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April 22, 2014
As Lafourche voters prepare to decide whether to levy a sales tax to build a new jail that would more than double the parish’s prison capacity, a civil liberties advocacy organization has criticized a needs-assessment report the sheriff cited for determining the new jail’s size.
Voters will decide May 3 whether to levy a 30-year, 0.2-percent sales tax that would fund construction and operation of a new jail. Lafourche’s law enforcement district intends to use funds derived from the proposed tax to construct a detention center capable of holding 600 inmates at a rough cost of $30 million, Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre said, so the proposition is based on how much money it will take to reach that goal.
Audrey Stewart, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Louisiana chapter, said data from the report by consultant James Rowenhorst undercut Webre’s contention the parish’s criminal-justice apparatus suppresses inmate roster by letting roughly 1 in 5 alleged criminals who would normally be incarcerated go free in attempt to ease overcrowding.
For the report, Rowenhorst sampled the parish’s prison population on three separate days – twice in 2009 and once last year. In all three samples, at least 20 percent of the population were pre-trial inmates charged with crimes below the felony level.
Stewart said Lafourche needs to replace its current detention center, which is noncompliant with federal regulations, marked by deteriorated infrastructure and an inefficient design and persistently filled beyond its 244-inmate capacity, but she said taxpayers deserve a capacity forecast based upon comprehensive research before they grant the parish’s law enforcement district a new revenue stream for at least 30 years.
“(An oversized jail) doesn’t improve public safety, but it is very costly,” Stewart said. “Louisiana already leads the nation in incarceration, costing statewide more than $665 million in state corrections funding. Oversized jails add to that expense without eliminating crime and just result in incarcerating more and more people. … We would really like to see the parish invest in smart and efficient resources that serve everyone, like diversion programs, alternative sentencing.”
Stewart pointed out Rowenhorst’s report considers neither the impact of pre-trial diversion programs nor the effect of programs planned to otherwise address recidivism and inmates’ mental health in how they would alter the ultimate population estimate.
Webre countered that the 17th Judicial District’s drug court and pre-trial programs have been in existence for years and thus their fruits are inherently included in the makeup of Lafourche’s jail population. Additionally, the state Legislature in 2011 granted Lafourche permission to pilot a pre-trial home incarceration program, which is used by about two to five suspects at a time, he said.
New programs that would be attached to the new jail would serve convicted offenders, so their impact on curbing criminal behavior probably wouldn’t be seen for decades, the sheriff added.
Webre said the 600-bed estimation is based on figures provided by Rowenhorst and architect Michael LeBlanc, who said Lafourche would need 540 beds while he lobbied to land a contract to design a new jail last year.
The parish contracted Rowenhorst to study Lafourche’s needs in 2009. In January Rowenhorst updated the report. Despite what he described as inconsistent data, the consultant forecasted a 76-percent hike in the parish’s prison population baseline over the next 18 years; that spike did not even consider the parish’s so-called suppression rate or anticipated peak populations, which were both figured in to his estimates at later steps.
Rowenhorst found the parish will need space to house 564 inmates in 2015, 676 in 2020, 789 in 2025 and 901 in 2030. The parish’s average daily population was 351 last year, according to his report.
Webre has labeled debate over a new jail’s size a “distraction” from the real issue: Lafourche must act quickly to replace the existing facility because the jail’s current condition is so deplorable that “a consent decree is inevitable,” Webre said.
“My response is, if I’m wrong about the number and you’re right, we’re still safe. But if you’re wrong, and we don’t have what we need, we’re in trouble,” said Webre, who also emphasized that the law-enforcement district is building a jail large enough to house the anticipated population upon completion, not today’s roster.
If the tax passes, Lafourche consumers will pay between 8.2 percent and 9.4 percent on taxable goods, with the potential to face another sales-tax proposition to fund flood protection and with the parish council investigating whether to restore up to 0.3 percent of a perpetual sales tax for garbage collection it rolled back in the 1990s.
ASSESSMENT BASED ON 76% POPULATION HIKE OVER 18 YEARS
Stewart pointed out that a 600-bed jail today in Lafourche would nearly be half empty.
The existing detention center can hold 244 inmates. On April 17, the online inmate roster showed 316 people in the parish’s custody. Excess inmates are shipped to out-of-parish jails at rates approved by the parish council; this costs the parish more money than it spends self-housing its prisoners.
Last week’s population figure falls shy of the parish’s Average Daily Population of 351 inmates in 2013, which means the detention center on average was overfilled by more than 100 inmates.
In a 600-bed facility, however, that ADP would mean there are an average of 249 empty beds per day – though the 2013 one-day jail population peaked at 400 and officials want a new jail to be able to accommodate the upper limits.
To calculate Lafourche’s future needs, Rowenhorst used annual detention days served over the past 15 years as his primary data point. That figure, which directly correlates into ADP, jumped from 51,181 in 1999 to 127,983 in 2013, a 150-percent spike.
Rowenhorst, of the National Institute of Corrections, projected a 75.7-percent increase in the ADP metric from 2013 to 2030, according to a chart in the report. By that method, the consultant projected the average population would be 462 in 2020 and 616 in 2030.
But he also placed a value on anecdotes that the population now is artificially low. Jail management estimated via unpublished surveys with criminal-justice officials the parish’s suppression rate is 22 percent (down from 25 percent in 2009), the consultant relayed. So Rowenhorst multiplied projected ADPs by that factor, then by a peak factor to include 20-percent more space than his ADP projection suggests.
In short, the consultant projected a 76-percent increase in detention-center use from 2013-2030, then he multiplied that finding by more than 20 percent to account for so-called suppression tactics and then tacked on another 20 percent to anticipate peak incarceration needs.
Those calculations bare that Lafourche will need 676 beds by 2020 and 901 by 2030 to keep up with maximum capacity needs.
Rowenhorst also attempted to answer the common question of whether the jail population is rising due to a spike in the crime rate, a task he labeled “problematic.”
“Intuitively law enforcement officials know crime is on the rise but data sources indicate otherwise,” the report says. “There was also conflicting data from different sources that could not be easily explained. Therefore, criminal case filings in the court system are used as the ‘best’ indicator for the number of people being arrested.”
From that source, Rowenhorst found a “slight upward trend” in the number of filings from 2001-2012 – 6 percent. Detention days served, the value he used to project Lafourche’s needs into the future, rose by 125 percent over that span. The number of criminal cases filed rose at a pace nearly 200 percent slower than did the amount of time served in the detention center.
Bookings, also used to track arrests, rose by 25.6 percent over the same timespan – from 4,300 to 5,400. While that metric peaked at 7,525 in 2006, the number of detention days served didn’t peak until five years later.
Rowenhorst’s report does not address pre-trial diversion programs or other policies that could cause “determinative fluctuation,” which Stewart says is rare for a population-outlook study.
SNAPSHOTS ILLUSTRATE LONG STAYS FOR PRE-TRIAL MISDEMEANANTS
To better understand how Lafourche is using its current jail space, Rowenhorst conducted three inmate profile snapshots: on Feb. 12, 2009, April 29, 2009 and June 20, 2013. He sampled the population on those days to draw quantitative conclusions on Lafourche’s inmates, including offenses and length of stay.
The first sample consisted of 125 inmates. Sixty-two percent were charged with felonies, and they represented 75.5 percent of the days this population served in jail. The remaining 38 percent, the misdemeanor offenders, were responsible for 24.5 percent of the days spent in the detention center.
Pre-trial misdemeanor offenders comprised 22 percent of that population and represented an average length of stay of 41 days.
Twenty-three inmates in the first sample were charged with possession or distribution of drugs and 13 with contempt of court.
The second sample was comprised of 124 inmates. Seventy-one percent were charged with or convicted of felonies.
“As in the first snapshot, there are a significant number pre-trial misdemeanor inmates,” Rowenhorst wrote upon finding they comprised 21 percent of that day’s population.
Fourteen of the 26 pre-trial inmates held on misdemeanor charges were booked on contempt of court. The 26 inmates had served an average length of stay of 93 days, 16 percent of the total number of detention days served by the overall population sample.
The third and final snapshot Rowenhorst examined was by far the largest – 390 inmates. Forty-seven percent of the population were charged with or convicted of a felony.
Twenty-three percent of that day’s population were pre-trial inmates charged with misdemeanors or “other local offenses.”
Lafourche’s criminal-justice system depresses the inmate count, Webre said, by liberally utilizing sentence-shortening policies and favoring summonses to handcuffs for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses. District and city judges set lower bonds and lighter penalties, further lowering the population, he added. He told the parish council the suppression rate is 22 percent – or about 1 in 5 potential inmates – though he said he’s unsure what formula produced that figure.
But Webre said convicted inmates are serving half the time of their sentences because so-called good time benefits are being extended to all convicts, crediting them with two days for every one served. He said it should be used to reward convicts rather than as a tool to manage jail space.
For first-offense DWIs, simple battery and certain other misdemeanors, Lafourche deputies are issuing summonses to appear in court rather than arresting suspects, Webre added.
But the snapshots, Stewart opined, do not indicate a mindset of suppression. She said there is no standard figure for how much of a prison population should be comprised of pre-trial misdemeanants but pointed out that local jurisdictions typically let people not yet convicted of smaller crimes leave jail via low bonds until they go to trial.
Webre disagreed, saying pre-trial misdemeanants should comprise greater than one-fifth of the jail population.
A larger jail will not impact the number of officers on patrol, but deputies’ tasks will change in that they will seek and arrest the 22,000 or so people with active warrants and incarcerate first-offense DWI suspects, Webre said.
NEED FOR NEW FACILITY EXTENDS BEYOND SIZE
Beyond the jail’s size, which is what the ACLU is specifically contesting, officials regularly note the nearly 40-year-old existing detention center features deteriorated infrastructure and its circumstances yield a dangerous environment for both guards and inmates.
The sheriff said the jail’s ‘block’ design is antiquated and does not allow constant oversight over inmates. Already cramped quarters are darkened due to inadequate lighting. The living conditions of inmates – 87 percent of whom are awaiting trial on average, per Rowenhorst’s report – and the welfare of guards are both considered atrocious.
Last month, a deputy and an inmate were injured after an event stemming from faulty plumbing, according to the account provided by spokesman Deputy Brennan Matherne.
Inmate Jerry Cleveland Jr. was being relocated to a new jail cell because his toilet was not functioning. When deputies opened the door to the second cell, Cleveland allegedly struck a second inmate in the head and tried to strike him again. Deputies intervened, and two officers and Cleveland fell to the ground. One deputy struck his head on the toilet and was transported along with the victimized inmate to a hospital for treatment. The deputy required stitches and staples for a laceration to his head, Matherne said.
Cleveland on a previous occasion punched a deputy in the face and attempted to strangle him while he was being escorted from a shower facility, Matherne added.
“Our correctional officers faces these types of problems every day,” Webre said.
Webre reiterated the reason behind a new jail is to improve upon the current conditions.
“I find it very disheartening that an organization whose mission is to protect the liberties and rights of people would be advocating against trying to improve the safety and the minimum constitutional conditions of confinement for the population they serve,” Webre said.
Lafourche Parish councilmen Jerry LaFont and Lindel Toups agreed with Webre’s sentiments that debate over size shouldn’t eclipse the urgency of replacing the derelict detention center. Both indicated they would ignore issues raised by the civil-liberties organization.
“(The ACLU) is going to complain no matter if you put a 25-bed jail, so my question to them is, ‘Do you want the people living in the conditions they’re living in now, or do you want them having a better condition?’” LaFont said. “ACLU complains about anything. They just like to complain.”
Stewart said the organization does recognize the issues plaguing the existing facility, but an inaccurate approach in the name of urgency could lead to other issues.
“We certainly want to keep everyone held in safe and constitutional environment,” she said. “We would like to see the parish invest in a right-sized jail, a jail size that’s based on solid research.”
The Lafourche Parish Detention Center’s antiquated design and deteriorated infrastructure beg for a replacement jail, but a civil-liberties advocate has criticized a report Sheriff Craig Webre has used to justify asking that a new facility include enough space for 600 inmates.
