Dallas News by Lauren McGaughy, Texas Government Reporter 3/7/2018
During her four years as the supervisor of a program for teen inmates jailed at the Clemens Unit in Brazoria, an adult prison, Dominique Mitchell repeatedly alleged abuse and neglect:
A mentally ill teenager was taunted by guards who told him to kill himself. Another teen had been in solitary for two years. Inmates were fighting because guards left them alone for hours. The guards derided her as “a snitch.†Bosses admonished her for speaking out of turn, sending too many emails, asking too many questions.
“I still feel that it is my duty professionally and ethically to report the issues,†she wrote in a December 2016 email. “Eventually a youthful offender is going to be seriously injured or killed by these officers or by another offender.â€
Less than a year later, in August 2017, an adult inmate and teenager were discovered engaging in a sexual act through the bars of the teen’s cell.
The internal investigation into the incident eventually led to the departure of two high-profile officials, including the prison warden and a senior director, and the state has decided to move the program’s teen inmates to another, more secure, prison.
More:
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/03/07/officials-quietly-resigned-retired-texas-prison-whistleblower-says-teen-inmates-abused
