Prometheus 6

Jesus Christ, the whole state of Texas threatens to lose its goddamn mind.

The agency claims that the new policy is necessary to help understaffed institutions maintain control. It also insists that the spray will be judiciously used. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, however, Texas child welfare advocates charged that the system was using pepper spray excessively, including on mentally ill detainees who were supposed to be exempted. Among the cases cited in court documents was that of a mentally ill 15-year-old who was said to have been sprayed three times while attempting to harm himself.

Harsh Treatment for Youthful Offenders

The Justice Department has the authority to sue juvenile detention systems that allow detainees to be abused or that fail to provide safe conditions. The department, which has invoked this authority many times in the past, should take a hard look at Texas’s notoriously troubled juvenile justice system.

The Texas Youth Commission attracted the national spotlight earlier this year, when allegations of brutality, neglect and sexual abuse by detention center staff members made headlines. The state cleaned house and passed an ambitious reform package.

In a worrying sign that the right lessons have not been learned, the commission’s new leadership is proposing a rule change so it can make more frequent use of pepper spray against unruly detainees. Juvenile justice experts, the federal courts and the Justice Department have all condemned excessive use of pepper spray.