Board taps ex-Dallas County Juvenile Department director as interim amid investigations

The board overseeing Dallas County’s juvenile justice system picked a familiar face this week to lead the county’s detention facility and programs, filling the position three weeks after the previous director’s sudden resignation following an unannounced state inspection.
The nine-member board selected Michael Griffiths in a specially-called meeting Monday. The appointment comes after Darryl Beatty, who had helmed the department since fall 2018, resigned effective immediately July 19.
Beatty’s tenure overseeing the department has been marred by allegations of poor, unsanitary and inhumane conditions at the Dr. Jerome McNeil Jr. Detention Center. Those allegations are the subject of at least two pending investigations by the Office of the Inspector General at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Though the final findings from the inspector general’s office have not yet been presented, Griffiths on Wednesday acknowledged in an interview that he was stepping into the role at a challenging time for the department.
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“This appointment is about regaining the confidence of board members, judges, police agencies, commissioners court, school districts, stakeholders, and, really, most importantly, the community at large,” Griffiths told The Dallas Morning News.
Griffiths, 72, has spent the bulk of his career in corrections since starting as a probation officer in Tarrant County in the late 1970s. He has overseen juvenile services in counties across Texas and at the state level since 1983, the longest stint being from 1995 to 2010 as Dallas County’s director over the juvenile department.
He stepped down as director in 2010 and worked as a consultant on juvenile services and as an adjunct instructor at Sam Houston State University before, in 2012, he was appointed as director of the newly formed Texas Juvenile Justice Department. He headed the state agency, which was established in 2011 after the Texas Legislature combined the functions of the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, from 2012 to 2014.
In 2018, Griffiths returned to Dallas County as a director in an interim capacity after the previous director, Terry Smith, did not return to work after a December 2017 investigation by The News found that teenage boys had been denied access to the outdoors for months at a time.
Griffiths served as interim for seven months until the county’s juvenile board — nine elected judges and county leaders — hired Beatty, then a deputy chief of the Travis County Juvenile Probation Department, in 2018.
Griffiths said Wednesday that he has immediately taken steps to begin addressing issues, which he characterized as a “systemic issue” solely within the detention center. As a result, he added, the center has fallen short of state standards for cleanliness and the seclusion of juveniles.
“We have to change the culture of how employees react to youth,” he said of the issues. The juvenile board is scheduled to hold its next public meeting Monday, when Griffiths will provide an update on his efforts.
Two members of the juvenile board said they were confident Griffiths could address the issues in the coming months, including the findings of the forthcoming office of inspector general investigations, as the board begins the process of searching for a permanent director.
“Michael Griffiths’ credentials speak for themselves,” Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon, who is chair of the board, said in a statement Wednesday. “It is imperative that the Juvenile Board, Elected and Appointed Officials along with other stakeholders respect his expertise and allow him to move forward without interference.”
Dallas County Commissioner Andy Sommerman, also a member of the juvenile board, said the Monday meeting held to consider bringing Griffiths back in an interim capacity was “the fastest juvenile board meeting” he has had.
“He had a good reputation from everyone who had dealings with him,” Sommerman said Tuesday.
In a statement, Barbara Kessler, a Texas Juvenile Justice Department spokesperson, said the office of the inspector general will provide Griffiths and the board with the findings of one of the investigations — which began in July 2023 and ran until January — later this month.
A second investigation began in July based on “reports alleging continuing supervisory neglect” at the detention facility, Kessler said. That investigation is pending.