GOP Leadership In Texas Did Nothing When Notified About Sex Scandals At Youth Prisons

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.

I find it amusing that, though this was the lead paragraph of a Houston Chronicle story on Thursday, that the following fact seems to have been generally swept under the rug:

    Gov. Rick Perry's staff learned last fall of a Texas Rangers investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in 2005 at a West Texas state juvenile facility, but the governor took no major action to reform the Texas Youth Commission until after the report became public last week.

As Kinky Friedman might say, "Why The Hell Not?"