Harlan Kirgan
There is a decided lack of enthusiasm from the Eunice police chief and mayor about the city’s jail, but they aren’t ready to close it.
Mayor Scott Fontenot said, “As for as what it cost to operate the jail, employ the jailers and such, it would be good to close it on that aspect because I think the savings we would we make could translate to a decent raise for our police officers.”
Police Chief Randy Fontenot said there has been discussions about whether the jail is beneficial to the city.
“We really need to do probably a quarter million dollars of work on the jail to get it up to par where it should be,” he said.
Last week, Opelousas aldermen decided to close its city jail. The decision was made in the face of demands by the state Department of Health and Hospitals to fix problems at the facility.
Opelosuas Police will bring their prisoners to the St. Landry Parish Jail, said Parish President Bill Fontenot at a Parish Council meeting Wednesday.
There were nine Opelousas prisoners transferred to the parish jail, he said.
The parish president and some Parish Council members expressed concern about the cost to the parish.
The Eunice chief said there is no mandate for the city to have a jail. A jail is the responsibility of the sheriff.
But there are advantages to the city having its own jail, he said.
One of those advantages is a city jail helps prevent overcrowding at the parish facility, he said.
And sentences can be carried out in full at the city jail, he said.
If a sheriff needs to, sentences can be cut in half by counting a day served as two, he said.
City Judge Terry Hoychick wants those sentenced in his court to serve their full term, the chief said. That can be accomplished in the city’s jail, he said.
The parish jail, which is nearly 40 years old, has a capacity of 232 prisoners and average daily census of 224 inmates.
The Eunice jail has a capacity of 47 inmates and averages about 45 prisoners, he said.
Originally, the jail was designed for 26 inmates and to be used as holding facility, the chief said.
The city budgets about $60,000 for the operation of the jail. The amount does not include jailer salaries.
Maintenance issues have been on the rise at the city jail,
“We’ve had some issues with plumbing that we’ve been working on continuously for about a year now,” the chief said.
“We spent roughly about $17,000 on plumbing in the jail this fiscal year. And we have about another $15,000 of plumbing left to go,” he said.
“Then we should have the plumbing back in pretty good shape,” he said.
The plumbing is industrial grade requiring special order fixtures and pipes along with specialized plumbers.
The plumbing problems emerged after the building was leveled about eight years ago, he said.
At one point hot water was coming into toilets, he said.
Full staffing for the jail is five people, but there is nearly always a vacancy, he said.
The chief said if the parish jail is filled with local inmates, then the parish would lose income from keeping state prisoners.
Mayor Fontenot said if the parish had a larger correction facility it would make it more attractive for Eunice to close its jail.
And, there may be other options that keep the Eunice jail open, he said.
The Eunice chief said that even though operating the jail is a source of aggravation and expensive problems, there is no movement to close it.