Lafourche inches closer to opening of new jail

After years of struggle for public approval, a new jail for Lafourche Parish became an official reality last week and is expected to receive its first inmates some time in January.

A grand opening ceremony was held last Wednesday, at which Sheriff Craig Webre thanked the public and his staff, referring to the event as a “a historic and monumental day in the Lafourche Parish criminal justice system.”

The $40 million jail’s design and features have been praised for offering better margins of safety to officers and inmates. The old jail, just across the street from the new structure at La 3185 and Veterans Boulevard, and its landscaped grounds, has been a subject of criticism for years. In addition to safety issues the old jail had serious infrastructure issues due to age and other factors.

Today is an historic and monumental day in the Lafourche Parish criminal justice system,” said Sheriff Craig Webre during his remarks at the ceremony. “My staff and I are forever grateful and honored to be part of and witness to what is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Webre said of the jail opening.

Officially named the Lafourche Parish Criminal Justice Complex, the 125,000 square foot project was praised as am opening of a welcome development not just for its physical amenities, but how they allow for better meshing of a philosophy based on desire accomplish, in Webre’s estimation, what the word “correction” implies.

Webre has long been a proponent of operating programs that can aid willing offenders to lay down foundations for new lives after incarceration, creating benefit not just for the inmates but the public at large.

“For far too many years we have cycled people in and out of the revolving door of the jailhouse,” Webre said. “Some of these individuals, as a practical matter, are serving a life sentence 30 days or six months at a time.”

Prior programs that focused on rehabilitation found severe limitations, often due to infrastructure. The new jail’s capacity of 533 inmates — nearly double that of the old jail — is a number that Webre has maintained will eliminate the overcrowding that has at times plagued his jail operations in the past.

Capt. Cortrell Davis, warden of the current jail, who will continue that role at the new one, shared Webre’s optimism during his own remarks.

“We are not here to celebrate a jail,” Davis said. “We are here to celebrate change.”

The physical plant will allow constant contact between guards and inmates, a model called “direct supervision” which reduces potential for inmate-on-inmate violence and other problems experienced at the old facility, which is now more than a half-century old.

During the ceremony, which was attended by more than 200 people, Bishop Shelton Fabre, spiritual shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, offered a blessing.

Among other speakers was attorney Matthew Block, representing Gov. John Bel Edwards, whom he serves as executive counsel, and Seth Smith, Chief of Operations for the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

Grace Hebert Architects designed the jail in cooperation with the Duplantis Design Group. The land on which the jail and its landscaped grounds totals more than 40 acres bought for about $972,000.

One of the biggest critics of the old jail was Webre himself, only too aware of its shortcomings. But the sheriff himself was powerless to effect the changes he desired until taxpayers finally passed a two-tenths of a percent sales tax for construction and operation of the new jail in 2014. The sell for new cells was not an easy one, with many critics voicing reluctance to spend dollars on something that would appear to benefit prisoners.

Webre insisted that the parish had a legal and moral responsibility to provide a safe place that was in line with constitutional mandates and which allowed greater safety margins for officers and inmates.

The tax was approved by a 16-percent margin.

After the passage of the tax, Webre established an external advisory committee, inviting representatives from every sector of the criminal justice system such as the courts, the district attorney, the indigent defender, probation and parole, local law enforcement and all of the stakeholders in the jail including parish government, the library board, ACLU, NAACP, faith-based community, school system, chamber of commerce and the local bar association.

As Lafourche moved closer to developing its new jail concerns were raised that larger capacity could lead to heightened incarcerations, simply because more space would be available. The Louisiana office of the American Civil Liberties Union in particular had voiced caution for those reasons.

Webre has denied such a potential in the past, and addressed the topic during his remarks at the grand opening.

“While vast in size, we do not subscribe to the old adage, ‘build it and they will come.’” Webre said. “Instead, the premise we subscribe to is, ‘Build it right, and they won’t come back.”

LPCC GRAND OPENING – Photo by: Deputy Brandon Queen

Deputy Brandon Queen