Quay County closed its detention center to juveniles in July 2005, but now rising costs of housing them elsewhere -- $42,991 last year -- has prompted officials to bring them back to the Quay County Detention Center in June, the Quay County Sun reported.

With the cost of sending juveniles in other facilities rising from between $85 and $95 a day to about $121 a day, the county decided last month to convert a section of the adult jail to house younger inmates, the Sun reported.

And because there is rarely room for juveniles in neighboring Clovis and Curry County, juveniles from Tucumcari and Quay County are sometimes transported as far away as Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Gallup, Tony Elbario, detention center administrator, told the Sun.

Female juveniles will continue to be transported to other facilities, Elbario said.

Adult inmates have been painting cells and removing bunks to make way for single-occupany juvenile cells, the Sun reported.

And the final step before the new juvenile unit opens in June will be an inspection by the state Children, Youth and Families Department, which oversees all juvenile detention facilities, the paper said. 

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