Juvenile inmates were thrown to ground, hit against walls by guards

By ELIZABETH PIERSON
elizabethp@valleystar.com
512-323-0622

AUSTIN — The boy didn’t pull his pants up to a level that guards thought met the dress code, so he was handcuffed and his head was slammed into the door as he was taken out of the room, resulting in a baseball-sized blood blister.

Next, a 225-pound guard lifted the same 125-pound boy into the air and threw him. The boy landed on his head and sprained his neck.

It is one of several grisly episodes Texas Youth Commission investigators confirmed happened at the Edinburg Evins Regional Juvenile Center the weekend of Nov. 6-8, when guards from a Central Texas and West Texas detention center joined those from Evins in mistreating detainees, according to TYC documents released Thursday.

Eight officers, including two who were permanently stationed at Evins, are on unpaid leave because of the weekend. TYC would not release names of the officers pending possible appeals.

Today near Houston, parents and activists will rally to bring attention to alleged mistreatment of a TYC center there, Sanchez said.

Last year, TYC had 1,400 complaints of mistreatment, 500 of which were confirmed, Sanchez said.