Jail committee requests LPSO ‘wish list’

The committee tasked with bringing a new jail to Lafourche Parish requested sheriff’s office officials to submit a “wish list” of what they would like to see in a new facility at its next meeting.

Parish President Charlotte Randolph said the sheriff knows better what features he wants incorporated in a new jail. The committee is in a six-month-old process in developing a plan to replace the antiquated detention center and a funding proposal that could include a sales tax measure on a 2012 ballot.

“I await his list to see what aspects we can fund,” Randolph said, adding that it’s ultimately going to “have to be a decision made by the citizens.”

The American Civil Liberties Union inserted itself into the prisoner capacity conversation earlier this month when a representative implored the parish lawmakers to build a jail smaller than 894 beds and instead create policies that curb incarceration rates.

The necessary number of prisoner beds has been a point of contention throughout the jail development process. But some committee members believe issues like space and prisoner-transit flow patterns need to be decided upon first, which is why the wish list was requested.

“We need to know square footage for logistics, (the number of) beds will fall into place, and we need to know what programs and current processes need to be streamlined,” said Ryan Friedlander, parish finance director and committee member.

Several Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office officials attended the latest meeting: Sheriff Craig Webre; the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office finance director; the Lafourche Parish Detention Center warden; and the head of corrections.

On the meeting’s agenda was a scheduled presentation by James Austin, a national expert on prisons and overcrowding with the ACLU. Due to a scheduling conflict, Austin was unable to attend the meeting. The committee postponed scheduling its next gathering until it can arrange a date and time with Austin.

Instead, the committee, sans Parish President Charlotte Randolph councilmen Jerry Jones and Louis Richard, who were absent, had a free-flowing discussion with the sheriff and his staffers.

The Five-Star Committee tasked with making recommendations on a new jail in 2009 said the parish should build an 894-bed facility. At the time, the expected cost for a jail that large was $50 million.

The ACLU, represented by Julie Thibodaux at the last parish council meeting, said the parish would incur “grave economic and social costs” if it builds a jail that is too large.

A 900-bed facility would unnecessarily increase the prison population and pressure parish leaders into adopting policies that “justify the size and expense of the jail,” since residents will be saddled with construction bond costs, Thibodaux said.

Webre said the size of the jail was recommended by a criminal expert, that “Nobody pulled a number out of the sky.”

The sheriff said the parish commissioned the study and questioned why they would do so again.

Councilman Rodney Doucet, who sits on the committee, said he wants to hear what the ACLU has to say. In the same breath, he said he’s not against building an oversized facility. “I don’t have a problem building a 900-bed jail as long as we can make money off of it.”

Webre portrayed criminal justice affairs as a cyclical system in which over-populated jurisdictions lean on, and pay money to -those with a bed surplus for out-of-parish prisoner housing. He said instead of looking at the present-day situation, the committee and LPSO staffers have a “responsibility to look to the future.”

The sheriff said he would “love” for ACLU representatives to tour the jail, because the current conditions would likely provoke them to file a lawsuit, which would spur progress. “That’s where I think the ACLU could have its greatest value.”

Webre said some of the features he wants incorporated are line-of-sight prisoner monitoring that would decrease the guard to prisoner ratio, corridors that separate maximum, medium and minimum security levels and possibly a female inmate wing.

Maj. Renee Brinkley, head of corrections, said the focus on aesthetics and size should take a back seat to functionality. A new jail should be able to incorporate population decreasing and convict treatment programs, she said.

“The needs go beyond numbers, space and beds,” she said. “It’s more than structure; it’s function.”

Committee Chairman Lindel Toups said he wants to see the parish move forward with a tax proposition.

After the meeting, Toups said he would support a quarter-cent sales tax to fund a new jail, but he would agree to “go to the people” with whatever proposal the committee agrees upon.

Lt. Brett Exnicious, a shift supervisor, works the control room at the Lafourche Parish Detention Center. The committee tasked with building Lafourche Parish a new jail requested the sheriff’s office to provide capacity and logistic wish list of features jailors would like to see incorporated. FILE PHOTO