"GEO should be ashamed," TYC acting executive director Dimitria Pope said Friday. She was referring to GEO Group Inc., operator of the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center in Bronte.
TYC cancelled its $8 million contract with GEO this week and removed all 197 male inmates from the prison near San Angelo. On Friday, TYC released its quickly assembled audit of the prison.
"The Coke County Juvenile Justice Center is a disgrace," Ms. Pope said during a news conference in which she was visibly angry.
The audit described a breakdown on many levels, including safety, hygiene, medical treatment, education and maintenance. Ms. Pope was asked if TYC auditors found anyone at the Coke unit who had been doing the job properly.
"I'm saying, 'Hell, no, they weren't,'" she responded.
Ms. Pope visited the prison in late September. "The kids had a stench because they weren't allowed to bathe," she said. "And their teeth? Horrible."
TYC auditors who visited the prison got so much fecal matter on their shoes they had to wipe their feet on the grass outside, she said.
TYC fired seven employees this week whose jobs were to monitor the Coke County unit and GEO's contract compliance. TYC's on-site inspectors had routinely filed glowing reports on the prison.
"They were there," she said of the inspectors. "They [their reports] say absolutely nothing."
The audit report of the Coke County prison said many pieces of fire safety equipment were either inoperable or missing. Some emergency exits were closed with locks and chains.
Filth and disrepair were common throughout the prison, the report said. Only one washer and one dryer were available to serve nearly 200 youth.
The prison's warden, the report said, was aware of many of the problems pointed out by auditors. "He indicated that corporate did not respond to many of his purchasing needs ...," the audit report said.
Ms. Pope announced she was sending additional audit teams, composed of former members of the state's jail standards commission, to visit every TYC prison and halfway house in Texas.
"No stone is going to go unturned," she pledged. "I don't want any more surprises."
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