Texas Republicans are "spinning" the TYC releases to their advantage.

[Joanne98]

EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT THE POLICE STATE WAS THE REPUBLICANS IDEA! If the Dems let them get away with this they deserve to get their asses kicked in the next election! :grr:


http://www.corsicanadailysun.com/local/local_story_096234843.html
TYC releases underway

Rodriguez celebrates freedom with family, friends

By Janet Jacobs

Erik Rodriguez, 18, was one of a handful of Texas Youth Commission inmates released early Friday morning in Corsicana, but he was clearly the star.

Rodriguez was picked up Friday morning by his mother, grandparents and lawyer, and met at the door to freedom by a contingent of reporters and photographers from across the state.

After he hugged his grandparents and mother, he turned back to hug his case worker, Racquel Hightower, who gave him one last parting piece of advice: “Listen to your mom.”

Rodriguez walked outside into a cool, blustery wind, surrounded by television cameras and reporters, his family and lawyer.

“It’s the moment I’ve waited for,” Rodriguez said. “I hope TYC does clean up the system.”

Rodriguez accused his guards at the Corsicana TYC facility of standing by while four other inmates physically abused him. When his mother went public with the story, he became a public example of problems within the system.

He was originally sent to TYC for home burglaries in San Antonio, and sentenced to serve nine months, but ended up imprisoned for two and a half years because staffers determined he wasn’t making sufficient progress in school and therapy.

His mother, Alice Smith, has been working for months to get her son his medications, which he claims he were withheld, and then for his freedom, she said. Most recently, she went to the governor’s office to ask for her son’s freedom.

“They listened, they cared, they showed compassion. They’ve been wonderful,” Smith said.

Last week, TYC officials declared that any non-violent inmates who have fulfilled their original sentences but were still being held because of extensions like Rodriguez’s, should be released, excluding murderers and sex offenders. More than 400 youth are expected to be released, 16 from Corsicana’s facility.

Rodriguez is expected to spend another six months on parole, to make sure he’s making progress towards education or a job, and stays clean of drugs, alcohol and crime.

Rodriguez said he wouldn’t be getting into more trouble with the law.

“I’m not ever coming back,” he insisted.

He didn’t have an immediate answer when asked what he learned in his two and a half years behind high fences and guarded walls.

“It made me realize a lot of things,” Rodriguez said. “It made me a stronger person, emotionally and physically.”

Pushing his baseball cap at a cocky angle, he joked that the first thing he would do is go to Disneyland.

Becoming serious again, he insisted that his family’s lawsuit against the state was not just for himself, but for every other young person who’s been abused in the system.

“I’m definitely not the first, and probably not going to be the last (to be abused),” he said. “I stood alone. I went in alone, I came out alone. I’m with my family now, so I’m definitely not alone anymore.”

“I paid my dues, I paid the cost,” he said. “I stood up for my rights. I stood up for myself. I defended myself. It took four of them to get me down.”

James Myart, Jr., the lawyer who helped guide Smith through the process, said the family would be suing for “significant damages,” although he didn’t know if the case would be filed in state or federal courts.

“I represent families whose sons are dead as a result of this system,” Myart said.

After the family drove away in a maroon sedan, and while Myart conducted an impromptu press conference on the edge of the parking lot, other families came out of the metal building that serves as entrance to the facility, carrying plastic laundry baskets, and cardboard boxes with the few belongings the inmates were allowed to have.

The brother of one young woman, who asked that the family’s name not be used, said his sister was originally sentenced to nine months, but held for two years.

“I really think they’re holding people too long,” he said, pulling the hood up on his sweatshirt to avoid the TV cameras.

—————

Janet Jacobs may be contacted via e-mail at [e-mail]

:grr:

[Joanne98]

1. Right HERE! Goodhair Perry the HERO!

His mother, Alice Smith, has been working for months to get her son his medications, which he claims he were withheld, and then for his freedom, she said. Most recently, she went to the governor’s office to ask for her son’s freedom.

“They listened, they cared, they showed compassion. They’ve been wonderful,” Smith said.

[tbyg52]

2. They listened, they cared, they showed compassion.

Yeah, after a) their coverup was blown and b) they were sure it would make the news.

:puke:

[Joanne98]

3. While he lobbys for more prisons!