A Texas agency that supervises violent sex offenders after they’re released from prison has a new director who’s making changes.
These changes at the Office of Sex Offender Management are motivated in large part by of a story back in April by the Houston Chronicle that revealed some of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders were moved from halfway houses to boarding facilities in Houston and Austin, without public notification.
Then in rural Liberty County, a new contract for a boarding facility was approved without letting elected officials know, so the contract was rescinded.
"We’re in the process now of developing a new request for proposals, which is the method we go out on the streets to ask vendors to bid on residential facilities," says Executive Director Marsha McLane. "Part of that proposal requires a community notification -- certain people would have to be notified."
McLane, who took over about a month ago, says she got to the agency to find phones were not connected, files didn’t exist and computers were missing, so they’re starting from scratch there.
She hopes the proposal to change the notification process goes out this week so that vendors can soon follow a new protocol.