Prison overcrowding -- it's such a big problem for many of our parishes now that the federal government is looking over their shoulders. Two of them have projects on the board right now to help alleviate the issue. In fact, a bid for one of them is expected to be awarded sometime tonight. WAFB's Matt Williams shows us where those projects are and tells us how much they're going to cost.
The Ascension Parish Jail, located in Donaldsonville, is too small to do the job it was tasked to do. The prison has 264 beds, but that is about 30 beds less than the amount of prisoners they have.
"Meaning every day we have deputies putting people in jail and everyday we have people working with judges trying to get non-violent prisoners out," says Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley.
It also means they have to move some prisoners to other parish jails, which costs them about $20 more per day per inmate than housing them in their own jail.
The fix? A 100 bed expansion project that will be built onto the current jail. It should cost between $700,000 and $900,000 and be ready in the next four to five months, but this quick fix isn't the final solution.
"The 100 beds is oxygen," explains Sheriff Wiley. "What we really need is about 300 or 400 beds, for a 10 to 15 year plan."
The Ascension Parish Jail is not the only jail in the area going through growth. Just across the parish line a similar story is playing out in Livingston.
But this isn't just an expansion; it's an entirely new complex.
Currently, the Livingston Parish prison can hold about 190 inmates, but the parish has more than 300 prisoners, and once again, the overflow have to moved to other prisons, which costs a lot of money.
An added irritation: 298 of the 307 prisoners in Livingston Parish are still waiting for trial.
"We have one on dialysis," says Livingston Parish President Mike Grimmer. "$4,000 a month it's costing the tax payers of this parish. The guys not even set for trial yet."
About 75% of their total bill spent on prisoner maintenance is spent on overflow prisoners in other jails. The new jail, an 84,000 square foot, $16 million project should be awarded to a contractor Monday night. It will be built right next to the old jail and take about a year to complete.
"We're going to the possibility of 600, total," Grimmer says. "It's a good size facility. We built it for the future, that's our purpose in this because it's obvious the numbers are going up daily."
Two big projects -- hoping to solve a big problem -- and save some big money in the long run.
Woodrow Wilson Construction Company out of Baton Rouge was awarded the contract for the Livingston Parish jail Monday night.
Reporter: Matt Williams mattwilliams@wafb.com
