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St. Landry Parish’s long-standing problem with jail overcrowding has reached a critical point, with law enforcement officers unable to serve warrants because there’s no place to put new prisoners.
Sheriff Bobby Guidroz on Thursday said he has 250 warrants heneeds to execute, but there’s no way to get them into a jail
designed for 232 prisoners that already has 290 people locked up.
Opelousas City Marshal Paul Mouton said his office has 800warrants it is waiting to serve. But the Opelousas City Jail is
under a court order to reduce its inmate population. The city jail,designed for 22 inmates, had more than 60 when the state firemarshal ordered that number reduced.
Eunice is in no better shape. Police Chief Gary Fontenot saidtheir marshal’s office has more than 1,000 warrants waiting to be
served.
City jails like those in Opelousas and Eunice were neverdesigned to handle the volume or the seriousness of current
criminals.
By law, anyone charged with a felony - a crime punishable by ayear or more in prison - is supposed to be the responsibility of
the parish jail. If the parish jail is full, cities are required tohold those offenders. The majority of the prisoners in theOpelousas City Jail, for instance, are being held on felonycharges.
The answer is a new prison facility. But that comes with a multimillion dollar price tag and questions about where to put it.
“We have 13 council districts,” Parish President Don Menard said. “I bet nobody wants a facility like this in theirdistrict.”
Guidroz said he and Menard have been discussing a new prison formore than a year but no decision will be made without a great deal
of public input.
“I’m not going to make any move for any type of correction facility without going to the neighbors first,” Guidroz promised.
“We will hold town hall meetings. If the people are opposed, we will take that into consideration.”
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