Rough waters lie ahead for yet-to-be-named captain of new Juvenile Justice Department

Though due to a sheer lack of bandwidth Grits has been forced to curtail juvenile justice coverage, the biggest (if little-discussed) criminal justice story in the state this month surely is the abolition on December 1st of the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission, merging the two agencies into the new Juvenile Justice Department, whose board (see a list and descriptions) met for the first time last week.  At the Texas Tribune, Brandi Grissom's story on the transition opens:

The Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission are officially gone, and in their place, a new agency is taking shape — lawmakers and advocates hope — to more efficiently and effectively deal with young offenders.

The new Texas Juvenile Justice Department's oversight board met for the first time last week, appointing an advisory panel to take recommendations as it merges the agency's two predecessors. They expect to hire a new agency leader as soon as next month.

Throughout the story legislators and policy wonks predict budget savings from the merger, and perhaps that will be the case, but it's also the case that the Lege needs to make targeted investments in community-based  services to ensure that kids diverted from youth prisons, and those supervising them, have adequate resources and support. In an article earlier this week from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ("Tarrant juvenile justice officials wary about new combined state agency," Dec. 4), TJJD boardmember Scott Fisher said he thinks that will happen: "I think you're seeing a greater level of state funding of community-based programs than has existed in the past, because community-based programs do have a higher success rate with the population they deal with."

A judge in the Startlegram story questioned whether the agency would come to be dominated by youth prisons at the expense of probation and community-based programs, as has happened in the adult prison system: 

"The concern I think that we all have is that ... when we get in a funding crunch, then the needs of an institution -- which is basically what the Texas Youth Commission was, basically a juvenile prison -- might draw money away from the needs of children in the community," said Jean Boyd, a Tarrant County family law judge who was on the board of the Juvenile Probation Commission until it folded.

Boyd had opposed the merger, but she is now waiting to see how the new agency develops.

"I have to be hopeful," she said. "I support juvenile justice, and I want the agency to be successful, because we need it to be successful for our children."

Who will lead the new agency?

The newly appointed 13-member board met for the first time Thursday and launched a search for a new executive director.

The executive directors of the two previous agencies have applied for the post, and both were placed on paid leave until the board makes its decision on hiring when it meets again next month, Fisher said. Dr. Robin McKeever, the former deputy director of the youth commission, was named interim director.

No employees have lost their jobs, and all positions have been merged into the new agency while officials look for duplication. The Texas Youth Commission had about 3,500 employees, most of whom work in detention facilities. The Texas Juvenile Probation Commission had about 75 employees.

"You're taking two agencies and combining them, so there's going to be some change," Fisher said. "I think there's some uncertainty in the ranks out there."

Not only is there uncertainty in the ranks, it's fair to predict based on past experience with the state merging other agencies that rocky transitions are nearly inevitable - a regrettable feature of the process, not a bug. It's the little stuff that's most difficult: Are the computer systems compatible? How will information management systems be merged? How will the web sites be integrated? Should probation and parole supervision functions be merged? What differences in agency cultures and/or historic priorities will create internal friction? Nobody knows yet and it will take quite some time for the biggest challenges to even become fully apparent. For that reason, my hope is that the Lege will focus for a session or two on finding resources for community-based programming and keep their mitts off the agency's governing structure until the new, yet-to-be appointed leadership team has a chance to get their feet under them.

Speaking of whom, the head of the new agency could be Vicki Spriggs or Cherie Townsend, the past executive directors of the Juvenile Probation Commission and the Youth Commission respectively, or conceivably somebody else, though the smart money is on one of those two getting it. [Grits readers should express their preference in the comments, with two caveats in the interests of constructive civility: 1) be polite, respectful and avoid name calling or I'll delete your comments and shut down the string and 2) don't advocate one or the other candidate without giving a reason why.]

I respect both candidates, but my gut tells me drawing leadership from the Juvenile Probation Commission may better focus agency priorities on the needs of probation, with a shorter ramp up period than we might see hiring from TYC. Vicki knows the local systems much better and would have less of a learning curve coming in to address the main challenge facing the agency - beefing up local, community-based services. That's only my tentative sense, though, and Cherie Townsend also brings many strengths to the table. Both women were given a month off with pay while the new TJJD board figure out what they want to do.

Here's Townsend's farewell letter to TYC employees and more background on TJPC's website.