TYC Scandal: Justice Department Knew About Juvenile Prison Abuses For Years, Did Nothing

In some truly Pulitzer-worthy coverage, the Dallas Morning News ran a piece Sunday which exposed the depth of the U.S. Department of Justice’s knowledge–and subsequent lack of action–with regard to the Texas Youth Commission sex scandal:

Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski detailed abuses at the West Texas State School in a 229-page report and worked with the federal attorneys who ultimately dropped the case.

Federal watchdogs discreetly collected information and discussed fine legal points as the assaults piled up. More than 2,000 allegations of staff abusing inmates were confirmed by the Texas Youth Commission from January 2003 to December 2006.

The Justice Department ultimately declined to prosecute anyone at TYC or do anything to compel agency-wide reforms.

Attorneys said they were constrained by narrowly drawn laws and insufficient evidence. But there was also a political climate at Justice that discouraged prosecution of official misconduct cases, former department attorneys said.

The lack of federal action against TYC left oversight to state officials who had looked the other way as administrators used threats of longer sentences or the promise of college assistance to have sex with young prisoners.

“There is no reason why a vigorous Department of Justice could not have gone in with a broom and cleaned up the TYC,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat. “They are just not interested, and that is a tragedy.”

Ms. Jackson Lee, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and frequent critic of the Bush administration, called federal TYC investigations “shallow” and the department’s lack of aggression “a clear dereliction of duty.”

Evidently, the TYC scandal was simply a ‘victim’ of the systematic DOJ program of ignoring civil rights violations during the Bush administration:

Justice Department statistics show a steady decline in almost every category of civil rights prosecutions under the Bush administration, according to an independent analysis by Syracuse University researchers who track the data.

In 2005, the year federal attorneys declined to prosecute sex abuse allegations at TYC’s West Texas State School, there were only 20 prosecutions of law enforcement officers nationwide, the analysis showed. That was the lowest annual total in a decade.

The Justice Department sharply disputes suggestions it has been weak on civil rights enforcement and says the Syracuse study is flawed.

But critics contend what happened in Texas reflects the federal government’s lack of political will to enforce civil rights laws, which provide a constitutional safety net to state inaction.

“It amounts to state-sanctioned child abuse,” said David Utter, an attorney who directs the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. “There is no question that the kids have a right to protection, a right to treatment. There is plenty of law to be enforced. One has to assume it’s lack of will.”

Questions about the federal government’s handling of the TYC abuse scandal come amid the growing political controversy enveloping the Justice Department under Attorney General Al Gonzales. Skeptics question whether the federal decision-making was guided by an unwillingness to take on a politically explosive issue in his and the president’s home state.

The story is very lengthy and, quite simply, does an excellent job, so rehashing more of it here is really unnecessary, so we’ll direct you to the story itself.

We do want to draw your attention, however to the Texas Ranger’s Report on the TYC scandal. To our knowledge, this is the first time it has been released to the public. To fully understand the depth of the abuses that went on you should read the report. But, please be warned: it is highly graphic and not work-friendly if you are reading the blog from the office.

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