Is Dallas County juvenile lockup moving past abuse allegations?

Dallas County’s new interim juvenile department chief has begun to right the ship.

For more than a year, the juvenile department has been plagued with allegations of deplorable conditions and mistreatment of children in its youth lockup. It also has been criticized for not properly handling the cases of juvenile offenders, sometimes keeping low-risk children locked up much longer than they should be. Findings of a state investigation into some of the worst allegations are expected soon.

But at a recent meeting of the Dallas County Juvenile Board, interim director Mike Griffiths offered some refreshing good news.

Griffiths, who led the department between 1995 and 2010, said he had begun fixing up the Dr. Jerome McNeil Jr. Detention Center, buying new furniture, cleaning and painting. He also said he planned to bring back in October plans for a thorough, third-party review of the entire juvenile justice system to lay bare where breakdowns are occurring. Such a review is critical to restoring the community’s trust in the department, Griffiths rightly noted.

Now it’s up to the Juvenile Board, with the support of the Dallas County Commissioners Court, to keep this positive momentum going. The board must not only welcome an outside review, as we recommended last month, but also resist the urge to be defensive, as it has in the past. The board also must commit to hiring a permanent director with a strong record of working in a large juvenile justice system and who can tackle the particular problems facing Dallas County.

Those problems are numerous. A March 2023 report by the group Evident Change, sought by Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, who was concerned about recidivism, found that juveniles were being held in detention for months longer than national standards recommend. That led him to believe that rather than rehabilitating juveniles, the county’s system was turning them into hardened criminals.

Then, a June 2023 investigation by this newspaper found that some juveniles were locked in their cells for 23 hours a day while others complained of filthy conditions, insufficient food and lack of medical care.

The Texas Juvenile Justice Department has since launched two inquiries into the neglect allegations, including one begun in July 2023 and another following a surprise inspection at the detention facility this summer. The latter led to the sudden resignation of Dallas County Juvenile Department director Darryl Beatty and Griffiths’ appointment.

Since taking over the helm, Griffiths has gotten strong reviews from top county officials. Creuzot, a former district court judge, told us he has known Griffiths for decades and supports his plan for a third-party review.

But while Griffiths is clearly the right person to chart a new course for the juvenile department, at 72 he is understandably eager to get back to retirement in Chicago. The Juvenile Board must humbly accept any criticism coming its way and rely on these lessons to help find an able director. It won’t be smooth sailing, but it must follow this better map.

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