It’s an issue of cost. The Acadia Parish Police Jury can either pay $25.35 per day to house prisoners out of parish or $11 per day for electronic monitoring bracelets.
Tuesday night (July 14), jurors opted for the latter.
Acadia Parish has 180 beds in its parish jail. When that capacity is reached, prisoners must be shipped to another facility and, when that happens, the parish is charged Department of Correction rates — $25.35 per day per prisoner.
On top of that is the cost of transporting the prisoners back and forth for court appearances.
Acadia currently has about 40 prisoners housed in out-of-parish jails. That’s $2,535 per day.
Police Jury President Chance Henry explained that, when capacity is reached at the parish jail, a number of prisoners will be placed on the monitoring bracelets instead of being shipped to another parish.
“We pay $11 a day compared to $25.35 a day for however long it takes,” he said. “We’re saving $14 a day per prisoner.”
Henry explained that the prisoners will be selected by Sheriff K.P. Gibson and approved by a district judge — “non-violent offenders, of course.”
Currently, prisoners are offered the bracelet option at their bail hearings, but they must pay the monitoring fee themselves in lieu of bail.
“Only one has accepted so far,” said Henry.
Under the proposal from Louisiana Home Detention Services, Inc., in Lafayette, there is a $160 “start-up fee” that includes the initial drug test and first week’s payment.
In other action Tuesday night, jurors voted to enter into a contract with Enterprise Fleet Management to manage the entire fleet of vehicles used by the parish.
The company will manage all vehicles in the parish fleet from acquisition and resale to maintenance, vehicle tracking, fuel, accident management and more.
Jurors also approved millage rates for the coming year, noting that there will be no change in the rates.
Parish millages include:
— General alimony: 4.25 mills
— Exempted municipalities: 2.12 mills
— Library: 4.25 mills
— Health Unit: 2.12 mills
— Roads and bridges: 3.18 mills
— Cooperative Extension Service / Multi-Purpose Building: 2.12 mills
— Senior Citizens’ Centers: 1.5 mills
