A year after the sexual and physical abuse of young inmates by Texas Youth Commission wardens was disclosed, little has improved and the  agency's leadership continues to founder. 

Entrusted with the custody of thousands of Texas teenagers with  behavioral problems, the agency remains a ship adrift in need of a strong captain rather than another deck chair shuffle. 

The forced resignation Monday of Acting Director Dimitria Pope by Conservator Richard Nedelkoff has key state legislators wondering  what measures are necessary to get the TYC out of crisis. Last week Nedelkoff, a gubernatorial appointee and the third person to hold the position in the last 12 months, repeatedly told lawmakers at a hearing that he had not decided who would be named full-time director. He was then embarrassed when Pope testified that he had  already ruled her out. Nedelkoff later demanded that Pope resign or  be fired, and she stepped down. 

Pope was brought in from the adult prison program to manage TYC after  the previous director and board of trustees resigned. She was  criticized for expanding the use of pepper spray to subdue juvenile  inmates, ignoring a report on excessive use of solitary confinement  and approving the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars for  office furnishings. 

Nedelkoff's own decisions have come under fire. He receives a  $160,000 annual salary for his state position, but he also kept his  CEO position at Eckerd Youth Alternatives, a Florida company that is  in the juvenile corrections business. After becoming TYC conservator, he brought in several consultants with links to Eckerd. After being called on the issue last week, he resigned from the firm, a hollow  gesture, as he will likely return to it after the temporary  conservator position expires. 

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the chair of the Senate Criminal  Justice Committee, is an admirer of Pope's performance in the state  prison system and said she was in an impossible position at TYC  without the resources or administrative support to do the job. 

Whitmire said a top priority should be relocating isolated youth  facilities to more urban settings, where most of the inmates come  from and where medical resources and prospective employers are more  readily available. Unfortunately, legislators where the institutions  are located resist moving them and, by making the issue a hot potato,  have delayed much-needed restructuring of the system.  Whitmire said Nedelkoff's lack of candor in dealing with legislators  last week has damaged his credibility. "To be honest, I'm not sure  what we've got in this guy, and I'm going to obviously work with him,  because the stakes are too high," Whitmire said. "This agency needs  some stability, and he's going to have to prove to me he can provide  it." 

It's shocking and unacceptable that after a year of attempted reform of the TYC by the governor and the Legislature, so little has been accomplished and so much remains to be done.