Gainesville State School Final PREA Audit Report
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Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Audit Report Juvenile Facilities ☐ Interim ☒ Final Date of Report April 9, 2019 Auditor Information Name: Dwight Sadler Email: [email protected] Company Name: Office of the Independent Ombudsman Mailing Address: 11209 Metric Blvd., Bldg. H, City, State, Zip: Austin, Texas 78758 Suite A Telephone: 512-490-7971 Date of Facility Visit: July 24-26, 2018 Agency Information Name of Agency Governing Authority or Parent Agency (If Applicable) Texas Juvenile Justice Department Click or tap here to enter text. Physical Address: City, State, Zip: Austin, Texas 78758 11209 Metric Blvd., Bldg. H, Suite A Mailing Address: Same City, State, Zip: Click or tap here to enter text. Telephone: 512-490-7130 Is Agency accredited by any organization? ☐ Yes ☒ No The Agency Is: ☐ Military ☐ Private for Profit ☐ Private not for Profit ☐ Municipal ☐ County ☒ State ☐ Federal Agency mission: Transforming young lives and creating safer communities. Agency Website with PREA Information: https://www.tjjd.texas.gov/programs/prea.aspx Agency Chief Executive Officer Name: Camille Cain Title: Executive Director Email: [email protected] Telephone: 512-490-7004 Agency-Wide PREA Coordinator Name: Carla Bennett-Wells Title: PREA Coordinator PREA Audit Report Page 1 of 143 Gainesville State School Email: [email protected] Telephone: 254-297-8200 PREA Coordinator Reports to: Number of Compliance Managers who report to the PREA Coordinator 14 Terri Dollar Facility Information Name of Facility: Gainesville State School Physical Address: 1379 FM 687, Gainesville, Texas 76240 Mailing Address (if different than above): Click or tap here to enter text. Telephone Number: 940-665-0701 The Facility Is: ☐ Military ☐ Private for Profit ☐ Private not for Profit ☐ Municipal ☐ County ☒ State ☐ Federal Facility Type: ☐ Detention ☒ Correction ☐ Intake ☐ Other Facility Mission: Transforming young lives and creating safer communities Facility Website with PREA Information: https://www.tjjd.texas.gov/programs/prea.aspx Is this facility accredited by any other organization? ☐ Yes ☒ No Facility Administrator/Superintendent Name: Bill Parks Title: Facility Superintendent Email: [email protected] Telephone: 940-665-0701 ext. 186 Facility PREA Compliance Manager Name: Rhonda Roberson Title: PREA Compliance Officer Email: [email protected] Telephone: 940-665-0701 ext. 136 Facility Health Service Administrator Name: Stacy Gaston Title: Facility Nurse Manager Email: [email protected] Telephone: 940-665-0701 ext. 233 Facility Characteristics Designated Facility Capacity: 325 Current Population of Facility: 190 Number of residents admitted to facility during the past 12 months 256 PREA Audit Report Page 2 of 143 Gainesville State School Number of residents admitted to facility during the past 12 months whose length of stay in the 232 facility was for 10 days or more: Number of residents admitted to facility during the past 12 months whose length of stay in the 253 facility was for 72 hours or more: Number of residents on date of audit who were admitted to facility prior to August 20, 2012: 0 Age Range of 14 to 18.11 Population: Average length of stay or time under supervision: 10.7 months Facility Security Level: Maximum Resident Custody Levels: High Number of staff currently employed by the facility who may have contact with residents: 265 Number of staff hired by the facility during the past 12 months who may have contact with 87 residents: Number of contracts in the past 12 months for services with contractors who may have contact with 3 residents: Physical Plant Number of Buildings: 40 Number of Single Cell Housing Units: 11 Number of Multiple Occupancy Cell Housing Units: 0 Number of Open Bay/Dorm Housing Units: 0 Number of Segregation Cells (Administrative and Disciplinary: 30 Description of any video or electronic monitoring technology (including any relevant information about where cameras are placed, where the control room is, retention of video, etc.): Gainesville State School’s video monitoring system includes a total of 1428 cameras located throughout the interior and exterior of the buildings on the campus. Since the last PREA Audit in 2015 a total of 42 additional cameras were added on the campus to increase visibility and reduce potential blind spots based on security recommendations by personnel from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Department of Public Safety. The current facility Safe Housing Staffing Plan includes details of the video monitoring for the facility. The gatehouse through which staff members and visitors enter and exit the campus is equipped with a video surveillance system that is monitored by correctional staff to ensure adherence to the facility schedule and alert others of possible supervision issues. The staffing plan states that video monitoring is performed and documented by supervisory staff at various times each month. The plan also includes the number of cameras for each dorm and each building on the campus. During the onsite portion of the audit, Juvenile Correctional Officers (JCOs) were observed monitoring live feed in the gatehouse. The PREA compliance officer confirmed that their observations are documented on a video review form. Supervisory staff members are required to conduct monthly random video monitoring and must document their observations and report any concerns. A DVR Quality Assurance Report was provided to the auditor and included the staff members’ name and title, deficiencies, overall observance, and corrective actions taken for deficiencies. Camera placement was noted during the facility inspection and potential blind spots were documented and provided to the PREA compliance manager. Also of note, during the corrective action period the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) agency purchased body-worn camera system for each facility and transitioned the agency-wide use of the cameras one campus at a time. The system contains a suite of operating platforms including a secure server to store video that may be used as evidence for administrative or criminal investigations. The rollout for the Gainesville facility began September 20th, 2018 with training classes held for facility management regarding the use and monitoring of the equipment. The facility’s staff members were provided training and use of the cameras was implemented at the campus. Agency policy was amended to contain rules regarding the cameras including check in/out procedures, circumstances allowing the cameras to be deactivated, and oversight duties. PREA Audit Report Page 3 of 143 Gainesville State School Medical Type of Medical Facility: Infirmary Forensic sexual assault medical exams are conducted at: Medical City Denton, Denton, TX or North Texas Medical Center, Gainesville, Texas Other Number of volunteers and individual contractors, who may have contact with residents, currently 318 authorized to enter the facility: Number of investigators the agency currently employs to investigate allegations of sexual abuse: 19 PREA Audit Report Page 4 of 143 Gainesville State School Audit Findings Audit Narrative Introduction The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audit of the Gainesville State School (GNS) was conducted July 24-26th, 2018. The Gainesville State School is a secure facility operated by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) and is located in Gainesville, Texas. The audit team consisted of three Department of Justice Certified PREA auditors and one probationary auditor. Dwight Sadler was the lead and point of contact throughout the audit and was assisted by Lisa Hale, Nicole Prather, and Emily Childs. This was the second audit of the facility; the first occurred on March 4-5, 2015. The GNS facility became fully PREA compliant after it was determined that five corrective actions had been fully implemented. In the Summary of Findings section of the 2015 report the auditor noted that the standards requiring corrective action were all related to the discrepancy in the number of sexual abuse and sexual harassment cases reported versus the number of cases that could be accounted for by the auditors during the pre-audit and on-site portions of the audit. For the 2018 audit, the auditor team consisted of ombudsmen employed by the Office of the Independent Ombudsman (OIO) for TJJD. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the OIO and the TJJD was executed on May 21, 2018 and became effective on June 1, 2018. The MOU stipulates that the Ombudsman will conduct audits of TJJD-operated facilities in accordance with the PREA and requires that TJJD shall reimburse the Ombudsman for travel expenses, including lodging, meals, and mileage, incurred by the Ombudsman during the course of conducting the audits. Once the MOU was effective, the OIO and the TJJD began discussions regarding potential dates for the audits during this audit cycle. Once the dates for each audit were determined, the lead auditor began preliminary discussions. No third-party entity was involved in the audit process. No barriers hindered the audit process, and the auditor was provided documentation uploaded to a common drive for an initial review. The documents were organized into folders that corresponded to each PREA Standard. Additional phone calls and emails were shared with the facility PREA compliance manager and the interim PREA compliance coordinator for TJJD. During the on-site portion of the audit, the auditor was granted full access to the following: 1. Staff members