A Texas Youth Commission policy may have dead-ended hundreds of abuse and neglect complaints from its juvenile lockups by providing local law enforcement with too little information for follow-up, even if there was a case for prosecution, investigators revealed Monday.

That errant delivery of scant information during the past six years could explain why so few cases were prosecuted, investigators said.

In all, a confidential agency report shows, 684 cases involving accusations of sexual misconduct between staff members and incarcerated youths were reported between January 2000 and October 2006. Only 75 were referred to local authorities for possible prosecution, and fewer than that were prosecuted.

"We're investigating now, but this looks like it may be the crux of the cover-up that went on," said one investigator with knowledge of the details. He asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Alerted to the problem, Special Master Jay Kimbrough said Monday that he has ordered the notification policy changed and that investigators will review abuse cases filed in recent years "to see if there is anything that should be pursued."

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, whose office is investigating accusations of record-tampering by Youth Commission officials, said he may be interested in the notification issue as well.

According to state investigators who are tracking the details, what happened was this:

When Youth Commission investigators received reports of abuse or neglect, they would notify a local law enforcement agency, as required by state law. When the Youth Commission's investigation was complete, the local law enforcement agency was sent a notification of the finding. No case file was forwarded for review. No other information was provided. And no other action was taken, according to state investigators.

Most of the so-called notifications contained little information for law enforcement, much less whether there was reason for prosecution, investigators said.

In fact, prosecutors in several Texas counties said they think that many of the faxes went to police records divisions, not to criminal investigators who could have followed up.

The general pattern was similar with many of the 6,400 total cases — sexual and otherwise — reported to Youth Commission authorities in the past six years, state investigators said.

One such case, which was not sexual in nature, has apparently turned up already in which a correctional officer at the Al Price State Juvenile Correctional Facility outside Beaumont was referred for criminal prosecution Monday, accused of biting an incarcerated youth months ago in a tussle over a mattress.

"We have a confession of excessive force," Kimbrough said. "The investigation by TYC officials had been closed. We reopened it. We're referring it for criminal charges."

Other details about the Al Price case were not immediately available Monday, Kimbrough and other officials said.

Several members of a posse of prosecutors who converged Monday on the Capitol to dispel complaints that they had not aggressively prosecuted abuse cases, said they only recently became aware of the faxed notifications. Most were angered by the miscue.

"They did not report it to me," said Falls County District Attorney Jodi Gilliam, whose district southeast of Waco contains the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit. "The faxes would indicate a case was closed but not confirmed. They would send them to the police department. . . . There was nothing to follow up on."

"I have not received any referrals," she said, explaining that the Youth Commission's notifications were faxed to a local department's records unit, not even to detectives.

Colorado County District Attorney Ken Sparks, whose district used to have a juvenile lockup, told the House Corrections Committee that six of the 16 cases that Youth Commission officials say were not prosecuted were never even referred to local law enforcement. Three were prosecuted, one was declined because of insufficient evidence and three are pending in a West Texas State School case. There, two administrators, both of whom have resigned, are accused of having sex with male inmates.

The attorney general's office last week announced that it will make an initial presentation in that case in two weeks to a grand jury in Ward County, where the school is located. State prosecutors took over from a local prosecutor who did not file charges for almost two years.

Sparks was among several prosecutors who bristled at suggestions by Youth Commission officials that local law enforcement or prosecutors were somehow to blame.

"What they need to do is look in the mirror to find where the fault is," Sparks said. He noted that the juvenile lockup in his county, operated under a contract with the Youth Commission, has closed.

Rob Kepple, executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said late Monday that the Youth Commission's official notification system on possible crimes definitely bears further scrutiny.