Shaquanda Cotton, the black teenage girl in the small east Texas town of Paris who was sent to prison for up to seven years for shoving a teacher’s aide, will be freed soon, a senior Texas legislator confirmed on Friday morning.

“She is going to be freed, I know that for a fact, either today or sometime next week,” state Rep. Harold Dutton, chairman of the Texas legislature’s juvenile justice committee, told the Chicago Tribune. “I told (prison officials) I wanted her out of there immediately. When I learned about this case, I thought, this case just looks so bad and smells so bad it made me hurt.”

Shaquanda, now 15, had no prior criminal record when she was incarcerated a year ago at a Texas Youth Commission prison, under an indeterminate sentence that could last until her 21st birthday. Her case rose to national prominence and became the focus of ongoing civil rights protests after a March 12 Tribune story that detailed how a 14-year-old white girl convicted of the more serious crime of arson was sentenced to probation by the same judge.

“I’m beside myself, I really am, anticipating her coming home,” said Shaquanda’s mother, Creola Cotton. “Dutton’s office called me yesterday and said they were fixing to expedite her out. Now I’m just waiting by the phone.”

Since she’s been in prison, Shaquanda has grown despondent and tried to commit suicide. Her sentence, which ultimately is up to the discretion of prison officials, has twice been extended, first because she would not admit her guilt as required by prison regulations and then because she was found with “contraband” in her cell - an extra pair of socks.

Those sentence extensions drew the attention of Jay Kimbrough, who was confirmed by the Texas Senate on Thursday as conservator of the youth prison system, which has been rocked by a sex scandal over allegations that guards and administrators coerced youthful inmates for sex.

Kimbrough said last week that he was convening a special committee to examine the sentences of all 4,700 youths in Texas juvenile prisons to determine how many might have had their sentences arbitrarily extended by prison authorities - and that Shaquanda’s was the first case he intended to review.

“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.”

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