Sheriff Addresses Parish Jail Addictions
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz and parish president Jessie Bellard agree on one thing about the parish jail: some inmates arrive there drug addicted and crave those substances while incarcerated.
Guidroz announced on Tuesday night during a Town Hall meeting hosted by state representative Dustin Miller and state senator Gerald Boudreaux, that he wants to establish a counseling program at the jail in order to help parish inmates who Guidroz said also land in an overcrowded prison environment.
During his brief speech at the meeting Guidroz was unequivocal about attempts by inmates to acquire the substances that are being sold on the streets.
“They (prisoners) are doing (drugs) and they are doing it in our jail,” Guidroz added.
In an exclusive interview with St. Landry Now.com, Guidroz said he has enough funding available from national and state Opioid settlement funding to establish a program that he thinks might help prisoners who are enveloped in addictive lifestyles.
“Right now I have $300,000 of unspent Opioid money and the department is getting $180,000 a year from the same settlement for the next 17 years,” Guidroz told St. Landry Now.com.
“I want to use that money to help Opelousas and help with this drug crisis,” Guidroz said.
Bellard told St. Landry Now.com in a separate interview on Wednesday night that drug use and distribution is prevalent in the parish facility.
“Drugs are being brought in in a number of ways and it’s an ongoing problem” Bellard pointed out.
Parish Jail Overcrowding
Guidroz called out Opelousas city officials for not using the municipal jail that has remained shuttered despite undergoing a renovation several years ago.
At the Town Hall meeting, Guidroz said the city previously received $30,000 in unspent grant money to make municipal jail renovations.
“I want Chief (Greg) LeBlanc to use the grant money. Fix your jail,” Guidroz told LeBlanc, who attended the Town Hall event..
LeBlanc has told St. Landry Now.com in a previous interview that he does not have a sufficient force of officers in order to staff the jail and provide prisoner security.
During his Town Hall speech, Guidroz claimed that overcrowding at the parish jail is forcing inmates to sometimes sleep on the floor.
Multiple sources have indicated that Gov. Jeff Landry has allocated 20 percent of the state’s share of Opioid settlement funding to sheriffs in the state’s 64 parishes..
The St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office has also instituted a grant-funding Second-Chance program under the parish government umbrella.
According to second-chance guidelines, non-violent arrestees that might be headed for felony or misdemeanor sentences, can voluntarily participate in the Second-Chance initiative which offers potential incarcerees programs, assistance and a chance to dispose of their drug habits and perhaps qualify for employments
