Post by drok9 on Mar 31, 2007 16:40:56 GMT -5
TYC to free girl jailed in racially-charged case
04:11 PM CDT on Friday, March 30, 2007
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — The newly appointed conservator of the Texas Youth Commission will release a 15-year-old girl from a high security juvenile prison on Saturday, making her the first of what could be hundreds of kids set free as part of an agency overhaul.
Shaquanda Cotton has been in the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood for nearly a year for pushing a hall monitor at her school in 2005.
Her case drew nationwide attention and prompted courthouse protests in her hometown of Paris, as some civil-rights activists accused local officials of racism for dealing out a potentially long sentence to a black girl with no arrest record.
Also, her sentence was extended after corrections officers found she had an extra pair of socks and a cup - items that are considered contraband. Lawmakers and other critics of TYC, the agency embroiled in a sexual and physical abuse scandal, said that showed the capriciousness of sentencing within the juvenile justice system.
Several lawmakers were told Friday of the impending release, and an aide to Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, confirmed the decision.
Shaquanda's release could be the first of hundreds under agency conservator Jay Kimbrough's plan to evaluate the vast majority of TYC inmates' cases. He has vowed to have an independent panel review each sentence that was extended by the agency and free any youth who doesn't belong in a juvenile prison.
"It was the right thing to do," said Sharon Reynerson, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid who has represented Shaquanda during her grievance and mediation process with the Paris School District. "The sentence was too harsh for the crime and she's been there too long. It's having an adverse psychological effect on her."
Shaquanda's case has made headlines over accusations of unequal justice. Though she was sent to TYC for pushing a teacher, the same judge gave a white 14-year-old probation after she burned her family's house down. And there are questions of retribution: Before the allegations against Shaquanda, her mother had complained to the U.S. Department of Education that the Paris School District was unfairly disciplining black students.
Shaquanda had had some behavioral problems, but no arrests on her record. And the 58-year-old teacher's aide who reported being shoved wasn't injured. But Shaquanda was convicted of assaulting a public servant and sentenced to TYC with an indeterminate sentence: up to 7 years.
She was transferred to the Brownwood facility, the same youth prison where allegations have surfaced that a guard repeatedly gave drugs and candy to at least three girls, one as young as 15, in exchange for sex. The guard, Allen James Sullivan, resigned in 2005.
04:11 PM CDT on Friday, March 30, 2007
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN — The newly appointed conservator of the Texas Youth Commission will release a 15-year-old girl from a high security juvenile prison on Saturday, making her the first of what could be hundreds of kids set free as part of an agency overhaul.
Shaquanda Cotton has been in the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood for nearly a year for pushing a hall monitor at her school in 2005.
Her case drew nationwide attention and prompted courthouse protests in her hometown of Paris, as some civil-rights activists accused local officials of racism for dealing out a potentially long sentence to a black girl with no arrest record.
Also, her sentence was extended after corrections officers found she had an extra pair of socks and a cup - items that are considered contraband. Lawmakers and other critics of TYC, the agency embroiled in a sexual and physical abuse scandal, said that showed the capriciousness of sentencing within the juvenile justice system.
Several lawmakers were told Friday of the impending release, and an aide to Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, confirmed the decision.
Shaquanda's release could be the first of hundreds under agency conservator Jay Kimbrough's plan to evaluate the vast majority of TYC inmates' cases. He has vowed to have an independent panel review each sentence that was extended by the agency and free any youth who doesn't belong in a juvenile prison.
"It was the right thing to do," said Sharon Reynerson, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid who has represented Shaquanda during her grievance and mediation process with the Paris School District. "The sentence was too harsh for the crime and she's been there too long. It's having an adverse psychological effect on her."
Shaquanda's case has made headlines over accusations of unequal justice. Though she was sent to TYC for pushing a teacher, the same judge gave a white 14-year-old probation after she burned her family's house down. And there are questions of retribution: Before the allegations against Shaquanda, her mother had complained to the U.S. Department of Education that the Paris School District was unfairly disciplining black students.
Shaquanda had had some behavioral problems, but no arrests on her record. And the 58-year-old teacher's aide who reported being shoved wasn't injured. But Shaquanda was convicted of assaulting a public servant and sentenced to TYC with an indeterminate sentence: up to 7 years.
She was transferred to the Brownwood facility, the same youth prison where allegations have surfaced that a guard repeatedly gave drugs and candy to at least three girls, one as young as 15, in exchange for sex. The guard, Allen James Sullivan, resigned in 2005.