The executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department has stepped down, the latest turn for an agency under scrutiny since it locked down every one of its youth prisons in August.
Shandra Carter, who has run the agency since 2022, announced her resignation in a message to staff Friday morning that was obtained by The Texas Newsroom and reported by KERA. "I want you to hear directly from me that I have submitted my resignation," she wrote, adding that she would "always be rooting for your success."
TJJD declined to comment, and the reports did not say who will lead the agency next.
The lockdown
The agency oversees five youth prisons holding about 750 young people committed for serious or chronic offenses. In mid-August, after what Carter called an "exceptionally brutal assault" on a juvenile correctional officer at a North Texas facility, she ordered all five into lockdown. She later told the agency's oversight board the move was a safety reset, "not a punishment."
Internal shift logs obtained by KERA and The Texas Newsroom documented scores of self-harm episodes in the first days, delayed bathroom access because of a rule that an officer could not open a cell alone, and pepper spray uses that the agency's inspector general found broke policy in three instances.
The agency eased conditions after a few days, moving most dorms to less restrictive statuses; as of Sept. 14, two of 62 dorms remained on lockdown, the reports said.
