Harlan Kirgan
There were 20 inmates at the Eunice City Jail on Wednesday morning — the lowest in at least a decade, according to Police Chief Randy Fontenot.
The inmate count has been dropping month by month since last year when the city started sending prisoners arrested on felony charges to the parish lockup, he said.
There are 11 male and nine females in the city jail, he said. One of those inmates has a felony charge, but is serving out a sentence on city charges, he said. Once the city time is served, Fontenot said the prisoner will be transferred to the St. Landry Parish Jail in Opelousas.
The parish is required to take those charged with a felony, he said.
Last month there were 36 felony arrests in Eunice, he said. The number of felony arrests runs from 25 to 30 a month, he said.
The city started sending its prisoners charged with a felony to the parish after Opelousas closed its city jail, he said.
“Half of our population was parish inmates,” he said.
The Eunice City Jail has a 46-prisoner capacity, he said.
The city did not receive any money from the parish for housing the prisoners, but it was compensated for medical care and meals.
The city still obtains meals from the parish for its inmates, but pays for that food.
The city also provided the inmates with hygiene products, he added.
“The parish was paying other facilities to hold inmates, but we were holding 20 inmates over here and not getting paid for it,” he said.
The city also provided a morning meal of honey buns for inmates, he said.
The jail operation still requires five jailers, he said. There is an opening for a jailer.
The inmate count change is significant.
“I remember times when we had only one inmate back there. That was in the ‘80s,” he said.
Another change is the number of females in jail, he said.
There used to be a juvenile cell and female cell, both with two bunks.
Now the female jail population is nearly equal to number of males, he said.