AUSTIN — Her son, Joseph, was beaten and molested — including a violent rape by a fellow inmate while a guard stood nearby — at three Texas Youth Commission facilities, Genger Galloway told a federal commission Tuesday.

But a caseworker at the Crockett State School, where Joseph, 19, is now confined, rebuked mother and son when she complained about the sexual assault, Galloway testified.

"She said, 'We'll handle this internally, our own way,'" Galloway told the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission.

The panel, charged with investigating sexual abuse in detention facilities and reporting its findings and recommendations for reform to Congress, spent part of a visit to Austin focusing on the state commission's sex abuse scandal.

The Legislature, meanwhile, continued its own investigation. One lawmaker accused the newly appointed head of the agency of moving too slowly to enact sweeping changes.

"I'm not seeing the radical changes that we're expecting in terms of reform, protection of youthful offenders, and employees. We're studying this to death," state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston and co-chairman of a legislative committee overseeing the agency, told acting Executive Director Ed Owens. "It's time to act, heads to roll."

Owens acknowledged that the agency hasn't improved training for guards, improved its grievance system or bought additional surveillance cameras in the four weeks since Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to head the agency.

But Owens said he would present lawmakers with a detailed plan for reforms Thursday.

Galloway, who lives in Crockett and whose testimony before the federal panel was often graphic, said, "The lives of my entire family have been turned upside down."

Typically, the San Antonio Express-News does not identify rape victims but is doing so in this case because the mother was testifying in a federal commission's public hearing.

Galloway said Joseph, who has been diagnosed as possibly bipolar, got into trouble for "inappropriately" touching his twin siblings.

The family reported his conduct to the authorities, hoping he would receive mental health treatment. He initially received probation but was confined in state custody in 2003 to keep Child Protective Services from removing his siblings from the family's home, Galloway said.

Galloway testified that Joseph never has been treated for mental health problems but has suffered repeated physical abuse. He was beaten and his nose was broken during his initial confinement at the Marlin State School, she said.

Galloway said Joseph was transferred to the Giddings State School, where a female staffer performed oral sex on him. Later at Giddings, his mother said, a guard put Joseph in a locked disciplinary cell with an 18-year-old inmate who had told the staffer to put the two in the same place because he wanted to have sex with Joseph.

According to his mother, Joseph was beaten and raped while the guard stood a few feet away. The same officer, she said, committed suicide two weeks later.

Shortly before Joseph was transferred to Crockett on Feb. 1, he was beaten by a fellow inmate and suffered a broken jaw at the Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg, his mother testified.

Joseph's stay in state schools also has been marked by more than 300 disciplinary infractions, according to a letter sent to his mother in January 2006 by Dwight Harris, then the agency's executive director.

The Express-News obtained a copy of the letter from the governor's office after Harris resigned as the scandal was unfolding.

According to Harris' letter, Joseph Galloway's initial offense was aggravated sexual assault and that he was confined for violating probation.

But Scott Medlock, Genger Galloway's attorney, said she asked the court to revoke her son's probation in order to prevent CPS from removing his siblings from the household.

"To earn his release status, Joseph needs to fully participate in our agency's resocialization program," Harris said in his January 2006 letter to the inmate's mother.

"He has done well in academics and is maintaining his progress in correctional therapy; however, he has fluctuated in his behavior phase and needs to work much harder to be less disruptive and demonstrate that he understands how to interact with others."

Galloway, who has become a leader of parents seeking reforms in the TYC, said her son is now "hopeful."

But she added, "How defeated he will be if he is not released soon."