On May 13, 2024, inspectors general with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) arrested former Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) Juvenile Correctional Officer Christian Buchanan, 25, for the offense of tampering with a government record. The alleged offense is a Class “A” Misdemeanor under the Texas Penal Code Chapter 37.10, punishable by up to a $4,000 fine and confinement in jail for a period of up to one year. This case will be referred to the Special Prosecution Unit (SPU).

This arrest emanated from an investigation conducted by the OIG of an incident that occurred on February 1, 2024. While working as a juvenile correctional officer at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex, Buchanan is alleged to have made over 30 false entries in a government record, falsely indicating he had visually conducted room checks of juvenile offenders confined to their individual rooms, when he in fact had not conducted those checks.

The Office of Inspector General is the independent law enforcement agency that is statutorily responsible for investigating criminal allegations involving TJJD juveniles, TJJD employees, TJJD facilities, contractors, or programs of the Texas juvenile justice system. Anyone can report allegations of misconduct to the Incident Reporting Center by emailing a complaint to [email protected], or by calling a 24-hour-a-day toll free hotline 1-866-477-8354.

Historical TJJD incident data can be found on the Open Data Portal of Texas.gov.