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By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, January 05, 2007
Legislative leaders are quietly exploring plans to convert two state youth prisons into correctional centers for adults,
officials confirmed Thursday.
Such a move could provide an additional 2,000 prison beds without building expensive adult prisons, they said, because
it would be cheaper to build two new youth prisons.
Targets for the possible switch are the Marlin Orientation and Assessment Unit, east of Waco, and the John Shero State
Juvenile Correctional Facility in San Saba.
"These were built as 1,000-bed adult facilities years ago, but they're only housing 300 juveniles now," said
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, who is investigating the switch. "This looks like it could
make a lot of sense."
The prison system is operating at capacity, with about 153,000 inmates. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has suggested
that the Legislature authorize money to build three prisons, but lawmakers are looking for cheaper, more-effective alternatives,
including paroling low-risk inmates and expanding rehabilitation and substance abuse treatment programs.
Tim Savoy, spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission, which operates the two youth prisons, confirmed that Whitmire approached
the agency several weeks ago about the change.
"It's been challenging to operate them as juvenile facilities," he said. "But whatever decision is made,
we will still need the beds."
Whitmire and other officials said the two prisons were built by a private company in the early 1990s to house adult felons
but were later taken over by the state and transferred to the Youth Commission because the adult prison system had enough
beds.
At the time, the adult prison system had been tripled in size to solve a crowding crisis.
The Marlin facility, where all youth offenders are processed as they come into the state system, has a capacity of 436.
On Thursday, 358 inmates were being held, Savoy said. The San Saba facility has a capacity of 356; 283 were being held Thursday.
Whitmire said the reason the facilities are holding fewer prisoners than anticipated is that they contain open dormitories
with several beds. "It's not safe to put a thousand juveniles in there. . . . It's much different supervising juveniles
in that setting than adults," Whitmire said.
Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston, said initial consideration is being given to converting both prisons for possible use
as a substance-abuse treatment center, which would include low-risk, nonviolent offenders.
Whitmire said he has asked officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to tour both sites with him soon to
determine the cost of converting them to adult facilities.
"If we could add 2,000 beds by doing this we would be that much farther ahead," he said. "It seems like
a good idea. It's definitely worth exploring, and that's what we're doing.
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
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