Long-Overdue Change Starts In Texas

Genger Galloway's oldest boy is finally coming home to his favorite dessert, new clothes — and, his mother prays, a new life after years in juvenile detention, CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts reports.

Joseph Galloway's story is a familiar one in Texas: Confined to a detention center at age 15 for sexual misconduct, he was abused repeatedly by the time he turned 19.

"It started with a broken nose. He was molested by a female staff, he was raped by an older inmate," she says.

He's one of hundreds of children and teenagers soon to be released from state-run juvenile detention centers after allegations of widespread physical and sexual abuse, neglect, mismanagement and a coverup.

There have been public hearings. A state investigation is under way, and a new management team is in place.

"We're at least looking at the iceberg now. We weren't even looking at the iceberg when we first got started," says Jim Hurley of the Texas Youth Commission.

Hurley says top administrators were forced out. Some former employees face criminal charges.

"You can't build something up until you tear it down. So we are opening this agency to the media. We want parents to know if they have kids in TYC, that their kids are safe," Hurley says.

For many parents, those assurances come too late.

"It breaks my heart to think that I couldn't protect him, and it angers me that if I, as a parent, took my child and locked him in a closet and fed him three meals a day and I cursed at him and I stripped him buck naked and I pushed another inmate in with him and let him rape him, they would put me in jail," Genger says.

She's become a child advocate and is pushing to rebuild a system that nearly destroyed her son.

"I can't wait to start our new path," she says.