Uncle Joe thought he was protecting kids too.

Last week, Texas Youth Commission decided it would no longer allow the media to see details of allegations about sexual or physical assaults on inmates by staff.

For anyone who thinks this is protecting the inmates from the ordeals of having their experiences from being front-page headlines or innocent-unless-proven-otherwise staff from public vilification, remember this: The only reason abuses within TYC came to the public eye was because of the hard work of The Texas Observer over the last year. The press will be reduced to reporting the uninformative, barest data about the big picture at TYC, rather than the real story of individual crimes.

So it seems that someone at TYC has remembered Joe Stalin’s dictat: “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

This article appears in May 4 • 2007.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.