So much information came out so quickly about TYC this spring it was hard to process it all, but this afternoon I was looking back at the "Blueprint for Girls" published May 22 by the national ACLU Women's Rights Project at the request of then-conservator Jay Kimbrough and found this grim paragraph (p. 8):
Rather than being necessary to the mission of TYC, overly harsh rules, harshly enforced, actually interfere with girls’ rehabilitation. For example, girls are allowed limited time for journal writing and other forms of expression, are rarely exposed to art or music, and are not allowed to sing, activities that for many represent important strategies for coping with pain and anger. Severe limits on girls’ social interaction, such as being prohibited from speaking to or even looking at one another during the fifteen minutes they are allotted for meals, blocks the development of necessary social skills. Girls’ ability to care for their hygiene, a basic ingredient of improved self-esteem, is frustrated by the three-minute time limit on showers imposed at some facilities. The right to shower is sometimes even denied altogether as a form of punishment.Since that was written, all TYC youth have been gender segregated, so I wonder what changes to these routines, if any, have been made since this report and its recommendations were released? Does this paragraph reflect how TYC youth are currently treated? Perhaps TYC field staff can answer these questions:
- Is it really true they aren't allowed to sing?
- Do kids at TYC facilities have regular (or any) access to musical instruments or arts materials?
- Is it true that youth are "prohibited from speaking to or even looking at one another during the fifteen minutes they are allotted for meals"?