Texas Youth Commission

The Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was a Texas state agency which operated juvenile corrections facilities in the state. The commission was headquartered in the Brown-Heatly Building in Austin. As of 2007 it was the second largest juvenile corrections agency in the United States, after the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. As of December 1, 2011, the agency was replaced by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.

The Gilmer-Aikin Laws in 1949 established the Texas Youth Development Council. In 1957 the state reorganized the agencies, placing the juvenile corrections system and homes for dependent and neglected children into the Texas Youth Council. In 1983 the Texas Legislature gave the agency its current name, the Texas Youth Commission.

In September 2008 the TYC had 2,200 inmates, half the number it had 18 months previously.

On June 3, 2011 the TYC announced that it was closing three facilities by August 31, 2011, affecting 700 employees and 400 prisoners, due to state budget cuts. The governing board selected the three facilities that would close. After the closings the TYC will have six secure facilities remaining.

Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, was scheduled to approve a piece of legislation that would cause the TYC and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission to merge into the Texas Juvenile Justice Department on December 1, 2011. As of August 2011 the merger is on schedule.

On 23 February 2007, The Texas Observer published a news story detailing allegations of child sexual abuse by staff members at the West Texas State School near Pyote. Following an investigation by the Texas Rangers and the FBI in February and March 2005, two of the highest-ranking officials at the school, assistant superintendent Ray Brookins and principal John Paul Hernandez had been accused of having sexual relations with several students over an extended period. On February 28 Republican Governor Rick Perry dismissed chairman Pete C. Alfaro, who had been named to the commission in 1995 by then Republican Governor George W. Bush, and called for the dismissal of acting executive director Neil Nichols.

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