Joe Kegans Intermediate Sanctions Facility is an Intermediate Sanctions facility of the

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

located along the northeast edge of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

.Hanson, Eric.
Halfway house for inmates opens downtown / Nonviolent offenders to prepare for freedom
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. Wednesday October 15, 1997. A29 MetFront. Retrieved on May 10, 2010. The approximately facility for men is located south of

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

. The detention facility building that Kegans uses first opened in February 1995 as a place to house nonviolent offenders in order to relieve

prison overcrowding Prison overcrowding is a social phenomenon occurring when the demand for space in prisons in a jurisdiction exceeds the capacity for prisoners. The issues associated with prison overcrowding are not new, and have been brewing for many years. Dur ...

. The unit closed after four months of use because not enough inmates had been put there to justify the additional expenses. The building had been unoccupied for two years before it re-opened in 1997. The building was formally dedicated at 10 A.M. on Wednesday October 15, 1997. As of 1997 all prisoners at the unit are convicted of parole violations such as non-violent property crimes. The unit was named after Joe Kegans, a state district judge who died in 1997 at 69 years of age. The Kegans Jail, along with the Pam Lychner State Jail, serves state jail offenders from Harris County. As of 2001 Kegans serves lower risk offenders.State Jail Evaluation Summary Report Kegans State Jail
"

. October 2000. Retrieved on July 2, 2010.

References

External links

*
Kegans Unit
"

. Prisons in Texas Buildings and structures in Houston 1995 establishments in Texas Downtown Houston {{Prison-stub