The St. Landry Parish Council approved a budget that allocates about $6,700 a month for prisoner housing, but since the Opelousas City Jail has been closed that cost has risen to $10,000.
Amanda Cain, finance director, said at a meeting Wednesday that parish government has no control over the bill.
The parish jail has a 232-inmate capacity. When it is at capacity prisoners are sent to facilities outside the parish at a cost of about $24 a day per prisoner.
Parish government was notified recently that 30 prisoners were sent to facilities outside the parish, she said.
““We just have to pay. I just have to find it somehow,” she said.
The jail situation was complicated when the city of Opelousas closed its jail in May. At that time Sheriff Bobby Guidroz reported 14 city prisoners were brought to the parish jail.
The Opelousas jail was closed under pressure from the state Department of Health.
The parish jail must take people charged with crimes under state statutes. If the parish jail does not have room, the inmates must be housed elsewhere.
Parish President Bill Fontenot did not respond to an inquiry asking how many prisoners from Opelousas are ending up in the parish jail
Councilman Jerry Red, of Opelousas, raised the jail issue in terms of the parish government budget at an Administrative-Finance Committee meeting Wednesday in Opelousas.
“There should be some kind of way the funding they used for their own should be shuffled to the parish to offset the cost,” Red said.
“There should be some kind of agreement..” he said.
Fontenot said Opelousas officials initially seemed willing to pay for their prisoners.
“Then they discovered they weren’t legally obligated to do that so that kind of put a damper on them wanting to pay,” he said.
Cain said the sheriff’s office is tracking inmates that the city’s responsibilities and sending those numbers to the parish.
The city pays for breakfast and the parish pays other meals for Eunice inmates facing charges that would otherwise land in the parish jail, Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said in May. The parish also pays medical expenses for those prisoners.
The Eunice jail has a capacity of 47 inmates and averages about 45 prisoners, the chief said.
Originally, the jail was designed for 26 inmates and was to be used as holding facility, he said.
The city budgets about $60,000 for the operation of the jail. The amount does not include jailer salaries.
The chief estimated about $250,000 is needed for improvements at the Eunice jail.
“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 in May.
Garret Duplechain, council attorney, said an out of court settlement was reached with Eunice years ago about prisoner costs.
Duplechain said he will research the parish government’s agreement Eunice.
The Council committee voted to ask Duplechain to begin negotiations with a counterpart at the city of Opelousas on the jail costs.
“I would like to see a resolution reached before a lawsuit is filed,” Duplechain said.
In financial reports presented by Cain to the committee, prisoner housing was budgeted at $80,000 for the year. As of the end of May, $49,243 had been spent on prisoner housing.
