In honor of September 11, 2001
September 13, 2016
Thibodaux council hopeful of new boat launch
September 13, 2016
Slow-moving court calendars, economic hard times and limits on space have made 3211 Grand Caillou Road a more exclusive address.
Police officers and road patrol deputies are issuing summonses rather than making arrests in most Terrebonne Parish misdemeanor cases. Driving while intoxicated and misdemeanor domestic violence cases are the most notable exceptions. Petty thefts and simple batteries are among the offenses now more likely to result in a summons rather than jail booking and requirement for bond to be released.
“We are keeping the jail count down and the judges are working with us,” Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said in an interview last week, noting that in some cases even the lowest priority cases can result in an arrest. “if they don’t have identification they will get arrested.”
Judges are using more discretion when deciding whether to jail parents in arrears on child support. Systemic diversions including District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr.’s NSF checks unit, law enforcement officers said, also tend to keep the numbers of new jail bookings down.
Some officers working the field have expressed frustration with the restrictions, preferring the option of booking some misdemeanor offenders.
“At times it restricts us from removing problems immediately from certain situations,” said Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman.
Larpenter said that in situations where officers have to return multiple times to an address because of a problem, arrests even for minor misdemeanors will be approved.
Even with safeguards in place, the Ashland jail is at or near capacity on a daily basis.
On one day last week – Thursday – the total jail population was 612, which included 68 inmates housed on the third floor of the Courthouse Annex building in Houma, who mostly serve as trustys.
Ordinarily between 100 and 180 inmates serving time for the Louisiana Department of Correction are housed within the two Terrebonne lockup locations. Currently about 400 inmates specifically assigned to the Ashland jail have not been convicted and are awaiting trial or some other disposition.
A small number are serving parish time – sentences of less than a year in most cases.
The summons process, Larpenter said, does not negatively affect the administration of justice. Criminal sanctions for violation of the law are still imposed in court. The difference between the summons and jailing is that the offender remains at liberty rather than remaining in jail because a bond cannot be raised.
Larpenter confirmed that the system became especially log-jammed when difficulties relating to the funding of the public defender’s office last year resulted in new court dates for about 100 felony defendants awaiting trial in the jail.
“About 100 people backed up their court dates an extra six months,” Larpenter said.
Some relief is likely when the new women’s jail next door to the Ashland criminal justice complex opens – a date has not yet been set – in the building one used as the parish’s juvenile detention center.
The full capacity for women will be 126, Terrebonne official said. Additional beds could be freed up, Larpenter acknowledged, by cutting down on the numbers of DOC offenders he houses. Both the sheriff and the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated government would lose money if that occurred, however. A cut in the rate DOC pays per inmate per day housed at local jails as well as closure of the parish’s work release program, is already resulting in losses of revenue, Larpenter said, so changes to the number of DOC inmates accepted is not likely. •
