Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Rep. Jerry Madden

AUSTIN — A state lawmaker said Monday that the Texas Youth Commission's system for investigating abuse allegations and referring
them to authorities is so inadequate that most of the cases have ended
up in the records rooms of local police departments "to gather dust."

TYC says it has referred 6,600 cases of abuse and neglect to law
enforcement agencies. The cases were initially investigated by civilian
personnel with no law enforcement background, who then faxed notices to
the records division of local police departments that the cases could
not be confirmed and were closed.

Most of the cases languished in those records rooms, with no notice
of their existence being given to local police investigators or
district attorneys, according to 15 prosecutors who appeared before the
House Corrections Committee on Monday.

Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, said TYC's system for
investigating allegations of abuse and referring them to law
enforcement agencies is inadequate because the agency does not use
commissioned law enforcement officers "who know enough to make a case
and collect evidence."

Madden said there is no way of knowing whether the thousands of
cases that TYC investigated and declared closed were adequately
investigated. And he said no outside investigator considered the cases
because TYC sent them directly to police records departments where they
were going to "gather dust."

'Some nebulous letter'

"We have these civilians who are conducting their investigations.
... Then they send some nebulous letter to the records division of our
local police department," he said.

Murray said one 2005 case of sexual abuse by a corrections officer
on a female youth was first referred to his office for prosecution on
March 2.

That is the same day the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio
Express-News reported that a male corrections officer in 2005 obtained
sex from four girls at the Ron Jackson Unit in Brownwood in exchange
for favors.

Murray said another report of a confirmed case of staff being
terminated for sexual contact with a youth at Ron Jackson was not a
prosecutable offense. He said the man gave girls pizza in exchange for
kisses, but he said kissing between a guard and an inmate is not
prohibited by state law.

Willing to prosecute

Prosecutors in counties with TYC facilities have been feeling the
heat because for two years, Ward County District Attorney Randy
Reynolds failed to prosecute two men accused of sexually abusing boys
in their care at the West Texas State School in Pyote.

But the prosecutors told the House committee they are more than
willing to prosecute cases if they are brought to their attention.

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed said her office had never
received any referrals from a TYC halfway house in her jurisdiction
until she received reports from a state investigator last week that the
staff was destroying documents.

Reed said the state needs to have certified police officers at all the TYC facilities investigating the complaints.

Madden has a bill to set up such a system.

Falls County District Attorney Jodi Gillam said she also did not know of the TYC cases until after reports in the news media.

"They (TYC) are not asking for help. It's just a notification," she said.

Gillam said she asked the Marlin Police Department to review all the
notifications from the past two years. She said the police have now
reopened one case involving a youth's allegation of sexual misconduct
by a TYC staff member to make certain the case was properly
investigated before being closed by the agency.

Wilbarger County District Attorney Staley Heatly said that by chance
he has the only TYC facility in Texas that has a certified police
officer who handles internal investigations. Heatly said the
investigations are not part of the man's job description, but that he
does it because he is the only person on staff who is a licensed peace
officer.

As a result, 15 to 20 criminal cases have been sent to his office by
TYC in the past several months. Heatly said most involve youth assault
on a guard, but he said there was one youth-on-youth sexual assault and
one staff-on-youth sexual assault.

Escape attempt

Meanwhile, four youths attempted to escape from the Coke County
Juvenile Center. All four were found Monday — two were hiding in a
facility attic, and the other two were apprehended in Eagle Pass in a
stolen truck.

Also Monday, TYC special master Jay Kimbrough said he found new
problems at state-run facilities when he made surprise inspections
during the weekend. At one, a boy with mental problems was not
receiving his medicine. At another, a girl with a swollen foot had been
waiting weeks for an X-ray.

Kimbrough said in both cases the delay seemed to stem from the
University of Texas Medical Branch health service, which provides
health care for both the adult and youth prison systems. UTMB has been
criticized in the past for providing inadequate care.

Kimbrough said state investigators also have reopened a TYC case
involving excessive use of force by a guard at the TYC Al Price Unit in
Beaumont.

Kimbrough said there are so many problems within TYC that his first
week on the job was like being a soldier landing at Normandy in World
War II and not knowing which way to turn first. But he said the goal is
obvious.

"We know where we're going. We're going to Berlin," Kimbrough said.