Public Information Office 210 S. McDonald Street Suite 626 McKinney, Texas 75069 www.collincountytx.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 26, 2007

Expansion of Collin County’s Juvenile Detention Facility completed

McKinney – The 48-bed expansion of Collin County’s Juvenile Detention facility is complete, and county leaders expect to be able to start using the extra space as early as February 1st.

The $4.2 million expansion was approved by voters as part of a 2003 bond election. Construction of the new addition connects seamlessly with existing 12-bed pod configurations in the eight-year-old facility, which was originally built to house up to 100 young offenders.

“The juvenile population of Collin County has now topped 80,000 and continues to grow at a high rate,” said Joe Scott, director of Juvenile Probation Services. “This expansion will help us catch up to the corresponding increase of young offenders being housed here for daily supervision and counseling.”

For example, as of this week, the facility was at 89-percent capacity, and more than half of those beds are occupied by young offenders convicted in Collin Courts and placed in intensive, specialized therapy and treatment programs.

The facility was initially built in 1999 from funds allocated in a 1997 bond election by Collin County voters.

###