July 27, 2007, 3:51AM

Harris County swamped with young offenders no longer taken by TYC

© 2007 The Associated Press

HOUSTON - Harris County is seeking space to detain hundreds more juvenile criminals to make up for the state's decision to stop accepting misdemeanor offenders in the Texas Youth Commission.

Bill Hawkins, head of the Harris County District Attorney's juvenile division, said the county needs more detention facilities or it runs the risk of allowing dangerous youths out on the street. "Juvenile recidivism is up," he said during a Thursday meeting of the county juvenile board. "The outcomes are not as good as when the kids were being held longer."

Harvey Hetzel, director of the Juvenile Probation Department, said youth offenders are serving shorter periods in county detention after their cases have been settled. The average stay has decreased from 58 days in 2004 to 38 days this year, he said. He expects the average stay to hit 35 days as the commission's new policy effects are felt.

The Texas Legislature revamped the TYC this year in response to widespread reports of inmate abuse by staff and agency mismanagement. Among the changes in state law, youths convicted of misdemeanors and offenders 19 and older may no longer be incarcerated in state youth prisons.

Harris County sent 425 juveniles to TYC for misdemeanor offenses last year. Hawkins said most of those were chronic offenders, many of whom didn't change their criminal behavior after being detained at the county's juvenile bootcamp or other facilities. Others had been charged with felonies, but struck misdemeanor plea deals.

"The state has pushed back through the pipeline these kids we were legitimately sending to them," State District Judge Pat Shelton, one of the county's three juvenile judges, said earlier this week.

To help cover the costs of detaining more youths in the next three years, the state is providing Harris County with an additional $5.8 million in funding.

Hetzel said the money covers only part of the cost of taking on an additional 425 youths a year.

Harris County officials are considering sending more than 140 juvenile detainees to an abandoned facility in Eagle Lake, about 65 miles east of Houston. Hetzel said it would cost the county about $6 million to $7 million a year to operate the facility, not including buying or leasing it. Its capacity would be 144 inmates. Hawkins said the county could have the facility up and running in two months.

The juvenile board on Thursday authorized using some of the $5.8 million to put youths in private detention facilities.

Also, more than $800,000 is going to pay for programs to monitor and assist juveniles after their release from detention.

The county is also expanding its current juvenile facilities, and the Commissioners Court is considering asking voters in November to approve bonds to convert an existing jail into a youth facility.

___

Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com