The Dallas County Juvenile Director said he’s made changes after a state investigation found problems with how the detention center was being run, how juveniles were being treated and neglected, and even the condition of the building itself.
Director Lynn Hadnot invited FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb to the facility to see some of those changes firsthand.
Dallas County Juvenile Justice Failures
The backstory:
The department came under fire last year after a whistleblower reported inhumane conditions inside the Henry Wade Juvenile Justice Center.
State inspectors paid an unannounced visit to the facility in July of 2024, prompting then director Darryl Beatty to resign. The visit also prompted the Texas Office of the Inspector General to open a new investigation into the facility.
A report released in September 2024 found a program called the Special Needs Unit that operated without policy or procedure. The practice allowed the facility to circumvent state standards.
Multiple juveniles were confined to their rooms, sometimes 24 hours a day, without access to education, exercise, or showers. The result was systematic neglect that staff, educators, and administrators were aware of.
Inspectors also found what could be criminal — pervasive falsification of documents as it related to observation checks. By state law, those must happen every 15 minutes overnight when residents are in their rooms. The checks did not happen.
Hadnot took over as the new director of the juvenile department earlier this year with the goal of turning things around.
Cleaning House
What’s new:
Hadnot said he wanted to show off steps of success steeped in change.
Over the past few months, he and his staff have been cleaning house – both physically and figuratively.
“We’re not just changing the physical aesthetic, which we’ve done. We put a lot of effort into it in terms of lighting, painting, new flooring, doing some very deep cleaning,” he said.
Walls were painted with bright murals and bold messages.
“The facility was extremely correctional and so it was a very hard setting,” Hadnot said.
The images on the walls are now designed to help kids in trouble believe they can do and be better.
“When you show a genuine interest in them and can sow seeds of hope it makes a huge difference that at the end of the day, there is a brighter tomorrow and that hope is not lost,” he said.
The cleaning has also included operational problems cited by the state. The most egregious find was the excessive confinement of juveniles who were separated from the others.
“We have made monumental improvement in those areas. Our staffing strength is healthy now. Our kids are receiving the robust programming they’re supposed to, not being locked in their rooms. And we’ve also moved away from the traditional punitive responses for egregious behavior when we have kids who are having a difficult time,” Hadnot said.
The center had been lacking in state education requirements.
“Because we just simply didn’t have enough staff to execute that safely,” the director said.
Another change that has proven successful was moving from eight-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts.
“That has really increased our staffing strength. We are now able to provide education in the most normalized setting possible,” he said.
By the numbers:
A little more than a year ago, there were over 200 kids in detention. Now, 79 are at the facility waiting for their cases to be determined. Others, of course, are awaiting transfers for more focused treatment.
But Hadnot believes that getting the number of residents down and the stuffing numbers up is a big reason for the detention center’s success.
Hadnot also confirmed there has been a 53% decline in complaints and calls from families concerned about what is or isn’t happening with their loved one.
“We’re evaluating every interaction that we have with a kid, with a family, and the outcome of that kid’s case. We’re measuring success one situation and decision at a time,” he said.
Employee Arrested for Assault
What they’re saying:
Hadnot also responded to questions about an incident that happened last month at another county juvenile facility.
A staffer at the Lyle B. Medlock Treatment Center was arrested and then fired for allegedly assaulting a teenage resident.
“Obviously, any time you have questionable incidents or things that occur, it requires a swift response and appropriate action. And I can assure you we will be doing that,” Hadnot said.
The director said he will approach that incident and that facility the same way he’s working to turn around the detention center.