Sheriff Updates Jail Negotiations
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
An agreement between the parish government and St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Department for sharing parish inmate costs is apparently headed towards an amicable solution.
Sheriff Bobby Guidroz told the Parish Council members on Wednesday night that he doesn’t expect any acrimony as the parish and his department decide how to eventually pay for state-mandated prisoners expenses.
“I’m not here to fight with you. I want to work with you,” Guidroz said as he read from a prepared statement.
Guidroz feels that he and parish officials could finalize an operating agreement for prisoners’ costs by December.
While the parish pays for all prisoner expenditures according to state law, Guidroz said the Sheriff’s Department is in charge of operating the parish jail.
In October parish president Jessie Bellard told the Council that reducing prisoners’ expenditures are significantly higher than originally anticipated when the 2024 operating budget was approved.
Bellard told the Council then that the Sheriff receives $26.38 a day for housing state prisoners. The prison space for those state inmates, Bellard added, has in some cases forced the parish to send prisoners to other facilities at higher mandated costs.
Bellard said he was holding Council members responsible for accelerating the negotiations with the Sheriff’s Department. If the discussions fail, Bellard said, then litigation might solve the matter.
Council member Ken Marks said on Wednesday night that by the end of 2024, the parish will probably spend as much as $1.2 million on expenses related to the prisoners.
Guidroz told the Council that the completed new construction of an male inmates trustee dormitory will accommodate 68 prisoners, which he said will help alleviate overall incarceration costs and create more jail space.
State prisoners that are located in the parish jail, Guidroz pointed out, are individuals who are normally serving out their sentences after they have been convicted or had their guilty pleas accepted by the state district courts.
It has always been his intention, Guidroz said, to locate the state prisoners closer to their families.
“Most of the state prisoners (in the parish jail) are from St. Landry. Many of their family members don’t have the money to travel to other locations,” said Guidroz.
Guidroz said state inmates from the parish jail are being used to help non-profit groups, assist mechanically, work with the Triad programs and help with litter and road crew detail.
Parish Jail overcrowding is a problem, but that issue exceeds the amount of funding that his department or the parish has for dealing with the issue or building a larger facility, Guidroz added.
Guidroz also blamed bloated criminal dockets that in some cases are forcing some prisoners to wait four or five years before a case goes to trial.
“Right now we are working (with the District Attorney) on that,” Guidroz pointed out.
