facilities. They concealed their crimes by punishing children who tried to complain and by rewarding those who remained silent about their sexual molestation. One of the administrators even held the key to the complaint box so that he knew which of the children had tried to complain about him or the others.
The TYC leadership and prosecutors at each level of government ignored repeated complaints filed by several brave staff members who protested the inappropriate behavior they observed. TYC also did nothing about an inspector general’s report that chronicled the repeated abuse by multiple high-level administrators at juvenile facilities. The district attorney, the attorney general’s office, and federal authorities all declined to prosecute.
A retired TYC investigator put it very poignantly: “Staff are being paid your tax money to rape your children.” Fortunately, the Texas legislature and the governor have moved to protect the children and are revamping their entire juvenile justice system. But untold damage has been done to these young people.
Lest readers in other states be too smug, serious problems of violence and sexual abuse plague juvenile institutions across our country. I serve on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (PREC), which just completed hearings on this horrible situation in Austin, Texas. You can access the proceedings on the commission’s website. We heard from families of the victims and from the special master appointed by the governor to clean up the situation. We also appreciated the testimony of the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who has been in the forefront of the effort to compel swift action to correct TYC’s complete breakdown of integrity.
The commission issued a unanimous statement: “The state’s first priority should be to ensure the immediate safety of all the children in TYC’s custody. We urge the state to immediately develop mechanisms that will effectively protect them from sexual abuse by staff, as well as by other detained youth, and to inform the children of the steps they can follow without fear of retaliation should they experience abuse or the threat of it.
“Preventing sexual assault must be a top priority in every detention facility in the United States. Zero tolerance is the only acceptable standard. We hope Texas adopts that standard for the TYC and takes all necessary steps to see that it is implemented.”
While many of these juveniles have committed terrible crimes, not one of their sentences includes being raped. They will carry the scars of these molestations with them when they leave custody. It is shameful that they were abused by people we put in authority over them. They are voiceless and powerless in our system. The only reason that they have an institution like the PREC to advocate for them is because people of faith banded together and pressed Congress to address this moral outrage.
Rabbi David Saperstein told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Because of the profound moral clarity of the issue, a remarkable coalition of conscience has come together in support of this legislation. Jewish, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and Unitarian groups, civil rights, human rights, and criminal justice reform advocates, health care professionals and youth workers, liberals, conservatives, and everyone in between—we all believe that prison rape is wrong, and that we can, and must, do something about it.”
Congress responded by passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act unanimously, and the president signed it into law. The commission will adopt standards by which prison officials in adult and juvenile facilities can be held accountable. However, it will make a difference in the lives of inmates only if the public pays attention to the audits that gauge the success of prison administrators in eliminating prison rape. It is up to the Church to hold officials accountable for preventing violence and rape in our prisons.
In calling for continued action to eradicate prison rape, Chuck Colson has said, “Being a doer, and not just a hearer, of the Word can make a difference. Not just in the life of the individual believer, but in the lives of those whom Jesus called ‘His brothers.’ ” As the Catholic Bishops have written, “Silence and indifference are not options for a community of faith.” This, of course, is exactly what Jesus called us to do: to care about prisoners. As He says in Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.”
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