Thursday, December 11, 2008

Sleeper Part 2?

Nothing disgusts me more than sexual abuse of kids under the age of 18. Now, a repulsive story out of Texas about sexual abuse of powerless teen males at a juvenile detention center. What bothers me the most about it, complaints were filed, test conducted, investigations carried out, "DNA samples collected" and yet, two years have passed since there has been any action on this case.
When Dwight Harris, executive director of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), appeared before the Senate Finance Committee at the Capitol on February 1 to discuss his agency’s fiscal needs for the next biennium, he came prepared for some tough questions. It has been a difficult year for the troubled agency, which oversees the system of correctional facilities for boys and young men known as state schools. Last summer, federal agents investigated allegations of abuse following a riot at the Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg. The findings of that investigation are still pending, as is a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit filed by several students. Statewide, the agency suffered a 48 percent turnover rate among staff last year. The recidivism rate for inmates, Harris told the panel, is hovering around 50 percent. Yet Harris was clearly not prepared when Sen. Juan Hinojosa, a Democrat from McAllen, asked about an alleged case of sex abuse by staff members at the West Texas State School in the rural town of Pyote west of Odessa.

The incident was a particularly ugly one, though few people outside the Permian Basin have ever heard of it. Following an investigation by the Texas Rangers and the FBI in February and March 2005, two of the highest-ranking officials at the school—the assistant superintendent, Ray Brookins, and the principal, John Paul Hernandez—were accused of having sexual relations with several students over an extended period. Both men denied the allegations, but investigators collected dozens of statements from students and staff, conducted polygraph tests on students, and collected DNA samples from semen-stained carpet and furniture at the school, according to a TYC inspector who assisted with the investigation. Yet there has been virtually no mention of the case in the media since the two men resigned nearly two years ago, nor have there been any arrests. Harris told the Senate panel that the investigation was closed. He also asserted it was the agency that alerted the Texas Rangers to the case and that his staff had done everything in their power to address the problems at Pyote...

Time to go after Texas Governor Rick Perry. His inaction is criminal.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick all knew about the acts of sexual violence being perpetrated on youthful offenders at the Texas Youth Commission as early as last fall.
But none bothered to act until this week.

Of course the corruption doesn't end there, our good buddy, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales knew at the same time as Gov. Perry what was happening and did nothing.

I guess they figure that will prevent those young criminals from ever doing anything wrong again. And sick adult men in positions of power get away with criminal behavior again. A sick fucking world we live in!

h/t McCamy Taylor at DU

8 comments:

iamcoyote said...

Hmmm. Odessa. Didn't KopBusters just bust a bunch of cops for illegal search of a house they were growing xmas trees at? Why anyone would live in that state is beyond me. I hates Texas, and I was born there!

Judith said...

Gee, maybe the Franklin secret group is still alive and the call-boy tutoring business is still alive.

Anjha said...

holy crap.

This is sad.

I know that SoS 's post is really sad too and I can barely get through it - probably why I went off doing what I did...lookit that link though.

I do not think that I have ever seen anything like that.

Seven of Six said...

Anjha, It's still early. We will have to see, December is always a slow month. But only 40K so far and the month is almost 1/2 over... doesn't look good.

eRiposte and Turkana owe it to Steve to inject more life back into TLC.

Interesting to note, the pie fights for Hillary vs Barack were crazier than the ones for McSame vs Barack!

iamcoyote said...

You know, it's like that all over the blogs. I think it's a combination of xmas, post-election drop off, worry about jobs, etc. It'll prolly pick back up in January, especially if the bottom drops out. Why would 'pukes risk putting millions out of jobs just before xmas? It just doesn't seem even strategically beneficial to them.

Seven of Six said...

B of A is going to lay off 35,000.
Just had a friend of mine e-mail me, worked for Silicon Graphics Inc. in Sunnyvale for 17 years... out of a job last Friday.

IT professional if you know anyone hiring.

Seven of Six said...

...Silicon Graphics Inc. in Sunnyvale...

That be Mountain View, hey, I was close...

Anjha said...

I think it's a combination of xmas, post-election drop off, worry about jobs, etc. It'll prolly pick back up in January, especially if the bottom drops out.

I hope so. It was really sad to see those stats.

B of A is going to lay off 35,000.

The news just keeps getting crappier and crappier.

And the Southern Fucks just killed the auto industry.