The Texas Youth Commission: A Texas Tragedy.

The following opinion piece contains information gathered from a number of sources. Relevant portions of linked articles will be quoted within the text and credited to their source. There is a lot of history to cover before I can get to the meat of my opinion.

As many know, The Texas Youth Commission has been caught up in a storm of allegations of rampant Abuse.

The TYC, originally established as the Texas Youth Development Council in 1949 and changed to the Texas Youth Commission in 1983, has been under fire since the first accusations of abuse at the West Texas State School surfaced on February 18, 2007. As we are now learning, this story goes back much further in the timeline.

On February 1, 2007 during a budget discussion with the State Senate, Executive Director Dwight Harris was asked a pointed question about the allegations of Sexual Abuse coming from the West Texas State School. According to the Texas Observer's contributing writer Nate Blakeslee, Director Harris was unprepared for such a question.

The following is quoted directly from the Texas Observer article:

"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."

The claims made by Harris are half truths at best.

• The investigation is not closed.
• It was a volunteer math tutor that contacted the Texas Rangers.
• And the investigation by the administration was both slow and lacking.

However, it is understandable that he might have thought so since no action had been taken in the criminal investigation for over a year.

Furthermore, the Texas Observer article states that no arrests have been made in the case and that John Paul Hernandez is presently working as a principal of a charter school in Midland.

The observer points out that the problems at Pyote began when both Brookins and Hernandez were hired on to the facility. They also note that warning signs about both men were overlooked. Brookins had 10 disciplinary actions on his record when he was hired at Pyote. Brookins had so many unpaid parking tickets that the State Patrol finally came to his place of work to arrest him. Chip Harrison, the man who hired Brookins admitted that he did not review Brookins' personnel file before hiring him and that he also failed to review the file before promoting him to assistant superintendent.

Blakeslee notes in his report for the Observer that, "According to the agency’s internal review, as early as December 2003, only two months into Brookins’ tenure, low-ranking Pyote staff members were already complaining that he was taking youths from the dorms late at night and bringing them into the administration building. Brookins was alone with the students for hours, sometimes into the early morning. The visits were ostensibly for cleaning, though other students were already assigned to clean the building during the day. "

And that, "Hernandez was also known for spending time alone with students, often behind locked doors in the education building, according to the internal review."

Despite numerous complaints from administrators, teachers and students the abuse continued for another two years. The actions, abuses, lack of actions read like a Hollywood Movie Script. Brookins rose to power, alienating staff, interfering with Students release dates, bullied a secretary into giving him the key to the student complaint box and using those complaints against the students.

When the TYC finally sent Lydia Barnard in response to a letter sent directly to TYC headquarters in Austin from Billy Hollis, a case worker at Pyote, she reported that each of the allegations were "unfounded". She had once been Brookins supervisor at another TYC facility in San Saba and knew him well. "In her official response to Hollis’ complaint, she chastised Hollis to do his job better and to be more supportive of Brookins. "

Eventually, Mark Slattery, a volunteer math tutor, contacted the Texas Rangers after being contacted by two students with claims that one of them had been "victimized" by Brookins and they knew of at least five other students having similar experiences with the Assistant Superintendent.

Once the Rangers began investigating it took very little time to confirm the allegations against both Brookins and Hernandez. Both men were suspended as the investigations proceeded but neither was arrested. Brookins and Hernandez eventually resigned but neither had been arrested.

Initially the case was sent to the US attorney in San Antonio who decided that state penalties would be greater than federal penalties and thus bounced it back to state attorneys who sat on it for almost two years.

Fast forward to January 22, 2007 when the Texas Youth Commission releases this press release.

"If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Texas Youth Commission employees and all of those who have had a hand in designing and operating Texas’ juvenile correctional system have even more reasons to be proud. The agency has enjoyed national and international acclaim in recent years, and 2007 is shaping up to be no different. When people want to see what works in the world of rehabilitating juvenile delinquents, TYC is among the first places they visit. This month, a movie producer, a documentary film-maker, the Korean Broadcast System, a major media outlet in Houston, and a national French magazine have all visited or scheduled trips to TYC facilities.
“It goes without saying that people all over want to see what we’re doing in Texas. These visitors all contacted us about touring our facilities. In each case, they want to show their audiences what we do in hopes of improving youth treatment programs and reducing juvenile crime in their respective countries and cities,” said TYC Executive Director Dwight Harris. “It’s an incredible compliment to our staff and state leadership that when these people think of successful youth treatment programs, they think of TYC.”
The movie producer from Hollywood has purchased the rights to the life story of a former TYC youth who wrote a manuscript about his experiences, including his time in TYC during the 1990s. The award-winning documentary filmmaker is interested in profiling the Capital and Serious Violent Offender Treatment Program at Giddings State School. These projects are both in the pre-production stages.
The Korean Broadcast System, with as many as 150 million viewers, reaching South Korean and 15 other countries, shot a story at TYC’s West Texas State School in Pyote, Texas. They plan to air the interviews and footage in late January during a program equivalent to 60 Minutes in the United States. They’re profiling treatment programs for the youngest offenders sent to TYC – those ages 10 to 14.
Television audiences in Houston will soon get an in-depth look at the TYC treatment programs. They’ll also hear from rival gang members who would have killed each other four years ago, but have since become best friends in TYC and are now helping each other to changes their lives.
In France, a growing juvenile crime problem has become one of the top issues in the country’s presidential campaign. The elections are in April. A major magazine in Paris will visit several TYC facilities at the end of January and the beginning of February. They plan to produce an in-depth look at how the United States, mostly Texas, successfully rehabilitates young people who chose the wrong side of the law. The article will feature a huge photo-spread. Currently, they hope to visit: Giddings State School, Sheffield Boot Camp, the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit, and possibly the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex, the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, and the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Complex."

Source.

Yes, all was well at the Texas Youth Commission.

Then on January 27, 2007 KXAN in Austin ran this story.

"
There are allegations of prisoner abuse, not in Iraq, but here in Texas youth facilities.
They are Texas youth who are serving time for committing crimes.
Now some parents and juvenile justice advocates allege the system is victimizing the same young offenders it should be trying to help.
"We do not tolerate abuse in any of the Texas Youth Commission facilities," TYC Board Chairman Pete Alfaro said.
TYC leaders admit that didn't stop recent cases of abuse in their Evins unit in the valley.
"There was some abuse, and we regret there was abuse there," Alfaro said.
"The thing is it's been going on, and I've been trying to bring it up to the Legislature the abuse and neglect they've been doing to my son," Austin dad Rick Luna said.
"When I first saw this, I was enraged. I was mad. I was upset," Luna said.
This Austin dad claims he's seen the effects of the problem on his son's body.
"If I did what they're doing to my son, I'd have Child Protective Services all over me," Luna said.
"Last year they had over 1,400 complaints and over 500 of these complaints were actually confirmed that they were actual abuses," Juan Sanchez with the Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles said.
Addressing abuse and alleged over representation of youth of color and lack of alternative treatments draws Luna and other parents and juvenile justice advocates to the TYC's board meetings.
"Four years of my son's life are gone it's been wasted," Luna said.
"It's sad that those things have happened there but all I can say is there's always two sides to the story," Alfaro said.
Alfaro says we've been monitoring this and if you look at the last five years for example there's really no increase in abuse at all. Slight increase in neglect.
A TYC statement says the commission has increased oversight and is taking disciplinary action against eight employees since the events at Evins."

Source.

An example for the rest of the world to emulate, of course.

The report for the Observer by Nate Blakeslee is credited for bringing the situation at Pyote to light and the media finally jumped on board almost two years after the Texas Rangers completed their investigation.

• On February 23, 2007 Executive Director Dwight Harris resigned.
• On February 26, 2007 Senator Hinojosa proposes Senate Bill 103.
• On February 28, 2007 Governor Rick Perry fired the Texas Youth Commission Board Chairman and the Executive Director.
• On March 01, 2007 Lawmakers met to discuss putting the TYC into a conservatorship and firing the remaining board members serving the TYC. Governor Perry expressed reluctance to do that instead offering the alternative of naming a top official from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as acting executive director. Source.
• March 05, 2007 Marc Slattery receives termination letter from TYC. Mr. Slattery was the volunteer math tutor who first contacted Texas Rangers about the abuse at Pyote. TYC officials claim that Mr. Slattery was terminated for not being an active volunteer. Source.
• On March 07, 2007 state investigators took control of all 21 TYC facilities.

"The state sent 71 officers from four law enforcement agencies to facilities all over the state. They will investigate allegations of widespread sexual molestation at the facilities and a cover-up of the abuse against children in their care.
They are running background checks and fingerprinting all 4,000 state employees.
A command center was set up in Austin at TYC headquarters.
Officials said the law enforcement agents will remain at all facilities until further notice. Their goal is to make sure the children are safe, computer and employment files are not destroyed, and potential witnesses are not harassed.
This seems pretty severe, until you consider the nearly 7,000 reports of sexual abuse, assault and neglect in the past six years, and not one person has been prosecuted.
Two high-ranking administrators at the Pyote West Texas State School were accused of molesting several boys and were simply allowed to resign. TYC Special Master Jay Kimbrough, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, said Tuesday that was about to change.
"We want those kids to know and we want anybody that works out there to know we are here," said Kimbrough. "And we're going to stay here, and we're going to come back. And if you're a part of this gig, you need to move on because we're going to find you, and we're going to prosecute you."
Kimbrough said he anticipates TYC employees will be removed from their jobs across the state.
A special prosecutor has been assigned to handle these cases.
Those two administrators from West Texas are expected to be taken into custody. One of them, Ray Brookins, lives in Austin."

Source.

• March 07, 2007 Investigators probe abuse allegations at a TYC Halfway House in El Paso.
• March 08, 2007 A guard at the Coke County facility was fired when it was discovered that he was a convicted sex offender. David Lewis had a 1999 conviction of Indecent exposure with a 5 year old girl.
• March 09, 2007 David Lewis claims he told officials of his sex offender status when he applied for the job.
• March 09, 2007 Sylvia Machado, a TYC employee was arrested in San Antonio for shredding documents after investigators orderd employees not to destroy documents.
• March 09, 2007 The Texas Ranger who investigated the abuse at Pyote testified before the Legislature. The following is quoted from the KXAN report.

""I promised each one of these victims that I would do everything in my power as a Texas Ranger to insure that justice would be served, and this didn't happen again," said Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski.
And that was just the beginning.
Lawmakers wanted to know how children at these state-run facilities were sexually abused for so long, and no one did anything about it.
Some say it became crystal clear Thursday when the newly-formed legislative committee grilled the TYC's board of directors. What is clear is that this problem seems to start at the top, and Friday morning, those TYC board members could be on their way out.
"The Rangers would not fail them, and I made that perfectly clear to each one of them," said Burzynski.
It has been nearly two years since this Texas Ranger investigated sexual abuse at the TYC facility in West Texas. Since then, the children in the care of the TYC have been failed by just about everyone."

• March 12, 2007 Prosecutors speak out about what they call false claims from the TYC that they did not take action on abuse reports.
• March 13, 2007 A Senate Panel voted to fire the TYC board.
• March 15, 2007 The Full Senate, with less than ten minutes of debate, voted to fire the TYC Board.
• March 15, 2007 A TYC guard was arrested for a sexual assault that occourred while he worked at an adult prison.
• The entire TYC board resigns.
• March 20, 2007 General Counsel Neil Nichols and TYC Deputy Executive Director Linda Reyes resign.
• March 23, 2007 Superintendent of the TYC intake facility in Marlin, Jerome Parsee was arrested for lying to Texas Rangers about allegations of Sexual Abuse at his facility.
• March 23, 2007 Termination proceedings begin for Emily Helms of the TYC Legal department over responses she gave investigators.
• March 23, 2007 Investigators, Prosecutors and Juvenile Prison officials began a review of almost all Juvenille sentences to see if any were extended unfairly.
• March 27, 2007 State Panel votes to appoint TYC Conservator.

That brings us up to today. A lot has happened in the last month. A lot that should have happened four years ago when the Abuse reports first began coming out of Pyote.

But what of Hernandez and Brookins? As of today, according to the information I have been able to find, they still have not been arrested and I have to ask why?

So many grievous mistakes have been made, no mistakes is too kind a way to describe the actions taken or not taken in the wake of these abuse allegations. Incompetence, laziness, ambiguity and hubris all work, all apply.

The most important question is how, after the Texas Rangers concluded their investigation, could these crimes go un-prosecuted for two years? How could the judicial system in this state fail these children so throroughly? And why, why is no one screaming about that? It has been eclipsed by the larger scandal, but it is no less important nor less disturbing. The judicial turned a blind eye to sexual predators working and thriving in this states youth facilities. Their dereliction of duty must be explained and it must be punished.

The failure of the judiciary reached a Federal level, current Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and US Attorney Johnny Sutton failed to prosecute Brookins and Hernandez after the Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski completed his investigation.

"Burzynski presented his findings to the attorney general in Texas, to the U.S. Attorney Sutton, and to the Department of Justice civil rights division. From all three, Burzynski received no interest in prosecuting the alleged sexual offenses. " Source.

"In the Texas Youth Commission scandal, Texas Ranger official Burzynski received a July 28, 2005, letter from Bill Baumann, assistant U.S. attorney in Sutton's office, declining prosecution on the argument that under 18 U.S.C. Section 242, the government would have to demonstrate that the boys subjected to sexual abuse sustained "bodily injury." Baumann wrote that, "As you know, our interviews of the victims revealed that none sustained 'bodily injury.'"
Baumann's letter continued, adding a definition of the phrase "bodily injury," as follows: "Federal courts have interpreted this phrase to include physical pain. None of the victims have claimed to have felt physical pain during the course of the sexual assaults which they described."
Baumann's letter further suggested that insufficient evidence existed to prove the offenders in the Texas Youth Commission case had used force in their alleged acts of pedophilia: "A felony charge under 18 U.S.C. Section 242 can also be predicated on the commission of 'aggravated sexual abuse' or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse. The offense of aggravated sexual abuse is proven with evidence that the perpetrator knowingly caused his victim to engage in a sexual act (which can include contact between the mouth and penis) by using force against the victim or by threatening or placing the victim in fear that the victim (or any other person) will be subjected to death, serious bodily injury or kidnapping. I do not believe that sufficient evidence exists to support a charge that either Brookins or Hernandez used force to cause victims to engage in a sexual act."
Baumann's letter went so far as to suggest that the victims may have willingly participated in, or even enjoyed, the acts of pedophilia involved: "As you know, consent is frequently an issue in sexual assault cases. Although none of the victims admit that they consented to the sexual contact, none resisted or voiced any objection to the conduct. Several of the victims suggested that they were simply 'getting off' on the school administrator." Source.

I am saddend beyond the point that I have adequate words to describe at the attitude taken by our US Attorney's office. Saddened more that they chose to ignore the abuse because of politics.

""The letters justify not pursuing these cases because, number one, there is no evidence that any of these juveniles felt physical pain while they were being assaulted, and the letters use the word 'assaulted,'" he said. "And then also, they rejected prosecution because none of these juveniles stated in the investigations that they resisted and objected, which of course the facts of the report show to be the case. This case developed right in the middle of Governor Perry's 2006 re-election campaign. While Texas is a Republican state, and the Republicans expected to win, still at that time, Governor Perry was facing an election challenge from Carole Strayhorn, a third party candidate who was also a former Republican comptroller in Texas."
He continued: "I would speculate that the political powers in Texas and Washington in the Republican Party were not interested in this sex scandal coming to light. Sutton and Gonzales let their political responsibilities outstrip their legal responsibilities, and as a result you had children who were in danger of sexual abuse and were left in that danger."
Angle says that while the U.S. Justice Department and Texas attorney general's office were not prosecuting in this case, they were actively pursuing minor voter fraud issues with only a handful of allegations to go on. " Source.

Were the people served by this? No, they weren't. They were more concerned with partisan politics and winning elections than with the children charged to their care.

They didn't care, these were criminal minors and they had more important things to do. The TYC, the US Attorney, The District Attorneys, the Texas AG all they way up to Governor Rick Perry are culpable in this offensive dereliction of duty.

The TYC is a Texas Tragedy but it is a national failure.

Perverting the Facts: 1984 Citizen Ad Linked to Firm working for Barack Obama

Links courtesy of ABC, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and CNN.

I have read all four articles. I will be dissecting the first paragraphs of each article.

First ABC. This is the very first paragraph in the report filed by Jake Tapper,

"The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was rocked by revelations Wednesday night that one of its contracted employees was the creator of a scathing YouTube video against his opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., despite Obama's insistence that he had nothing to do with it.

Now lets take a look at the first paragraph from MSNBC's report filed by NBC's Andrea Mitchel and MSNBC's Alex Johnson,

"The creator of the faux-Apple ad against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been unmasked as a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to Sen. Barack Obama, NBC News confirmed Wednesday night - leaving Obama on the spot."

Onward to Fox News and the report filed by Carl Cameron and Corbett Riner,

"WASHINGTON — The anonymous creator of the video comparing a future with Hillary Clinton as president to the world in George Orwell's '1984' is an ex-employee of a digital consulting firm with ties to rival candidate Sen. Barack Obama."

And finally CNN's report on the matter filed by I don't know because I couldn't find a name,

"NEW YORK (CNN) -- The mystery behind who produced an elaborate Internet ad slamming Sen. Hillary Clinton and promoting Sen. Barack Obama has been solved.
Phillip de Vellis, a Democrat and Obama supporter, said he made the video "because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process."

What is important to note here is the language that is used in four separate reports filed by four separate news outlets.

ABC, by far the most provocative of the group uses phrases like "The campaign was rocked, Scathing Ad and one of it's contracted employees." each of these are at best a stretch of the truth and at worst an outright perversion of the truth.

MSNBC used phrases like, " a democratic operative, with ties to Senator Barack Obama" well I suppose they should get points for leaving out the Senator from Illinois middle name. The term Democratic operative is an outright lie when applied to Mr. de Vellis. He's a man who worked for a business that served Obama's web based campaign. He didn't even work on that account, but his company did. How does this make him an operative?

FOX News's coverage surprised me a bit, they were much more moderate than either ABC or MSNBC, in fact it was almost just the facts. They should have specified that it was a technology firm and not a campaign strategy firm, but the ambigous nature of consulting firm is still very close to the truth.

CNN was just the facts ma'am. No provocative language, no innuendo and no perversion of the facts.

Now, why would four news outlets cover the same story in such strikingly different manner? Why would ABC and MSNBC choose to slant the story so sharply as to make Senator Obama look like he not only condoned the ad but also had a hand in the creative process when there is zero evidence to support those allegations.

It is long past time to hold media accountable to standards of honesty and fairness. The government cannot do this, but the public and sponsors should. If a news source is unable to print or broadcast the news factually they should be relegated to "Tabloid" status.

From a personal perspective I am most disappointed with MSNBC, in the past I have found them to be honest in their reporting. I have drafted a letter to both ABC and MSNBC about the way in which this story was reported. I hope, that if you believe as I do, you will do the same.

The Maiden Post.

Just what the internets need, another political blog...

I chose Three Sides as the title of this blog because it is appropriate for our times. With all the rhetoric gushing forth from our elected officials it becomes increasingly hard to determine who, if anyone, is being truthful. I often find that the truth lies some where in between the two sides of an argument. To be sure that is not a revolutionary idea, but it is one that seems oft ignored in the political discourse of the day.

I invite comments, criticism and most importantly opposing opinions. This isn't really about me just being able to read the font of my own typing; I want to discuss and even understand where people are coming from. We're divided, but there has to be common ground some where.

Comments will not be moderated, however, I do reserve the right to openly ridicule extremely idiotic comments in the Hall Of Shame.

Have fun and be informed.