![]() ![]() He said prisoners were told to mark off 20 hours of direct treatment, or in-person therapy, on their weekly progress reports when all they’d received was paperwork. ![]() A former prisoner told The Texas Tribune last year that group therapy in his 2020 substance abuse treatment pre-release program was at times a MTC therapist sitting in a dorm of about 60 men and reading a book. LatinoJustice and prisoners, however, said the new programming largely didn’t happen. “MTC worked with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to find new ways to provide programming to residents, as in-person learning was not feasible.” “The COVID-19 pandemic proved challenging for individuals and organizations across the world – including all prison operators and prison residents,” she said in a statement. After the state auditor’s report was released, Emily Lawhead with MTC said last month that the findings proved her company complied with its contracts. TDCJ spokesperson Amanda Hernandez declined to answer questions Thursday about LatinoJustice’s criticisms or whether the agency ever sought to end MTC contracts. “Someone at TDCJ made a decision to deny people care and continue to pay a vendor for it, and that’s a very troubling set of facts,” Case said Wednesday. Switching to just worksheets, he said, is “essentially giving people the tests without the classes.” Before the pandemic, he said, prisoners participated in individual and group therapy sessions, and had worksheets with related exercises to complete between sessions. It was unknown at the time if TDCJ had approved a change in the contract, and the group said the agency continues to fight the release of such records.Īndrew Case, senior counsel at LatinoJusice said the finding that TDCJ approved of the change doesn’t mean the modified programs accomplished what MTC was being paid to do. The group alleged that despite a drop in therapeutic services, MTC continued charging the state for its programs and forced prisoners to falsify documents stating they had received treatment. The internal investigation was spurred by a November complaint filed by prison-rights advocacy group LatinoJustice. “These process modifications, while not conventional, allowed the continuation of pre-release programming and release to parole during the pandemic,” board investigators said in their report. Written assignments replaced in-person therapy, and group therapy sessions were held with counselors outside, sometimes yelling into the dorms. The request was met with firm resistance from the Texas parole board.īut the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did allow MTC to cobble together “alternative treatment methods” to avoid human contact and still get paid under its contracts, according to a July report from the Texas Board of Criminal Justice’s Internal Audit Division. The programming, often run by the private prison group Management & Training Corporation, generally takes three to nine months, involving group therapy, individual therapy and other services.Īs the coronavirus pandemic began to kill thousands of prisoners across the country in 2020, prison rights supporters pushed for Texas to waive the therapy requirements and immediately release people approved for parole, especially as many prisoners claimed the treatment programs were no longer providing substantive care. In Texas, many prisoners who have been granted parole must first complete final rehabilitation programs focused on life skills, substance abuse or sex offenses before being released. Months after one of the country’s largest private prison companies was accused of defrauding Texas by collecting millions of dollars for in-person therapy it didn’t provide to prisoners, a state investigation found there was no fraud because prison officials sanctioned the practice. Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |