From ACLU to TYC
Will Harrell, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Texas branch, is leaving the organization to become the new ombudsman of the Texas Youth Commission, agency officials have just announced.
Mr. Harrell, a big-time juvenile justice advocate, played a key role in crafting the TYC reform legislation that's passed both chambers. In his new job, he'll serve as the agency's chief youth advocate -- a position that hasn't existed until now.
“Will Harrell reached out to help me the first day I took over the reins of the Youth Commission,” Conservator Jay Kimbrough said in a statement. “He has continually demonstrated his compassion for the kids in TYC. We share a commitment to protect kids and reform this agency. "
** Update **
Harrell just called his new job "the greatest honor of my professional career." And he said it's "poetic" that a juvenile justice advocate and chief of the Texas ACLU is being appointed by Kimbrough -- a "Republican, veteran, cowboy."
Harrell called it the perfect match. They're both uninterested in political rancor.
Comments
I don't know either of them but having Kimbrough, a conservative, as Conservator, and Will Harrell, an CLU liberal, working together on the terrible situation at TYC sounds hopeful. Protecting TYC residents from sexual and other abuse by public servants and fellow residents alike is something every decent Texan can agree upon regardless of ideology or party.
I maintain that one real cause of at least two (2) such staff sexual abuse of inmates scandals at TYC, not dealt with in last draft I saw of bill and on which nobody I have contacted has responded and commented, is Texas law making such obscene crimes against juvenile inmates by staff, board menbers, or elected officials a mere misdemeanor, when it would be a felony if committed against anyone else, or at least against anyone whose family had political "suck," by anyone else or anyone else who did not have such "suck." The message of this discriminatory scheme is all too starkly clear. I think the general law could be applied but you would have to sell the Court of Criminal Appeals on its applicability against the powerful who abuse these most powerless victims.
I'm old enough to remember an earlier similar sexual abuse scandal at the old Gatesville juvenile prison, then euphemistically called a reformatory, ha ha, that led to a raid by Texas Rangers proving what kind of severe physical as well as sexual abuse of these juveniles was being committed by staff and management with the knowledge of their superiors. , a long generation ago--see records in Fed. Judge Wm. W. Justice's court in Tyler and news accounts.
Posted by: Peter S. Chamberlain | May 11, 2007 11:06 PM
I don't know either of them but having Kimbrough, a conservative, as Conservator, and Will Harrell, an CLU liberal, working together on the terrible situation at TYC sounds hopeful. Protecting TYC residents from sexual and other abuse by public servants and fellow residents alike is something every decent Texan can agree upon regardless of ideology or party.
I maintain that one real cause of at least two (2) such staff sexual abuse of inmates scandals at TYC, not dealt with in last draft I saw of bill and on which nobody I have contacted has responded and commented, is Texas law making such obscene crimes against juvenile inmates by staff, board menbers, or elected officials a mere misdemeanor, when it would be a felony if committed against anyone else, or at least against anyone whose family had political "suck," by anyone else or anyone else who did not have such "suck." The message of this discriminatory scheme is all too starkly clear. I think the general law could be applied but you would have to sell the Court of Criminal Appeals on its applicability against the powerful who abuse these most powerless victims.
I'm old enough to remember an earlier similar sexual abuse scandal at the old Gatesville juvenile prison, then euphemistically called a reformatory, ha ha, that led to a raid by Texas Rangers proving what kind of severe physical as well as sexual abuse of these juveniles was being committed by staff and management with the knowledge of their superiors. , a long generation ago--see records in Fed. Judge Wm. W. Justice's court in Tyler and news accounts.
Posted by: Peter S. Chamberlain | May 11, 2007 11:12 PM