A Woman's Touch Juvenile Inmates Can Make Inviting Targets for Sex Offenders—And Women Are the Most Frequent Perpetrators
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490301011Mer AssiellemveMe. • 0910312010 A Woman's Touch Juvenile inmates can make inviting targets for sex offenders—and women are the most frequent perpetrators. Is the Texas Youth Commission ignoring the problem? ON THE COVER ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL HERTZBERG LEFT Inside the Corsicana Resi- dential Treatment Center, one of 19 Texas Youth Commission facilities PHOTO BY LAURA BURKE A06 WOMAN'S TOUCH by Laura Burke Juvenile inmates can make inviting targets for sex offenders—and women are the most frequent perpetrators. Is the Texas Youth Commission ignoring the problem? CASH FLOW DOGGONE JUSTICE by Forrest Wilder by Joe RAarastiale A tiny Texas town takes on T. Boone An ode to old-fashioned violence. 12 Pickens—and tries to save its water. 17 Listen to a REGULARS 2.0 DATELINE: 25 BOOK REVIEW 28 PURPLE STATE podcast with 01 DIALOGUE SAN ANTONIO The Corps of Time Warp Laura Burke 02 POLITICAL Close to the Bone New Orleans by Bob Moser talking about INTELLIGENCE by Barbara Renaud by Char Miller "A Woman's 05 EDITORIAL Gonzalez 29 EYE ON TEXAS Touch," and 05 BEN SARGENT'S 26 POETRY by Michael Stravato watch a video of LOON STAR STATE 23 STATE OF THE MEDIA by Harvey Shepard Forrest Wilder's 19 HIGHTOWER REPORT Calling George W. CORRECTION: In "A Ruling by Bill Nlinutaglio 21 URBAN COWGIRL for Capture" (Aug. 20), we interviews for The Road to incorrectly said that the "Cash Flow." Texas Supreme Court hadn't 24 CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK Compromise yet heard Edwards Aquifer www.texasooserver.org UGK 4 Life by Ruth Pennebaker Authority v. Day. In fact, the by Josh Rosenblatt court took oral arguments in the case in February. The decision, however, is pending. A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SINCE 1954 •IPwr*-41, OBSERVER VOLUME 102, NO. 16 1111.0011E FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger Confederate Texas EDITOR Bob Moser MANAGING EDITOR From the article "Troubled Times" (Aug. 6): Slavery "was not a moral quandary in Chris Tomlinson SENIOR EDITORS Dave Mann, 1860 for most Texans, and thousands of them would die in brutal conflict before it Michael May WEB EDITOR Jen Reel started to become one. If,150 years later, Texans still can't talk about what slavery INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque made of us, then part of our history remains trapped inside that peculiar institu- STAFF WRITERS Abby Rapoport, tion." To me, unless people in the lower south stop using the term "states' rights" Forrest Wilder ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin as the reason for the war, they have not owned up to the gravity of what they did CIRCULATION MANAGER Candace Carpenter 150 years ago. "States' rights" is a rationalization, not a reason for the war—an OFFICE MANAGER Lorraine Blancarte attempt to make something dishonorable look honorable. Bill Wilson ART DIRECTION EmDash LLC DALLAS COPY EDITOR Rusty Todd POETRY EDITOR BENEATH ALL THE CHIVALRIC REFERENCES TO THE We absolutely should measure and report growth. Naomi Shihab Nye South, we must acknowledge the brutal blood- TEA gave us a growth model that doesn't ever mea- INTERNS Laura Burke, stained reality of slavery. That was why the war sure growth, while telling us it did. By no measure John Eller came about. As for the alleged "slave rebels" who should that exercise be scored as "passing." CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Scott Hochberg Emily DePrang, Lou Dubose, were murdered for setting the fires that came to be James K. Galbraith, Steven known as the "Texas Troubles"? Seems to me the STATE REPRESENTATIVE, HOUSTON G. Kellman, Joe R. Lansdale, very least thing we could do in Dallas would be to Robert Leleux, James E. name schools or parks after them, as we have Civil McWilliams, Char Miller, Bill Minutaglio, Ruth Pennebaker, War generals throughout the state. Once, years ago, Perry's Fuzzy Math Josh Rosenblatt, Kevin Sieff, I tried to tell friends that Texas was not a Southern WHEN Gov. RICK PERRY RAN FOR GOVERNOR THE FIRST Brad Tyer, Andrew Wheat state, but someone quickly interjected: "Texas was time, he made a campaign promise to serve no more CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS a Confederate state." If you start in East Texas, each than two terms ("Knock, Knock, Who's There?" Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, Aug. 6). It is bad enough that he did not keep his Matt Wright-Steel town has a monument near the courthouse for the Confederate dead. But eventually, small towns stop promise; but what really upset me was during the CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Michael Krone, Alex Eben having such monuments. It is in those towns where Republican Primary against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Meyer, Ben Sargent the West begins. Brad O'Brien Hutchison, when Perry had a TV ad saying the state TEXAS DEMOCRACY DALLAS of Texas has a budget surplus under his leadership. FOUNDATION BOARD Shorty after Perry won the Republican Primary, Lisa Blue Baron, Carlton it came out that there is no surplus, but a deficit Carl, Melissa Jones, Susan Longley, Jim Marston, Test-Test now at $18 billion. Did Perry tell the truth or is that Mary Nell Mathis, Gilberto JUST TO MAKE SURE MY POSITION IS CLEAR, I HAVE ALWAYS just "fuzzy" math? It's time for a new governor. Ocarias, Jesse Oliver, Bernard advocated for a testing measure that would allow I don't care if you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo Rodriguez, Sharron schools to receive credit for registering progress Tea Partier or a Libertarian; a politician should be Rush, Kelly White, Ronnie with underperforming children, and I continue to truthful and should not mislead the people in any Dugger (emeritus) do so ("Passing Fancy," Aug. 20). The problem is way, form or fashion. Sam Merrell CHAIR, TEXAS RETIRED PUBLIC OUR MISSION that the Texas Projection Measure never measures We will serve no group or progress, or growth, nor was it designed to. It's a pre- EMPLOYEE COUNCIL OF AFSCME party but will hew hard to diction method, useful in deciding how much growth the truth as we find it and is "enough" to make sure a student has a reasonable the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole chance to pass in the future. The Texas Education truth, to human values above Agency skipped the part about measuring growth all interests, to the rights of and went straight to the prediction. So the student humankind as the foundation A of democracy. We will take who makes no progress and fails gets the same orders from none but our own TPM score as the student you describe who starts conscience, and never will we far behind and makes great progress but still fails. overlook or misrepresent the Using TPM, the great teacher and the poor teacher truth to serve the interests of Sound Off the powerful or cater to the are treated equally, based only on where the student ignoble in the human spirit. lands, without regard to where the student started. [email protected] SEPTEMBER 3, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 1 1.111FELLIG Setto. Tockp Sir* to Ss Qutai romp <Inca pewit frebis Seht pabr Y can mi case quart 4 • DISPATCH FROM REYNOSA The Dead City Saint Death DEATH GREETS VISITORS TO REYNOSA THESE DAYS. ON THE It's the only place where anyone in Reynosa seems PHOTO BY EUGENIO DEL BOSQUE outskirts of this gritty industrial city across the Rio to find comfort. Grande from McAllen, a shining, white altar to the The altar wasn't here a decade ago when I worked skeletal specter la Santa Muerte (Saint Death)—a in Reynosa as a reporter. The city was different. It had favorite of the poor, the disenfranchised, and the a vibrant plaza and a healthy tourism trade. Families criminal underclass—stands guard at her post, a strolled downtown. Reynosa was never pretty, but it smiling grim reaper, a fitting saint for these times. was alive. It had hope. Now the mood is fatalistic. The My husband and I stop at la Santa Muerte on the city itself has become a victim of the drug violence edge of town. As my husband snaps photographs, that has killed more than 28,000 people in Mexico READ more about la Santa a silver pickup truck careens down the highway at since 2006. The restaurants and small businesses Muerte at Ixlo.com/rnuerte high speed with its hazard lights flashing. It weaves downtown are closed. The ice-cream store is gone. dangerously in and out of traffic. Moments later, a Shop owners can't afford the extortion payments Mexican army convoy of several Humvees speeds charged by organized crime. Weeds sprout from the down the highway in pursuit, the soldiers' assault fronts of boarded-up discos. Shuttered restaurants rifles glinting in the afternoon sun. Fear courses tagged with graffiti crumble under the August sun. through me as I realize what's happening. I'm stand- Two weeks ago, someone threw a grenade at city hall. ing at the side of the road, and a sliver of Mexico's It stands deserted now. In the streets, no one smiles; drug war is headed right for me. I pretend not to see no one makes eye contact. them. As they pass, I think it would be fitting if I had It's not only the narco-traficantes that residents have to take shelter behind the altar to la Santa Muerte. to worry about. The failure of the army to curtail the 2 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG THE STATE ENCE OF TEXAS violence has emboldened other criminals—kidnap- In an odd twist, the name that did come off the pers, carjackers and anyone else with nothing to lose.