Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Fmr. TYC Executive Director Dwight Harris

The executive director of the Texas Youth Commission abruptly announced his retirement Friday after coming under intense criticism for his handling of a sexual abuse scandal at a West Texas juvenile prison.

Dwight Harris said he was leaving the agency, where he has worked for more than 25 years, because "this happened on my watch and I own the ultimate responsibility for it."

The Dallas Morning News reported this week that a TYC internal review found agency officials, for more than a year, had ignored staff complaints that administrators at the West Texas State School had molested young inmates.

The school's assistant superintendent and principal both resigned in 2005 in lieu of termination after a Texas Rangers investigation found they had sexual contact with a number of inmates.

The public learned of the sexual misconduct only recently, after reporters and legislators began questioning TYC about it.

Mr. Harris, in an interview with The News on Friday just hours before his retirement was announced, defended his agency's handling of the matter.

"Hindsight is 20-20," he said. "Given the information that I was provided at the time, I wouldn't have any reason to do anything differently."

Key legislators called for a management overhaul at TYC in the aftermath of the disclosures. Lawmakers grilled Mr. Harris during testimony Thursday on the commission's budget. Members of the House Appropriations Committee then postponed approval of his agency's budget.

Ted Royer, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, said he believed the early retirement was linked to the scandal at the facility in rural Pyote. The governor did not ask for Mr. Harris' resignation, his spokesman said, but was certainly concerned about the abuse allegations.

"Nobody was satisfied with the recent circumstances surrounding the commission. I know a number of lawmakers had expressed their concerns, as well as board members and the governor," Mr. Royer said. "The governor certainly hopes that the next executive director can help the commission to find its footing again so it can fulfill its mission to help troubled youth."

The commission's general counsel, Neil Nichols, will serve as temporary acting executive director, the agency said.

Mr. Harris started at TYC as a caseworker. He had planned to retire this summer, according to a news release on the commission Web site, but decided it was best if he left early.

"I love too much this agency, the fine men and women who serve here, and the troubled children who come to us as a last hope to let myself be a distraction to the greater mission," Mr. Harris said. "I wanted to stay through this session to promote our requests, but it's clear to me now that my presence might actually get in the way of those things we gravely need."

Mr. Harris' departure comes a few days before a Senate committee was to take up a bill to create more investigative oversight of agency operations. He was expected to be called to testify at the hearing.

Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, author of the oversight bill, welcomed Mr. Harris' departure.

"I think he did the right thing. We needed a change in leadership," Mr. Hinojosa said.

The Texas Rangers investigation in early 2005 found that the prison's assistant superintendent and the school's principal had repeated sexual contact with inmates.

Mr. Harris said previously that agency management knew nothing of the allegations about the Pyote prison until the Rangers investigation.

However, an internal administrative review found that prison employees complained to management for more than a year about what they viewed as the suspicious behavior of former assistant superintendent Ray Brookins and former principal John Paul Hernandez. But neither the prison superintendent nor TYC officials in Austin intervened; in some cases, those who filed the complaints were punished.

"Youth and employee grievance programs at the facility were ineffective and sabotaged," the internal review concluded. "Evidence of misconduct [was] covered up."

TYC documents say Mr. Hernandez lured inmates into sexual encounters with birthday cake and promises to help them get into college. Mr. Brookins, reports say, often disappeared into closed rooms with inmates late at night. The Rangers' investigation found that Mr. Brookins "engaged in sexual conduct with several students."

Mr. Hernandez, 41, recently denied the allegations before declining further comment. Mr. Brookins, 41, has declined to comment.

Until earlier this month, Mr. Hernandez was principal at the Richard Milburn Academy, a charter school in Midland. He was suspended with pay pending an investigation.

The case against the two men languished for almost two years. Ward County District Attorney Randall Reynolds blamed a "breakdown in communications" for his office's failure to act on the abuse allegations.

On Friday, he said the revived case is "moving along" now that the state attorney general's office is helping. He said he doesn't know when he'll present it to a grand jury.

The Pyote prison houses about 250 male inmates on 52 acres of desert alongside Interstate 20 between Midland and Pecos.

TYC incarcerates male and female offenders, ages 10 to 21, who are considered the state's most dangerous, incorrigible or chronic. The agency says its mission is to "teach youth how to succeed."