Youth Prisons in Texas Have Inhumane Conditions As They Can’t Recruit More Staff.

During this summer, younths in Texas jails have faced inhuman conditions, some of them were even forced to urinate in water bottles and to defecate on the floor according to state inspection reports recently obtained by The Texas Tribune.

The Texas Tribune has previously reported that there is not enough staff in Texas jails but although the state has tried to recruit new employees, most new hires leave within six months. For example, according to the reports obtained by the Tribune, The Giddings prison, east of Austin, detains about 100 boys, including those with severe mental health needs. In June, the Ombudsman reported that only 60 officers out of 140 needed were available to work at the lockup.

This lack of personnel causes young boys in these facilities to have to live in inhumane conditions. As an officer of the Texas Juvenile Justice System told: «The children had no choice but to use water bottles, milk cartons, lunch trays or pieces of paper as makeshift toilets.»
The reports obtained by the Texas Tribune also show that the Texas Juvenile Justice System is currently under federal investigation for claims of mistreatment. That is because children locked in their cells have increasingly engaged in self-harm and suicidal behaviors. Nearly half of the youth in the prison system this year have been on suicide watch. And if that is expected to increase as conditions in these facilities worsen.