A long-vacant lockup in a remote part of West Texas has been chosen to house the state's most violent sex offenders, but defense attorneys have said the site limits their access to counsel and family members.
Starting Sept. 1, about 190 men convicted of sex crimes will be held at the privately owned Billy Clayton Detention Center in Littlefield, Texas Civil Commitment Office director Marsha McLane told the Houston Chronicle.
State officials had been searching for a place to house the offenders for more than a year after halfway houses in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and El Paso demanded the state relocate them by Aug. 31 to free up space for other parolees.
Though the men have completed their prison sentences, they continue to be held in the state's civil commitment program because they have been deemed a danger to society. The controversial program has been under intense scrutiny because of allegations of mismanagement and questions about its legality. Few offenders have been released from the program and nearly half of the 350 men have been returned to prison for violating program rules.
McLane said the site, which is about 36 miles northwest of Lubbock, will allow for new treatment programs and for changes to resolve continuing legal and operational issues.
But attorneys who represent some of the offenders said the remoteness of the site will limit their access to counsel because many of the men are indigent, and the attorneys from Houston are volunteering their time. They also say it removes the men from their families and work, which are supposed to be an integral part of treatment.
Nancy Bunin, a Houston attorney who represents several men in the program, said "to select a location like this appears to be punitive and anti-therapeutic."
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The state will pay $128.70 per day per offender at the new site, a price that will drop to just under $100 if the population grows to more than 250. Florida-based Correct Care Recovery solutions will run the facility.
