GAINESVILLE (1080 KRLD) - A proposed amendment to the state's budget would close the Texas youth prison in Gainsville.
State Representative Gene Wu of Houston says "Gainsville so far is the one most recently having the most number of issues, the highest number of incidents. It's the biggest fire right now."
The Democrat says " there is just rampant gang activity there, it's chronically understaffed. It's not a safe environment for kids or the people who work here."
In 2017, officers at the unit in Gainesville were arrested for having sex, or trying to have sex with teenaged inmates. Officers have been fired for hitting youth and failing drug tests. An ombudsman report last year said gang activity was high.
Wu would eventually like to see the other four Texas youth prisons shuttered. He would like to see counties and not the state house these kids. He adds not all of them belong in a detention center. "If we have kids who are mentally ill, and we have a lot of those who are there solely because they are mentally ill, those kids need to be in hospitals. It is immoral for us to put kids in prison simply because we don't have another place to put them."
He would like to see some diverted to the counties or a mental health hospital, "if we could divert them to any kind of center that it not a foot and a half thick concrete wall of prison, we could save a tremendous amount of money for the state and for the local area."
Wu says there were 1300 offenders at these facilities four or five years ago and the number has dropped to around 800. He adds it costs the state 475 dollars per youth per day to house these kids.
