PYOTE, Texas (AP) _ The Texas Youth Commission will keep open the West Texas juvenile prison where two administrators were accused of sexually assaulting male inmates, a scandal that prompted statewide reforms to the youth prison system.
The West Texas State School in Pyote will likely downsize and focus on treatment. Officials say about 70 percent of the students in the juvenile prison have chemical dependency problems.
TYC spokesman Jim Hurley says the school’s focus would be as a “smaller, more intense treatment facility.” He also says the facility will focus on youths from West Texas instead of throughout the state.
The Sunset Advisory Committee, a state agency created to eliminate waste and inefficiency in government, had called last year for the Pyote facility to be closed. The committee cited difficulty in keeping the prison staffed and said the closing would save $9 million.