Investigators found that a correctional officer had sexually abused several teenage inmates at a state juvenile prison. Others at the prison said their complaints about the officer were ignored for months. A criminal inquiry sputtered and lagged.

But this was not the West Texas State School, that now-notorious youth prison that has infuriated legislators and the governor. This happened at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Brownwood, another Texas Youth Commission unit.

As state officials move quickly to sweep TYC's management clean – a result of the West Texas sexual abuse and subsequent cover-up – the scope of the scandal is expanding. On the floor of the state Senate this week, McAllen Democrat Juan Hinojosa briefly offered Brownwood as proof that the West Texas affair "is not an isolated incident."

An investigation by The Dallas Morning News supports that conclusion.

LaQuetta Day, a former correctional officer at the Brownwood unit, agrees.

"The Texas Youth Commission is a haven for child molesters," she said. "These kids have been raped their whole lives. Shouldn't this be the one place they're safe?"

A TYC investigation determined that a guard at Brownwood repeatedly gave drugs and candy to least three girls, one as young as 15, in exchange for sex.

The guard, Allen James Sullivan, resigned in 2005. Brownwood police say his case is still under investigation.

TYC officials say they handled the Brownwood case as well as possible. "We went above and beyond trying to figure out what went on," said Daniel Humeniuk, former superintendent of the Brownwood unit.

Sexual abuse was confirmed, Mr. Humeniuk said Thursday, "but that's where the parallels between this and West Texas stop."

Martina Carter, a former inmate in Brownwood, told The Dallas Morning News that she reported witnessing the same guard having sex with an inmate at least six months before the TYC launched an investigation. No one followed up on her complaints, Ms. Carter said.

"They knew everything that was going on," said Ms. Carter, 21. "They chose not to change it."

Responded Mr. Humeniuk: "Martina Carter, to my knowledge, never reported anything."

Wanda Drew, the TYC supervisor to whom Ms. Carter said she spoke, angrily denied her accusations. "All complaints that were forwarded to me were given to the superintendent," she said.

Suspicions, Ms. Drew said, should be directed at inmates who say such things.

"They are criminals," Ms. Drew said. "They are not children, as you keep calling them. They have survived in this world by learning how to manipulate and using it to their advantage."

TYC incarcerates the state's most violent and incorrigible offenders, ages 10 to 21. Most don't have criminal records because they are adjudicated as delinquent in a civil hearing and committed to TYC for open-ended periods. Their behavior determines when they are released.

About 60 percent of them come from low-income homes. More than half have families with criminal histories, and 36 percent had a childhood history of abuse or neglect. Some 80 percent have IQs below the mean score of 100.

TYC inmates have filed hundreds of sexual abuse complaints against corrections officers within the last few years. The vast majority were not confirmed by commission investigators.

Inmates sometimes use sexual abuse allegations to target a guard whom they don't like, officials say. Allegations can be difficult to investigate, with few or no witnesses and little evidence.

And some are simply not pursued. The News reported last month that TYC officials ignored signs that two administrators at the West Texas State School were sexually abusing inmates. A TYC internal review found that agency officials failed to act on, and in some cases covered up, reports of suspicious behavior.

Since then, the executive director of TYC abruptly retired, the governor booted the board chairman and the state Senate recommended that the governor appoint an independent panel to take over the agency.

The criminal investigation of the two West Texas administrators languished for two years but was revived after reporters, legislators and the governor's office began to make inquiries.

At Brownwood, Ms. Carter – in TYC for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon – said she stumbled upon Mr. Sullivan having sex with another inmate in 2003. She said she went to the dorm supervisor.

"I said, 'I think you need to know about this,'" said Ms. Carter. "She took my information, but she didn't even ask for a signature after she wrote it. That's how I knew nothing would happen."

That's false, said Ms. Drew, the supervisor: "Every allegation that was ever made to me was reported."

Former guard Day, 42, said she first became suspicious about Mr. Sullivan in early 2004. He was spending too much time being "very friendly" with one 16-year-old female inmate, she said.

She complained to Ms. Drew, she said. "Her comment to me was, 'I've been through this with him before and I'll have a talk with him.' " She assumed, Ms. Day said, that this meant no formal complaint would be filed.

But Mr. Humeniuk said Mr. Sullivan was investigated and was warned "that if he was spending too much time with one person, that was inappropriate."

By mid-2004, TYC documents show, the allegations against Mr. Sullivan had turned far more serious: He was accused of sexually abusing two teenage inmates. Mr. Humeniuk said investigators aggressively pursued the allegations, but their crucial witness – the inmate with whom Mr. Sullivan had been spending too much time – would not cooperate.

"She states, 'Mr. Sullivan is the greatest guy,' " Mr. Humeniuk said. Investigators decided the allegations were unconfirmed. The girls appealed that to TYC's central office in Austin, but the findings were upheld.

Mr. Sullivan was moved to a male dorm, Mr. Humeniuk said.

But a year later the same central witness changed her story. TYC investigators ultimately confirmed that Mr. Sullivan had sex with three girls in a storage closet at the Freedom dorm.

Ray Worsham, TYC's director of youth care investigations, said the girls were 15, 16 and 17. "He would offer them Xanax [an anti-anxiety drug], candy or other little privileges," Mr. Worsham said.

The abuse occurred, Mr. Worsham said, with Mr. Sullivan in view of surveillance cameras but with the girls in the closet, and out of camera range.

"We reviewed hundreds of hours of videotape," Mr. Worsham said.

Mr. Sullivan, 41, resigned from his $32,000-a-year job in August 2005. He told The News recently that he did not want to talk about the case. "What's done is done," he said. "They can think what they want, but I know the truth."

Asked if he had committed sexual abuse of inmates, he answered, "There's nothing to hide."

Mr. Humeniuk hand-carried a letter confirming TYC's findings against Mr. Sullivan to Brownwood police in October 2005. He said he hoped that criminal prosecution would quickly follow.

Detective Larry Owings of the Brownwood police wrote in an e-mail this week that the case against Mr. Sullivan "has been and is definitely being pursued."

TYC provided his department with "very detailed information," Mr. Owings said. "I hope to present this case to our grand jury for their consideration and possible indictment."

Asked by The News why the matter has taken more than 16 months to investigate, Mr. Owings replied: "Every case has its own unique set of circumstances, attributes and complexities that must be addressed. This one is no different. Unfortunately, I can't be any more specific than that at this point in time."

Mr. Humeniuk, who now teaches at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, said no one at the Ron Jackson unit had any reason to protect Mr. Sullivan.

But now, he acknowledged, the stain of the West Texas State School is spreading.

"On the surface, they all look bad. They all look like cover-ups," he said. "But we weren't covering up."