shaquanda cotton to be released from tyc

Shaquanda Cotton, the 15-year-old African-American girl from Paris, Texas, who was slapped with an indeterminate sentence of up to seven years for pushing a hall monitor at her high school, will be released from the Texas Youth Commission Saturday morning, says the Chicago Tribune.

Jay Kimbrough, the newly-appointed special conservator of the TYC, ordered the immediate release of Cotton, saying through a spokesman that he had "no confidence in the system that was in place." Creola Cotton, Shaquanda's mother, will pick up her daughter Saturday morning. She was unable to reach the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex in Brownwood on Friday due to severe weather.

The Houston Chronicle tells of a Democratic lawmaker that was on the case.

Rep. Harold Dutton, the Houston Democrat who chairs the House juvenile justice committee, said the newly appointed conservator of the embattled Texas Youth Commission told him Cotton was being released after 12 months in a Brownwood facility.

Dutton said she will be released Saturday to her mother, who he said was unable to pick up her daughter Friday because of bad weather.

"This is one of those cases that is the poster child of everything wrong with the criminal justice system," Dutton said.

The Chicago Tribune's senior correspondent Howard Witt, however, gets to take the credit for breaking this story and bringing it to an unprecedented level of attention, forcing Kimbrough to take quick action to avoid further controversy. Even here in Texas, his story was the first we had heard of this miscarriage of justice.

Since the Tribune's first account of Shaquanda Cotton's case, her story has been circulated on more than 400 Internet blogs and featured in newspapers and radio and TV reports across the country. Two protests demanding her release were held in Paris and a third, to be led by Rev. Al Sharpton, was scheduled for Tuesday.

Even the Lamar County District Attorney's office has had a change of heart regarding Cotton's case.

On Tuesday night, an anonymous reader left a comment on our blog about Cotton citing several "facts" about the case, including claims that if Shaquanda and her mother had only had better attitudes, Shaquanda may have received probation, and that Shaquanda's mother said she would refuse to comply with conditions of probation if Shaquanda were released to her custody (a claim the office has now backed away from). The comment ended with a link to a special site set up by the Lamar County DA that not only listed similar facts, but also aligned Creola Cotton with the New Black Panther Party and claimed that this was all an issue of "irresponsible parenting."

Now, the site is headed by the following statement: "We are happy for Miss Cotton and her family and wish her nothing but the best in the future. We sincerely hope she has learned her lesson and that we do not see her in the criminal justice system ever again."

From the Tribune: "Let her out of TYC," said Allan Hubbard, spokesman for Lamar County District Atty. Gary Young. "Hell, she's done a year for pushing a teacher. That's too long."

shaquanda cotton: a candidate for early release?

On Tuesday, we brought you the story of 15-year-old Shaquanda Cotton of Paris, Texas who was sent to the Texas Youth Commission for a an indeterminate sentence of up to seven years for pushing a hall monitor.


Photo credit: Chicago Tribune
Today we learn that Cotton is "among the leading candidates for early release" amid the ongoing TYC sex scandal. The Chicago Tribune sums up the controversy nicely:

Texas' juvenile prison system, known as the Texas Youth Commission, was first rocked by scandal last month after revelations surfaced that two administrators at a youth prison in west Texas had allegedly coerced sex from inmates for years and that prison officials and local prosecutors chose not to pursue the cases.

Since then, the scandal has widened as reports surfaced of cover-ups and alleged sex abuse by guards and administrators at other prisons. More than a thousand investigations have now been opened. Meanwhile, Kimbrough discovered that 111 employees of the youth agency had felony arrests or convictions and another 437 had misdemeanor arrests or charges.

The top leadership of the youth commission was forced out, the board overseeing the agency resigned and Perry essentially placed the commission into receivership when he appointed Kimbrough to clean up the mess.

But back to Shaquanda Cotton. Grits for Breakfast says that even though the mainstream media in Texas has all but ignored Cotton, her story has gotten the attention of TYC Special Master Jay Kimbrough, who in an attempt to deflect even more controversy surrounding the TYC, has said that a special task force will review Cotton's case and consider her early release.

According to the Tribune, though, this wouldn't be the first time.

Cotton, now 15, has been incarcerated at a youth prison in Brownwood, Texas, for the last year on a sentence that could run until her 21st birthday. But like many of the other youths in the system, she is eligible to earn earlier release if she achieves certain social, behavioral and educational milestones while in prison.

But officials at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex have repeatedly extended Shaquanda's sentence because she refuses to admit her guilt and because she was found with contraband in her cell--an extra pair of socks.