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Nearly 200 felons on the run after leaving halfway house
ONLY ON FOX: FOX 26's Randy Wallace has an exclusive report as nearly 200 felons are on the run after leaving a halfway house and there is currently no agency charged with finding them.
HOUSTON - "A lot of the offenders who are convicted of sexually related offenses that have to be released or are released on parole end up at this facility," said Andy Kahan with CrimeStoppers.
The Southeast Texas Transitional Center, once known as the Reid Center, is not a lockdown facility. But parolees are expected to be there each night.
Those who don't become wanted fugitives.
"Almost a good percentage of these people are violent offenders and sexual related offenses as well," Kahan said.
FOX 26 has learned there are currently 196 convicted felons who have warrants out for their arrests after walking away from the tax-funded halfway house.
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A lot of those wanted parolees fled from the facility just this year alone.
"So in half of 2020, you have almost 90 offenders who are missing gone," said Kahan.
The wanted fugitives include 23 registered sex offenders and five killers. Three of the wanted men are on parole for the rest of their lives.
"These are dangerous criminals on the run and nobody knows," said Kahan. "That's a sad fact."
"Houston is almost like a dumping ground for a lot of these violent offenders," said Douglas Griffith, Vice President of the Houston Police Officers Union.
Douglas says these fugitives can be a cops worst nightmare.
"They know they're wanted but the officers stopping them have no clue," he said.