Halfway house for inmates opens downtown

Nonviolent offenders to prepare for freedom

By ERIC HANSON
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

A detention center on the northeast edge of downtown Houston that had gone
unused for two years is now open as a halfway house for state jail inmates.

The facility, on Top Street, will be called the Joe Kegans State Jail after
the late Harris County state district judge.

"We started moving in inmates about a week ago to help clean it up," said
Tom Baker, director of the state's jail division, "and we will fill it up
in the next couple of weeks."

The facility, to be formally dedicated at 10 a.m. today, will be home for
more than 600 inmates nearing the end of their prison sentences.

All prisoners at the jail are Harris County prisoners convicted of
fourthdegree felonies such as nonviolent property crimes, Baker said.

Those crimes carry a maximum twoyear sentence served at the Lynchner Jail
in Humble.

"When they are within about 120 days from their release, we bring them to
the Kegans facility," Baker said.

Jail staff, he said, will try to help the prisoners find a job and will
instruct them about any social services for which they are eligible.

"It could be child care, food stamps, whatever," he said. "We are trying to
provide them some linkage to facilitate their reentering the social process."

Baker said the facility will emphasize substance abuse prevention because
the misuse of alcohol and drugs often is what caused the inmates' problems.

"Their conviction may be for stealing a car," he said, "but actually they
were stealing the car to go get drugs or to hock it and pay for drugs."

Baker said their educational programs provide therapy and counseling to
help inmates overcome substance abuse.

"The theory is that if you don't provide some link for them back into the
community, the risk of them reoffending goes up," he said.

The jail first opened in February 1995 as a facility to help relieve prison
overcrowding by housing those convicted of nonviolent felonies.

However, the center was closed after only four months of use because not
enough inmates were being held there to justify operating costs.

Baker said the $12 million facility remained shuttered until prison
officials decided recently it would be ideal as a halfway house.

A skeleton maintenance crew kept the building from deteriorating and only
minimal remodeling and cleanup were needed to reopen.

Baker said the facility will have a staff of 150.