Lafourche resumes hunt for elusive white rabbit

The Lafourche Parish New Jail Committee passed an ordinance last Wednesday that will request the Parish Council to hire an engineer to investigate the current jail’s underground infrastructure.

The committee began its effort to construct a new jail last Wednesday, initiating plans to research costs and new jail financing options in addition to a survey of the current jail to gauge the feasibility of expanding.

“Structurally, [the jail] is sound,” said Maj. Marty Dufrene, head of the corrections department with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office. “It’s what is underneath that is questionable.”

The committee said it will travel and review jails in St. Charles, Livingston and Terrebonne parishes to determine the optimal way to proceed in expanding or constructing a new facility.

The committee touched on potential plans for containment domes, the need to determine the right combination for dormitory and lock-down housing and the merits of installing elevated, sheltered pods that will allow one guard to watch up to 200 prisoners at a time.

The parish first began planning for a new jail in March of 2005. Despite numerous committees, subcommittees and a National Institute of Corrections jail review, the parish has yet been able to find a way to finance the project everyone seems to agree is a necessity.

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph said a full-cent, parish wide sales tax increase would generate approximately $10-$12 million in revenue, and a half-cent increase “easily fills an obligation of $3-$4 million.” The committee discussed placing the measure on the October general election ballot.

“We need some figures,” committee member and Councilman Louis Richard said. “How much can we legally tax? This is not something I think property owners should bear alone because it’s for everybody.”

The 244-bed facility houses an average of more than 400 prisoners, Dufrene said. Also the committee’s vice-chairman, Dufrene said a new facility should be constructed to house at least 600 inmates.

The Five-Star Committee tasked with making recommendations on a new jail in 2009 said the parish should build a 900-bed facility. At the time, the expected cost for a jail that large was $50 million.

No one on the New Jail Committee seemed receptive to the idea of a $50 million jail. “We’re not building a Taj Mahal,” Dufrene said.

Committee Chairman Lindel Toups requested committee member and LPG finance director Ryan Friedlander to return with figures that show how much the parish government pays to house out-of-parish prisoners.

Lafourche spent $1.8 million between January 2004 and June 2009 to house 3,394 inmates for 72,272 days out-of-parish because of overcrowding, according to the August 2009 Adult Detention Needs Assessment released by the parish.

In the 18 months from January 2008 to June 2009, $662,871, or 37.6 percent of the money spent since 2004, was used to house out-of-parish inmates.

The current 240-bed jail, which was essentially antiquated when it was built in 1968, expanded in 1977, has had crowding issues since 1995 and maintenance problems since 1992.

Previous attempts to construct a new jail were derailed by Hurricane Katrina and last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The committee meets again today at 6 p.m. It will meet at the same on the first and third Wednesday of each month at the Mathews Government Complex.