Texas juvenile justice board reopens its use-of-force and locked-room rules

The board that governs Texas’s state juvenile lockups votes Friday on whether to publish rewrites of two rules at the center of a federal civil rights finding against the agency: how staff may use force on a child, and when a child may be shut alone in a locked room.

The force rule has not been amended since 2016. It makes force a last resort, bars its use as punishment or for staff convenience, and lists eleven situations where trained staff may use it — a child about to hurt himself or someone else, serious property damage, an escape. It forbids chokeholds, anything that restricts breathing, and kneeling on a child’s head, neck or torso. Pepper spray is allowed only at the agency’s high-restriction facilities, and only in a short list of situations: a riot or major campus disruption, a hostage situation, getting a youth out from behind a barricade, securing a weapon, imminent serious injury, or preventing an escape.

The second rule was itself rewritten less than a year ago. Until September 15, 2025 the agency had a standalone isolation rule. The rewrite repealed it and folded locked-room confinement into a rule on “regulation breaks,” which the agency’s own policy transmittal splits in two: a regulation break is a voluntary or staff-directed break in an unlocked room, while a “directed regulation break” is a staff-directed break in a locked room. Reopening it this soon is the thing to ask about Friday.

The backdrop is a Justice Department findings report issued in August 2024, which concluded there was reasonable cause to believe conditions at all five secure facilities violate the Constitution, citing excessive force and prolonged isolation among other failures. That is an administrative finding, not a court ruling; no lawsuit or settlement in the matter turned up in a search of Justice Department releases. The state’s independent ombudsman, in his most recently posted quarterly report, covering March through May 2025, counted 104 pepper-spray incidents at the Evins center in March 2025 against 45 in March 2024, and named chronic staffing shortages at every secure facility.

Also Friday: a strategic plan, next year’s budget, three internal audits including one on the agency’s violence intervention program, and proposed discipline for 29 certified officers — ten by agreed order and nineteen by default, meaning the officer never responded. Those are pending actions the board has not yet approved.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Manny R. Ramirez, Fort Worth — chairman; Tarrant County commissioner.
• Cyndi Wheless, McKinney — presiding judge, 417th District Court.
• William Durham, Huntsville — criminal district attorney, Walker County.
• Edeska Barnes, Jasper — chief juvenile probation officer, First Judicial District.
• Joe Barton, Canyon — chief juvenile probation officer, Randall County; licensed counselor.
• Luis Leija, Port Lavaca — chief juvenile probation officer, Calhoun County.
• Matthew Marick, Krugerville — director of juvenile probation, Denton County.
• Stephanie House, Liberty Hill — school principal, Georgetown ISD.
• Shawn Thierry, Houston — attorney; former state representative.

The roster follows the agency’s governing board page, cross-checked against the board list printed in the agency’s FY 2026 internal audit plan and against governor’s appointment releases — most recently February 27, 2025, which appointed Marick and reappointed Barton and House. Ramirez was named chairman December 13, 2024. All nine seats are filled and no term has lapsed; the next three expire February 1, 2027. No current vice chair was found in published sources. Composition is set by Human Resources Code §202.001. Shandra Carter is executive director. Accommodation requests: La’Kia Tyler, boardmaterials@tjjd.texas.gov.