Third leader this year takes over at Evins

AUSTIN — Repeated turnover in leadership at the Edinburg youth prison over the past couple months could stifle reform at the facility despite the federal government’s oversight, according to some experts.

But Texas Youth Commission leaders say that even though there has been three supertindents at the Evins Regional Juvenile Center since Aug. 31, leadership is stable and the facility is improving.

TYC as a whole has been under a microscope since a sex-abuse scandal at a West Texas facility was reported in February.

Evins’ history of problems date back more than two years, though, after youth rioted there

in late 2004 and guards abused detainees in the aftermath.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was investigating Evins for possible violations of civil rights. DOJ confirmed the violations earlier this year and remains in negotiations with state lawyers to determine what changes the state must make.

Some turnover during this reform period is expected, but three superintendents this year doesn’t instill confidence in the system, said Isela Gutierrez, coordinator of the Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles.

“Evins is still in a position to bring Texas into federal litigation,” she said.

The turnover makes it harder for youth and employees to concentrate on improving, said state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, author of the reform bill that instructed how TYC should turn the agency around.

“It slows down the process and makes it a little bit more difficult to convince the

Department of Justice that everything is under control,” Hinojosa said.

Officials with the Department of Justice did not respond to questions about the Evins negotiations.

Facility in flux

TYC spokesman Jim Hurley pointed to the fact that the current Evins superintendent closely worked with the previous one as evidence of stable leadership.

“Evins is making progress. Every facility is making progress,” Hurley said.

But morale is low among TYC employees, who already feel run-down from work at the understaffed agency, said Seth Hutchinson, an organizer with the Texas State Employees.

Re-learning how to deal with three bosses in a short period of time makes matters worse, he said.

“Any time you get a new boss, you’re going to be anxious about them, and when it happens every couple months, and you add that to the stress of the job, it’s cause for some serious problems,” Hutchinson said.

Current Superintendent Melody Vidaurri took over at Evins on Oct. 1, after Eddie Martinez retired after just five months on the job. He had previously been in Central Texas at the Giddings facility, TYC’s lockup for capital offenders.

Martinez came on after TYC officials announced in April that they planned to fire then-superintendent Bart Caldwell. Hurley said Caldwell was fired for performance problems, including a failure to implement reform measures.

Vidaurri, previously TYC’s Austin-based director of security, said she has no plans to leave Evins any time soon. She has re-located to the area and gone to great lengths to change the culture at Evins.

Stuttering improvements

Since Vidaurri’s arrival at Evins, lights have been added to the employee parking lot, cameras set up on all corners of the campus, native plants posted at the front entrance and the maintenance to-do list been brought up to date.

Construction is also expected to begin in December on the first of two dorms scheduled for conversion from an open-bay design into single-room dorms so detainees have privacy.

Vidaurri said she is interviewing candidates for new correctional officers and hopes to hire an additional 32 people in the next two months. Existing guards get an additional 80 hours of training, which should result in fewer injuries to staff and youth, she said.

She’s also creating incentives to encourage detainees to behave. For example, dorms with no behavioral problems for a period of time are rewarded with a movie and popcorn.

“We are moving forward in giving them things to do other than fight with each other,” she said.

Conditions have improved since riots in 2004, but problems remain, said Will Harrell, the TYC detainee ombudsman who visited Evins the weekend of Oct. 13. He was disturbed that Evins guards are using pepper spray at a higher rate than other facilities, he said.

Guards sprayed youth 22 times in August and 29 times in September, Vidaurri said. As of last week, there were four cases this month. Vidaurri said she does not think the numbers are too high, but expects them to come down as confrontations decrease. In all the cases, guards were found to have followed proper procedure, she said.

Harrell said he thought Martinez was taking Evins in the right direction, and with every change of leadership there’s a “stutter-step” in any facility’s reform.

“If it’s the kid’s individual caseworker, up to the superintendent of the facility, change creates unrest,” he said.

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Elizabeth Pierson Hernandez covers the state capital for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Austin and can be reached at (512) 323-0622.

Superintendents at Evins Regional Juvenile Center this year

Bart Caldwell Jan. 5, 2005 -Aug. 31, 2007 * Fired

Eddie Martinez May 1, 2007- Sept. 30, 2007 Retired

Melody Vidaurri Oct. 1, 2007- present

*Caldwell stepped down in April, but his official departure date came after termination proceedings completed.

Source: Texas Youth Commission records