Dallas News Reports on Byron Truvia (and the TYC response to "psych" discharges)

Here's a link to a press release on Truvia's uncle who killed his mother (Truvia's grandmother).
Student held in Tyler teacher's stabbing had long history of mental illness

01:03 AM CDT on Sunday, October 18, 2009

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News
lhancock@dallasnews.com

TYLER – Todd Henry's phone call was chilling, Mitch Shamburger would later recall. His friend had an instinct for trouble.

A bear of a man, Henry had worked in prisons and now taught kids with behavioral issues at John Tyler High School. He was seldom rattled. Yet Shamburger, a Smith County justice of the peace, could hear the worry in his friend's voice.
Also Online

TYC defends release procedures

Download: Byron's TYC discharge certification

Download: TYC case plan for Byron

Henry described a student in his special-education class with a menacing vibe. The student was a "Katrina kid" – shorthand for New Orleans transplants blown into Tyler by Hurricane Katrina.

"This kid – he's got serious problems," Henry told Shamburger. "If somebody doesn't do something, soon, this kid is going to kill somebody."

The JP recalls advising his friend to document his concerns and alert his bosses. Henry said he already had.

Days later, on the morning of Sept. 23, Todd Henry, who was 50, lay bleeding to death in classroom A23 of John Tyler High. In the hallway outside, a wraith of a boy named Byron was hustled away to face charges of stabbing his teacher in the heart with a butcher knife. A Texas Education Agency spokesman says it is the first teacher slaying in a Texas classroom that anyone in the agency can recall.

Smith County prosecutors are considering whether to ask to try the 16-year-old as an adult. He's being held as a juvenile, so his court files are sealed. The Dallas Morning News is not using Byron's family name because the newspaper generally does not publish names of juvenile defendants.

Troubling descent

Records and information from Byron's family and others familiar with him, from public sources and from people close to the ongoing murder investigation, offer a portrait of a long spiral into mental illness and violence. Byron's lawyer and others say the case spotlights deficiencies in how Texas handles its most disturbed and violent juvenile offenders.

Byron's mother says her youngest son was first diagnosed with problems in kindergarten. By 12, she says, Byron had been in mental hospitals in Texas and Louisiana. At 14, he was in a Smith County juvenile lockup and then in a Texas juvenile prison for stabbing his sister with a steak knife.

TYC often held him in isolation and at one point sent him to a state mental hospital. He was diagnosed schizophrenic and psychotic and transferred to the state's most acute mental health facility for juvenile offenders. Last July, the agency declared Byron too disturbed for reform school. TYC sent Byron home to his mother without parole or treatment plans, according to records the family released to The News.

In mid-August, Byron was arrested again for marijuana possession and Tyler police tried to return him to jail. He was released to his mother because Smith County's juvenile detention center refused to take him back, according to a police report.

Even Byron's mother says he shouldn't have been in Henry's classroom. He sees and hears things other people don't, she says, and he needs help. Henry was a caring teacher, she says, and Byron regrets "what all he did. He said, 'Mom, just tell everybody that I'm sorry.' "

A life coming together

By all accounts, Todd Henry's life was coming together as Byron's imploded.

Henry was a teenager when his family moved to Huntsville from Chicago. Henry's oldest brother, Jody, says he found his identity playing guitar.

After college and out-of-state interludes, Henry came home to live with his mother after his father died. He had music and psychology degrees and certification as a music therapist, so he took a state prison job. He worked longest at the Skyview psychiatric unit in Rusk.

Friends and family say Henry grooved on using music to connect with prisoners others labeled unreachable. But he wearied of work behind bars. "He started to feel like he was in prison," Jody Henry says.

Equally adept at jazz, country and rock guitar, Henry was in demand as a side man with bands across East Texas. He decided to quit his prison job and focus on music until something better appeared.

It did in 2003. He started teaching special education and took a job in 2005 at John Tyler High. There, he taught kids with behavioral issues, assisted by a teacher's aide. "He absolutely loved it," his brother says. "This was what he was meant to do."

He was 6 feet tall and 300-plus pounds, his bald head offset by owlish glasses and a beard. Colleagues say he was easygoing yet firm. "Just do what you do," read his MySpace motto, "and don't sweat the small stuff."

His wife, Jan, says he wanted to help kids who often felt marginalized get fully involved in school. The two worked together in his first special-education teaching post and married last November.

In prison work, she recalls him saying, too many people were beyond reach. As a teacher, he'd say, "I can start earlier. I can make a difference."

Early problems

Byron came up poor and hard in New Orleans, the third of four kids to a single mother. The state of Louisiana had to take his father to court to acknowledge paternity and pay child support.

He grew up in the same Central City neighborhood where his mother did. There, she was once attacked badly enough to need hospitalization while walking her first baby past a neighborhood housing project, court records indicate.

His mother joined the National Guard and went on welfare. She worked as a cashier and sitter and sometimes struggled, she recalls.

Byron was born two months premature. His mother says her baby boy was a quiet child who shadowed his big brother. He loved Popeye cartoons and liked to draw fish and people, cars and trucks.

Then he started kindergarten, and teachers said Byron was incommunicative and hyperactive.

By the age of 7, he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and prescribed Ritalin. Though that calmed him "a little bit," his mother says, there were soon more problems and doctors and psychiatric drugs.

"None of 'em really helped," Byron's mother says. "All they wanted to do is give him medication."

In the summer of 2005, his mother says, Byron ended up in New Orleans' public mental hospital for children and teens.

She recalls that Byron had been hospitalized a month as Hurricane Katrina neared New Orleans. He was evacuated with other patients. His mother says she and other family waded through neck-deep water to take shelter at the high school she'd attended. There, they waited days for a helicopter rescue.

They expected to land in Houston. A bus took them to Tyler, a town they'd never heard of.

Family violence

A church guided Byron's mother to a food-service job and an apartment. Still, she says, the family's adjustment was tough. She called 911 to complain about local kids wanting to fight her children, Tyler police records indicate. There were disturbance calls. Eventually, most of the family had misdemeanor records.

Byron didn't join them in Tyler, his mother says, until 2006. After Katrina, she says, he was sent to a facility in Corpus Christi and treated for "five or six months." Byron enrolled in the Tyler schools that March, records show.

By Christmas 2006, Byron was arrested for breaking into a Mazda Miata at the Tyler mall.

Byron's maternal grandmother and youngest uncle settled in Dallas. The uncle struggled with mental illness and went back to New Orleans. In early April 2007, the grandmother rode a bus to Louisiana to check on him.

Her battered body was discovered in the uncle's FEMA trailer over Easter weekend, with her tongue nearly ripped out. Despite a psychiatrist's testimony that the uncle was schizophrenic, a New Orleans jury rejected an insanity plea and sent him to prison for life.

Byron took his grandmother's death hard, his mother says.

Weeks after the funeral, Byron's mother called 911 to say her son was "acting crazy" and wouldn't take his psychiatric medication. Officers who came to her apartment watched him take the drugs.

On June 2, Byron attacked his 17-year-old sister. Byron's sister told police that Byron complained she took too long at a bathroom mirror and stabbed her in the back with a steak knife as she combed her hair.

Once arrested, Byron gave police his brother's name and birth date. Officers had to call Byron's mother to confirm who he was. A police report states that Byron then said he'd "forgotten to take his medicine, which he takes to keep from acting out."

Byron spent months in the county's juvenile lockup. He got in trouble for sucker-punching other inmates. Asked why, he'd say be didn't like how they looked at him.

Byron's mother says that the court-appointed lawyer in the sister's stabbing case tried to get Byron sent to a mental hospital. In October 2007, Byron was sentenced to the Texas Youth Commission. His mother recalls being told he might be in juvenile prison until he turned 19.

Last March, Byron was moved to the Corsicana "stabilization unit" for TYC's most disturbed and dangerous offenders. In May, he was still so unstable that he was committed to Terrell State Hospital for 22 days.

In July, TYC gave Byron's mother a new care plan. Byron had diagnoses of conduct disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis and probable mental retardation. He read below the third-grade level and had math skills of a child midway through second grade. "No college in this young man's near future," his TYC caseworker wrote.

Home care

The case plan had a single answer for how Byron and his family would get help after he left TYC: "Youth will go home to his mother."

The bottom line: Byron was getting a mental-illness discharge.

On July 19, Byron was released. TYC workers gave his mother a 30-day supply of an antipsychotic drug and a form letter urging her to make Byron take the medicine. Byron got a certificate saying he had no further legal obligation to TYC – a release without parole.

"We hope you will use the skills you learned to make good decisions and have a positive impact on your community," the certificate said. "The entire Texas Youth Commission Family wishes you success in your future endeavors."

The next day, Byron's mother took him to a Tyler mental health clinic. She wrote on an intake form that her son had mental problems, hallucinated and used "weed" and cocaine. "My son need help," she wrote in shaky letters.

At home, she says, Byron hung out with his brother. He watched movies, and she drove him to the park.

Police called her in mid-August to say they'd arrested Byron for walking down a street smoking "a blunt" of marijuana. They said she needed to come get him.

"I said, 'You saw how he was acting, and you want me to come get him?' " she recalls. "They said, 'This is your child, isn't he?' "

Three days later, Byron began ninth grade at John Tyler High.

Concerns in class

Todd Henry had a slow start to the school year. Beginning on Aug. 19, he took two weeks off to recuperate from shoulder surgery. He had been injured in a hallway scuffle the previous year.

On Sept. 8, Henry returned to school. Days later, he called his friend and weekend band mate, Mitch Shamburger, to say he was worried about the new kid in his class. Shamburger says he phoned the county juvenile justice center. He recalls asking about Byron and getting a vague response.

The week of Sept. 15, Byron's mother says, a neighbor flagged her down on her way home from her morning work shift. The neighbor said she'd just seen Byron angry in the yard. The mother found Byron brooding in their North Tyler rental house, unwilling to talk.

That evening, Henry called. Byron's mother says the teacher explained that Byron had gotten angry and had run away from class. "He just wanted to know that Byron made it home," Byron's mother recalls. "He was very nice."

On Sept. 17, a John Tyler special-ed official sent seven school staffers an e-mail about Byron. She said that Henry had recommended an escort for Byron to and from every class. "It has also been observed that Byron is very sensitive to anyone getting physically near him or touching him," the e-mail said. "Please try to get his attention without physical contact."

By all accounts, the morning of Sept. 23 began normally. Byron donned a red polo and jeans and white Air Nikes. He shouldered a dark backpack and boarded his school bus in North Tyler.

Witnesses said that Byron went to John Tyler High's cafeteria as usual with his teacher's aide and the other student in his class. As they got breakfast, other students scuffled. Once they were back in classroom A-23, another teacher asked Henry to counsel a student about the cafeteria incident.

At his desk, Henry spoke quietly with the visiting student. Byron read aloud to the teacher's aide. The second student in the class worked alone. The aide corrected Byron's pronunciation and praised his effort. Then he told Byron he could return to his desk and read a book he liked, about football.

Witnesses said that Byron passed his desk and kept walking toward Henry. Without a word, he pulled a knife from his clothes and swung it.

When Byron pulled back his hand, the aide could see the knife's eight-inch blade covered in blood. Henry slumped in his chair. A dark red circle spread across his green shirt.

Byron moved toward the aide. The aide grabbed his laptop and swung it, screaming, "Get out!" Byron dropped the knife and the aide jumped him.

School district police officers chatting in the hall just outside the classroom turned toward the commotion. The classroom door flew open. The teacher's aide rushed out, restraining Byron in a bear hug. He yelled that a teacher had been stabbed.

Several officers grabbed the student, who had bloody hands. Others ran in the classroom and saw Henry motionless on the floor between his desk and the chalkboard.

Frantic school nurses and coaches administered CPR and tried using a defibrillator. Henry was declared dead at a Tyler hospital. His wife Jan says she believes he died instantly because the stab wound punctured his heart.

Aftermath

Immediately after the attack, Tyler school officials announced the purchase of portable metal detectors and a security review.

Friends and family, colleagues and students crowded a memorial service for Henry. Mitch Shamburger gave the eulogy. Musicians that Henry had played with every weekend for decades held jam sessions to raise money for a music scholarship in Henry's name.

At one prayer service, a woman handed Jan Henry a carefully typed note. The woman explained that it was from her son, the other student in Henry's class.

"God will judge Mr. Henry and I believe He will say Mr. Henry was the best teacher ever," the note read. "He taught me to do things in a routine. He taught me how to write in cursive. He taught me how to spell words. He taught me how to read better. He was trying to teach me how to cope. Out of all my teachers, he was the best one, because he was always fair with me."

In early October, Byron smiled as he shuffled into a public detention hearing. He wore arm restraints and appeared thin in his oversized orange jumpsuit. He answered the judge's questions softly. He was still smiling, scanning the courtroom with puffy eyes, as he was sent back to an isolation cell.

Byron's court-appointed lawyer, James Huggler told the judge that his client needs a mental evaluation – the first step in an insanity defense.

"I'm absolutely amazed that he was released from TYC, given his mental state and the fact that he was apparently kept in isolation with no effective treatment and no effective after-care program for his return home," Huggler says. "Byron needs treatment."

Tyler School superintendent Randy Reid says colleagues have called him from across Texas to offer condolences. He says they've told him that the attack was every superintendent's worst nightmare because it could happen anywhere.

He says he can't discuss the student involved because of privacy law. He and other educators worry that schools don't get adequate information when TYC releases offenders. Public school systems must take everyone, he adds, but some kids have issues that schools can't address.

"We're putting people in a position where they aren't equipped," he says.

Though a review of the attack is ongoing, Reid says, he believes staff acted appropriately. "It's an incredible tragedy that we're going to be living with forever."

A TYC spokesman declined to answer questions about Byron, citing privacy laws.




Texas Youth Commission defends release procedures for offenders it can't help

12:06 AM CDT on Sunday, October 18, 2009

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News
lhancock@dallasnews.com

Texas Youth Commission officials say state law requires the release of juvenile offenders who are too mentally challenged or disturbed to make progress in its programs. Those offenders are released after completing a minimum stay, determined by the seriousness of their offenses and disciplinary records.

The agency has had 206 mental health discharges since fall 2005 – 19 since October 2008.

An agency spokesman says TYC coordinates mental illness discharges with local officials to ensure adequate re-entry plans. A new law that took effect in September is aimed at ensuring adequate community mental health treatment for all former TYC inmates.

That law is among the latest TYC reform measures. TYC was rocked by scandal in 2007 when The Dallas Morning News began exposing widespread inmate abuse and other systemic agency problems.

A recent Texas Sunset Commission report slammed TYC's handling of all discharges. The report noted that discharge rules for offenders who fail to progress "may prevent the most troubled youth from receiving treatment."

The July report also criticized a lack of information sharing with local authorities before most offenders were released. Offenders weren't being prepared for going home, and TYC failed to use valid risk assessments to ensure their readiness, the report stated.

Agency spokesman Jim Hurley said TYC has addressed shortcomings. Staffers start planning for release when offenders arrive at TYC facilities. "We're working with their parents. We're working with the community" he says. "We want to be sure there are wraparound services available for that particular youth, to give them the greatest chance for success."

Teacher Worried For Student Held In Killing

From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:
A Tyler teacher, who was the victim of a fatal stabbing in his classroom, called a friend days before the attack saying he feared that the teenager who is now being held in his death was capable of killing.


Special education teacher Todd Henry, 50, had told his friend, Mitch Shamburger, a Smith County justice of the peace, during a chilling phone call that he was concerned about a “Katrina kid” — so named because he had survived Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.


“This kid — he’s got serious problems,” Henry told Shamburger. “If somebody doesn’t do something, soon, this kid is going to kill somebody.”

Shamburger recalls advising his friend to document his concerns and alert his bosses. Henry said he already had.

Henry died a few days later on Sept. 23 after he was stabbed in the heart in a classroom at John Tyler High School. Authorities are holding one of his students for the murder. A Texas Education Agency spokesman says it was the first teacher slaying in a Texas classroom that anyone in the agency can recall.

The 16-year-old suspect had a history of mental illness and had been accused of other violent acts, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday, based on public sources and people close to the murder investigation.

Smith County prosecutors are considering whether to try the youth as an adult. He is being held in the Smith County Juvenile Attention Center, and will have his next detention hearing on Nov. 2.

The youth’s mother said that by age 12, he had been in mental hospitals in Texas and Louisiana. At 14, he was in a Smith County juvenile lockup and then in a Texas
juvenile prison for stabbing his sister with a steak knife.

He was often placed in isolation while being held in a Texas Youth Commission facility and was sent to a state mental hospital. He was diagnosed schizophrenic and psychotic and transferred to the state’s most acute mental health facility for juvenile offenders. Last July, the agency declared him too disturbed for reform school. The commission sent him home to his mother without parole or treatment plans, according to records the family released to the newspaper.

His mother told the newspaper he should never have been in Henry’s classroom and that he sees and hears things other people don’t.

She described Henry as a caring teacher, and said her son regretted everything. “He said, ‘Mom, just tell everybody that I’m sorry.’”

New Re-Entry Resource

CSG Justice Center Launches National Reentry Resource Center


New York—The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center announced today its launch of the National Reentry Resource Center—an unprecedented initiative to advance the safe and successful return of individuals from prisons and jails to their communities. Among those served by the resource center will be states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, nonprofit organizations and adult and juvenile corrections institutions.

The CSG Justice Center was selected through a competitive grant process by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, to develop and direct the resource center in collaboration with the Urban Institute, American Probation and Parole Association, Association of State Correctional Administrators, and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University, and an advisory board of 25 national organizations serving the reentry field. Authorized by the Second Chance Act of 2007 (P. L. 110-199), the resource center will provide communities across the country with the best thinking on complex reentry issues, comprehensive resources and myriad forms of support that can help reduce recidivism and strengthen neighborhoods and families. It will provide needed training and technical assistance to Second Chance Act grant recipients and provide a single point of contact for the many individuals and organizations that are committed to reentry issues.

“There are 2.3 million people serving time in our federal and state prisons, and millions of people cycling through local jails every year. Ninety-five percent of all prisoners will eventually be released to our communities and we all have a stake in making sure they are successful,” said New York Assemblyman and Justice Center board chairman Jeffrion Aubry. “The Justice Center is pleased to continue its work with all key stakeholders through the National Reentry Resource Center to develop data-driven, consensus-based reentry policies that reduce criminal activity and best use taxpayer dollars.”

The National Reentry Resource Center will continue the CSG Justice Center's commitment to collaboration and will draw on the experience and expertise of its many valued partner organizations, as well as its own work in the field. Among CSG's past contributions is the 2005 landmark report of its Reentry Policy Council—the result of work by 100 of the most respected workforce, health, housing, public safety, family, community, and victim experts in the country. The Justice Center has also made available to the field online tools, a range of publications on prisoner reentry, a newsletter with the latest news and information, and research and resources that guide policy reform and innovative practices.

For more information, visit the resource center's Website at www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org, where reentry research, publications and tools will be continually added and updated. To learn more about the Second Chance Act grants, see the U.S. Justice Department release at http://www.ojp.gov/newsroom/newsroom.htm.

John Tyler Administrator Talks Candidly About Truvia

From the Mt. Pleasant Daily Tribune:

By MARCIA DAVIS-SEALE - Tribune Staff Writer
Saturday, September 26, 2009 12:42 PM CDT

About 8:50 last Wednesday morning John Tyler High School (JTHS) Assistant Principal Winston McCowan, Jr. - a Mount Pleasant native - would respond to a disturbance he heard in a classroom two doors down from his office, pass a student he'd spoken with a few minutes earlier being led down the hall in handcuffs by security guards, and find one of his teachers, stabbed and unconscious on the floor. In a phone interview Friday, McCowan told the Tribune, that Wednesday would be a day he'll probably never forget.

He said he calmed the student - that other media reports have named as 16-year-old Byron Truvia - in the school cafeteria, about 30 minutes before the student reportedly stabbed Todd Henry in the chest with a kitchen knife, piercing the special education teacher's heart.

McCowan said he believes that schools should monitor more closely student histories and tendencies. He said that JTHS had no knowledge of the violent family background of the student charged with stabbing the teacher to death, and if they had, perhaps they would have managed his situation differently.

"You never know! With No Child Left Behind laws, you must provide all students free and appropriate public education in the Least Restrictive Environment."

A specialist in the realm of special education, the young - but lauded - administrator, who comes from a family of professional educators, said that in this situation he feels his biggest contribution has been to provide a supportive calm presence during the chaos.
As the administrator in charge of working with and evaluating the JTHS special education teachers, McCowan said he talked with Henry often. "He never talked about being afraid or threatened by the students. He worked in the prison system for 10 years before coming here. He was always seeking to help students."

But that day, the teacher lay silent, unable to help student or self.

That morning on his way down the hall, McCowan said he heard a teacher's aide scream out the words, "Oh, my God, he stabbed him!"
The commotion was coming from the adaptive behavioral class where Henry and a teacher's aide worked with Truvia and two other students.

It's a class, McCowan said, "for students who need to work on social skills. It's more of a structured one-on-one for students that really can't make it in the regular classroom."

The school administrator said he yelled for the school nurses, and for someone to call 911. "And they [the school nurses] began to work on him [Henry] doing CPR."

The two students were escorted out of the classroom and paramedics and firefighters crowded in.

McCowan said he remembers that when the ambulance came, he helped bring in some of the paramedics' equipment.

The school was locked down, following a crisis plan that no one ever really counted on having to use. "Things were very orderly-no students in the halls-only the required personnel in the hallways as in the crisis plan.

"The crisis team secured the parameters, we had police backups, made the required communications with school and administration, and all the proper procedures were in place."

But this was not a drill, a teacher was dying or dead, a student's future hung in the balance, and no one on campus that day would walk away the same.

McCowan said no one knew Henry's condition when the ambulance left with him. The assistant principal said he saw the paramedics were still working on the teacher as they hauled the stretcher carrying his body down the hall and into the ambulance.

"The Tyler police came in, roped everything off as a crime scene, and we closed the school down, put out messages to the parents, called transportation - the buses, and released our students at 10:45. By 11:45 the campus was clear, and we began debriefing meetings with central administration."

Just a few minutes before that class began, McCowan said, "We had a small disturbance in the cafeteria. He [Byron Truvia] was standing up against the wall. I knew he didn't like a lot of disturbance, and I told him to get out of the way if they [the other students causing the disturbance] came toward him. I wanted to calm him.

"He seemed fine. He always kept to himself. There were no warning signs."

In the days following the stabbing, McCowan said, students and staff had been leaving notes and flowers on a memorial mural, of sorts, on the classroom door. Attendance is back to normal. One of the students, who was in the classroom at the time of the stabbing returned to class on Friday, according to McCowan.

"The other student was pretty rattled, and hasn't come back," he said.

"We've offered counseling for all the students with the school psychologist. All the counselors in the district are here to help, with extra school resource officers and central staff administration. We went classroom to classroom yesterday offering support.

"We always have security on site, and we brought in extra police officers and extra monitors. I don't know how long we will have them. The superintendent just told us we would have them ‘for the foreseeable future.'"

"It was a learning experience - for all of us - puts everything in to perspective as a reminder of how precious life is. It could have been any one of us. I was beside that student a few minutes earlier. I didn't see any signs of a weapon on him. He had on blue jeans and an orange shirt. I guess the knife was in his pockets.

"We never had any recollection that he was previously violent. Now we know he moved here after Katrina. He did have a troubling home life, threatened his sister with a knife, and his mom's brother killed her mom [Truvia's grandmother]."

"I believe school systems as a whole need to monitor more closely the background and tendencies of students with emotional disturbances, and also the family histories as well."

He said that he feels it's critical that students be placed appropriately. "In every school district some students fall through the cracks, [in terms of] their disability and the appropriate placement.

"We never want to put them at a disadvantage either way. But if they can't function in a normal school setting, we should put them somewhere they can function."

McCowan said he wasn't aware of a culture of violence at the high school. "Any school is going to have challenges. I don't see this any different from the schools across town. We cater to a different area than they do and have some of those students coming from difficult families and environments.

"This particular incident was a random act of violence that was unprovoked, and was without warning."

McCowan comes from a family of educators. His mother, LaWanda McCowan, serves as principal of the local Corprew Elementary School. His dad, Dr. Winston McCowan, Sr., is a professor at North Texas Community College, and his two sisters both teach in the Dallas area.

This school year marks his first year as assistant principal at John Tyler, in charge of the discipline of 460 students (with last names E through L) of the 2100 students at the school.

McCowan was named Assistant Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, Region VII, 2009-2010. He served as assistant principal of Palestine High School last year, and before that, spent seven years working with students with special needs in the Texas public school system.

He said at the moment he is drawing on his family support and his faith to cope. "My wife is concerned and supportive. My children, ages two and seven months are too young to understand. My family calls or texts every day offering their support and their prayers.

"It's not every day you see something like that. There are moments my mind replays the whole scene…surreal…like a movie.

"Always running through a lot of our minds, ever since the incident, is the question of whether we could have done anything different. It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder, ‘What could I have done?…probably for the rest of your life."

Truvia's Sister Talks About His Past

From kltv.com
TYLER, TX (KLTV) - Sixteen-year-old Byron Truvia is accused of the stabbing murder of John Tyler teacher, Todd Henry. Byron's family is telling the public he is not a monster and suffers from mental conditions. They also say their hearts go out to Todd Henry's family.

Byron Truvia and his family evacuated from New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina hit.

"They got flooded out and they moved here," said Shirley Williams, who lived by the Truvias.

Ever since they arrived Byron's sister Geniece says their lives have been devastated.

"My grandmother, she got killed in 2007," said Geniece. "My uncle murdered her and so it's just a lot of things been going on the past four years."

Shirley says Denise, Byron and Geniece's mom, is still mourning the loss of her mother.

"Her brother killed her mom," said Shirley. "He just snapped and the mother surprised him, flew in and surprised him Easter and went to his house, his trailer, came in and he beat her to death."

Denise did not want to talk on camera, but Byron's sister says he suffers from some mental conditions.

"He has a little problem as far as depression and anxiety," said Geniece.

She says Byron had just served two years for allegedly beating their other sister, but she can't believe he could commit murder.

"He wouldn't do nothing like that," said Geniece. "Because...Byron he come home, he eat...he lay down, watch TV, do his homework [and] that's it. You know, he ain't never killed nobody, you know. I just don't understand."

Geniece says her brother had gotten into some fights at school but made good grades and liked sports. She says just like the victim's family, they too are grieving.

"He's very smart [and] intelligent," she said. "He goes to church and everything, and I just want to say that my heart goes out to the Henry family and I'm real devastated about the situation. I'm hurt as well as them."

Byron's mother, Denise, said the only one that can help them now is God, and they are praying for strength through this ordeal.

Still Undecided if Byron Truvia will be Certified as an Adult

From kltv.com
By Philippe Djegal
9/29/09
TYLER, TX (KLTV) - The stabbing death of John Tyler teacher Todd Henry last week wasn't the only murder committed by a teenager to rock a community.

Last Thursday, a 16-year-old high school student in Chicago was beaten to death while on his way home from school. Four of the suspects are now in custody, one of which is also 16 years old.

The DA says he will be prosecuted as an adult. But, the jury is still out here in Texas on whether 16-year-old Byron Truvia will be tried as an adult.

Authorities say Derrion Albert was an "innocent bystander," caught up in a street fight between rival teens.

The gruesome images of his murder were caught on tape and depict his head being slammed with a two by four and him being stomped on while lying unconscious on the ground.

The DA in that case says one of the suspects, a 16-year-old, will be tried as an adult.

That's because according to the Illinois state legislature, all 15- or 16-year-olds charged with murder are by law required to be tried as an adult. In Texas, the law is less straight forward.

"Was it pre-mediated?" asked Laurie Ann Frank. "I think there's a lot of questions."

Questions that attorney in juvenile law Jennifer Deen says will take some time to sort out.

"In Texas, a 14-year-old could be certified," said Deen.

Meaning, in the case of Byron Truvia, the juvenile court will examine Truvia's family history, mental state and other factors to determine whether or not his case be transferred to criminal court.

"But, only for first degree felony, capital felony and aggravated controlled substance felony," said Deen. "And, then at age 15 any child can be certified on any other felony charge."

If tried in juvenile court, Truvia could face anywhere from probation to a life sentence, leaving open the possibility of once again living outside of a jail cell.

"The penal system is very different from juveniles as it is for adults, which juveniles it's focused on treatment, rehabilitation and counseling," explained Frank.

As an adult, he is most likely looking at life behind bars. However...

"He will never be eligible for the death penalty," said Deen. "He could only get life imprisonment if he is transferred to the adult court."

The DA's office still has about three weeks to file a petition official letting the court know what charges they will bring on Byron Truvia which will determine whether he'll be tried as a juvenile or adult.

SB 1557 Clarification from Dee Wilson

A reader forwarded an email to me originally transmitted by Lee Johnson of the Texas Council of Community MHMR Centers:

As many of you are aware, April Zamora of TCOOMMI gave a presentation at the Behavioral Health Consortium Thursday, September 10, 2009 on the changes brought to Art.16.22, Code of Criminal Procedure.

She affirmed that Art. 16.22 has been in statute since 1994 as a tool for identifying and beginning treatment for an alleged offender with mental illness who has been jailed following arrest. The article requires a sheriff to provide notice to a magistrate within 72 hours of receiving evidence that an offender has a mental illness. If there is reasonable cause to believe that the defendant has a mental illness, the magistrate orders the local mental health authority to collect information to determine if a mental illness exist.

In an attempt to improve the screening in the jails, as required by Art. 16.22, the Texas Legislature passed SB 1009, Sunset legislation for the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS), which contained an amendment requiring TCJS to develop a set of risk factors to use in assessing the overall risk level of each jail. Among the 9 risk factors is whether the jail is in compliance with Art. 16.22.

Attached, please find a bulletin by Dee Wilson of TCOOMMI for the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. As Dee points out, the current process for conducting mental health and competency assessments have not been changed but does put in plain language a process for collecting that information and passing it along.

Here is the attachment.

Leveling the Playing Field: Practical Strategies for Increasing Veteran's Involvement in Diversion and Reentry Programs

Download the pdf.
Challenges facing the involvement of veterans in jail diversion and prison reentry programs and strategies to address these problems are explained. Sections of this report are: introduction; financial disparities; eligibility and access; experiential disparities and preparedness; practical steps -- five practical steps, three access and eligibility steps, five experiential and preparedness steps; and conclusion.

DSM-IV-TR ON TRIAL

Is the DSM-IV-TR on trial or are repressed memories?
Watch the video from Massachusetts Supreme Court here.
Criminal; Evidence-- Various issues arising out of a conviction for sexual abuse of a child, including the admissibility of "repressed memory" evidence.

2009 Crisis Redesign Survey by Texas A&M

This is a reminder to participate in the 2009 Crisis Mental Health Survey by Monday, October 5th. This survey is anonymous, so if you have already replied to the survey, please disregard this reminder!
______________________

Hello:

Law enforcement agencies, emergency room personnel, courts, mental health providers, and communities often find it challenging help people in mental health crisis. The 2006 “Crisis Service Redesign” report from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) observed:

The systems for responding to mental health crises in Texas are uniformly inadequate to meet community needs. Other systems called on to serve as alternative sources of help, such as law enforcement, jails, emergency rooms of general hospitals, and social services, are not appropriate, cost effective, or able to provide the level and type of services that people in mental health crises need in order to recover.

To address these problems, in 2007, DSHS was awarded $82.0 million from the Texas Legislature to redesign the community mental health crisis system. Researchers from Texas A&M University are evaluating the effects the Crisis Services Redesign (CSR) initiative has had on communities around the state. This evaluation will provide important feedback to DSHS and to the legislature about the success of CSR.

We are asking you to participate in a survey about crisis services in your community. You were selected for participation in this survey because of your important role in assisting individuals experiencing a mental health crisis in your community. This survey is your chance to say how you think CSR is working in your community.

Please feel free to forward this survey to others in your organization who are knowledgeable about mental health crisis services.

In the next week, we will be distributing this survey through other means, such as organizational list serves. If you receive another request to participate in this study, please disregard that e-mail and use the link found at the bottom of this e-mail.

If you are willing to participate, please click on the link at the bottom of this e-mail to be directed to additional information about the survey and the survey itself. If you have any questions about the study, please do not hesitate to contact the primary investigator for the evaluation, Dr. Dottie Carmichael (979-845-9378; dottie@ppri.tamu.edu).

Thank you in advance for your assistance,

Dottie Carmichael

Texas A&M University



To participate click the link below:

http://csr.tamu.edu/dshs.htm

(if the link does not work, copy and paste this link into the address bar of your browser)

Updated Texas Mental Health Code

17th Edition
Texas Laws
Relating to Mental Health
Reflecting changes in law passed by the
81st Legislature, Regular Session – 2009*
Throughout this book will be various statutory references to the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the Texas Department of Health. On September 1, 2004 these three agencies were combined to form the Department of State Health Services. Any reference in statue to the legacy agencies should be read to mean the Department of State Health Services.
Disclaimer – The information contained in this book does not constitute the provision of legal advice. While every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this book, the Department of State Health Services, its officers and employees disclaim any responsibility for any errors in content or formatting that may be contained herein.
*Most changes in law reflected in this book become effective on 9/1/09.

Mentally Ill in US Prisons and Jails

Part one


Part two

From English Aljazeera's Fault Lines

As the healthcare debate rages in the US, the fate of the hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people in American jails and prisons has been absent from the agenda.

In a special report Fault Lines' Josh Rushing visited detention facilities in Texas and discovered the true reality of how inmates with mental illness are treated.

Creating Flexibility from the Bench: Meeting the Needs of Juveniles with Mental Impairments

Texas Appleseed released a new juvenile court resource in August 2009 that contains information on the impact of current laws and policies on Texas' young offender and an overview of alternative "front end" approaches proven to keep youth from repeatedly cycling through the juvenile justice system.

Creating Flexibility from the Bench: Meeting the Needs of Juveniles with Mental Impairments.

TCOOMMI and Henderson County

From Athens Review:
County gets reprieve on mental health program

By Rich Flowers News Editor

September 15, 2009 08:33 pm

— Just when it seemed Henderson County was going to have to pay about $80 each for inmate mental evaluations, a state-funded program found new life.
Tuesday, the Henderson County Commissioners Court adopted a memorandum of understanding between the county and the Andrews Center which will enable the county to take advantage of the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical and Mental Impairments program.
The program provides mental evaluations for non-crisis inmates who are not in imminent danger of attempting suicide or harming others.
Under the terms of the memorandum, equipment owned by TCOOMMI will be used by the jail to access mental health services from the Andrews Center for incarcerated offenders in custody there. The use of the telemedicine equipment is intended to allow better access to services, maintain public safety and decrease officer transport and wait time.
“This gives the TCOOMMI program the opportunity to screen them here,” Henderson County Mental Health Coordinator Kay Dingler said. “They will do it on a weekly basis, and probably see five to 10 people, depending on the time required on each one. It is state-funded, and we only have to provide the room.”
Henderson County pays Andrews Center $30,000 each year for help with the mentally-ill, mentally-challenged, chemically-dependent and mentally-disabled. The center offers screenings to determine if the individual is in need of emergency services, and provides the county with after-hour mental evaluation and commitment screenings.
TCOOMMI was created by the Texas Legislature in 1989 to “reduce the time of additional imprisonment, reduce recidivism and divert offenders with mental illness, mental retardation and severe medical impairments to appropriate treatments instead of incarceration.”
“TCOOMMI has had a renewed spirit of working with us over about the last 30 days,” Henderson County Judge David Holstein said.
Dingler said TCOOMMI had been set up as a pilot program, but due to its initial success, millions of dollars have been allocated to keep it running.

Excerpt from the Minutes of the 09/09 BHC Consortia

TCOOMMI Rider 21; Contracts & 2010 Focus – April Zamora

April discussed TDCJ updates and recent changes in administration. She clarified that TCOOMMI is no longer a standalone division of TDCJ, but has been incorporated into another division. Dee Wilson has been promoted to Re-entry and Re-integration division. There will be “Re-entry councils” developed and information will go out as these are implemented.

April discussed TCOOMMI’s capacity as there have been some budget cuts in the past year. This resulted from trending analysis on caseloads that were not staying full, but COC services that were booming. Cuts in some areas were reinvested in other areas where the service demands were higher. TCOOMMI is moving toward a hybrid model of care focusing on high risk offenders. Multi Systemic Therapy programs at two centers were discontinued because outcomes were not any better than other programs. New contracts have come out and MH and Probation requirements are separate and care is now individualized rather than limited to 6 months.

She reported that TCOOMMI was not allocated any new funds, but were given several new mandates. TCOOMMI is now responsible for the “wrongfully imprisoned” program which covers all the needs (MH, physical health, etc) for individuals who are wrongfully imprisoned. Another unfunded mandate is 44.51 which involves release of 17-19 y/o TYC offenders who have special needs and requires TCOOMMI to serve them. In adult services TCOOMMI is piloting transitional caseloads of 50-75 to facilitate the transition into regular RDM services.

April discussed Article 16.22 and SB1557 and clarified that the current processes in place for assessment of individuals jailed who have MH needs may continue. Any assessment which is less than a year old may be used. The intent was not to require MHAs to conduct competency assessments on all MH offenders in jails. TCOOMMI will be sending a letter to Texas Council which explains the intent of the law and which can be used to educate law enforcement. April noted that the intent is only to make sure the magistrate is aware of the individual’s possible MH involvement and may include self-report by the offender, prior MHA involvement, or jail CARE cross matching. It does not require an assessment. Once the magistrate is aware of the possible MH involvement he/she may order a full assessment at the expense of the county. Joe Lovelace reported that the Texas Council will be convening a workgroup to address concerns around this issue.

April reported that there are upcoming training opportunities including the Texas Correctional Association conference. She encouraged MHAs to send people to this conference.

April discussed Rider 21 which provides new funding and requires TJPC to contract with MHAs if they want to provide MH services in order to divert kids from TYC. She explained that many areas are not applying for the funds due to fear of having to return part of the funds if outcomes are not met. She reported that so far only 4 areas have submitted applications, but she is continuing to work on encouraging TJPC programs to include MH services in their grants.

Medicaid Substance Abuse Expansion – Matt Ferrara

Matt discussed comprehensive Medicaid substance abuse services legislated by the SB796. The expansion will be studied after a period of time and must save money rather than increase Medicaid spending. Matt reported implementation timeline is targeted for June 1, 2010. Providers will probably have to have a Medicaid provider number and if in a Medicaid managed care area, must be in the network. Policies are currently being developed and must have CMS approval. Rates must also be developed by HHSC and rate hearings are anticipated sometime in October or November. Private LCDC providers will probably not be an approved provider type.

Results from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings

Access the report here.

This report presents the first information from the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey is the primary source of information on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older. The survey interviews approximately 67,500 persons each year. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons in this report described using terms such as "increased," "decreased," or "more than" are statistically significant at the .05 level.

Missouri Sets New Standard for Juvenile Detention

From ABC's Primetime

Watch video

Innovative Facilities for Kid Criminals Are Short on Guards and Long on Hugs:

For most of the nearly 100,000 kids in America's juvenile justice system, life in prison means orange jumpsuits, barred cells and constant guard.
But the Waverly Regional Youth Center in Missouri is a different kind of detention center. It's the home and hope for 44 boys already embarked on a life on crime. The walls are adorned with colorful posters and bulletin boards with positive affirmations. Counselors and dormitories have replaced guards and cellblocks.

For over a year, "Primetime" lived alongside the kids to examine firsthand this radical take on juvenile justice. By taking some of the hard edges out of juvenile corrections, the state of Missouri has chalked up results that have corrections experts across the country taking notice.

Wrongly convicted Texans become instant millionaires New law makes Texas most generous state for payments to cleared prisoners.

Read the rest here.

DALLAS (AP) — … Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package. … Exonerees also receive an array of social services, including job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment. Though 27 other states have some form of compensation law for the wrongly convicted, none comes close to offering the social services and money Texas provides.

Educational Aftercare & Reintegration Toolkit for Juvenile Justice Professionals, 2nd ed.

Download toolkit here.

Youth who are adjudicated delinquent frequently encounter problems in obtaining appropriate education services in placement, as well as when they are released and reintegrated into their communities. This Toolkit provides the basic information and resources needed to help juvenile probation officers and other juvenile justice professionals in Pennsylvania overcome (or at least minimize) these problems. While this Toolkit is specifically directed to juvenile probation officers in Pennsylvania, it may also be useful for the youth's attorney or for other juvenile justice professionals to help them plan for and participate in the educational aftercare of their clients.

Developing Mental Health Screening in Juvenile Justice

Download here.

The development of routine mental health screening for juveniles involved with the criminal justice system is explained. Sections of this brief include: the drive toward mental health screening; considerations in the implementation of a screening and assessment process -- fulfilling regulatory requirements, improving staff decision, and managing resources; and policy recommendations.