Task force asks for community support in restructuring East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center, Parish Prison

Da'Shawn Johnson
·2 min read

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The East Baton Rouge Parish Jail Task Force is finding new ways and future plans to help rebuild and restructure not only the EBR Parish Prison but the Juvenile Detention Center as well.

After recent tours of not only the EBR facilities but others in neighboring parishes, they began to make comparisons. Councilmembers expressed one of the issues they noticed, which was a lack of programs.

“The biggest thing that they said about every facility was lack of programing, computer space, workforce space,” said Councilman Darryl Hurst of District 5.

The jail task force says their goal is to help juveniles and adults in prison to be able to have a second chance outside the facility but in order to do so some changes need to be made.

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Catherine Fontenot, a warden for the EBR Parish Prison, says the work starts from the inside out.

“We need a detox center in there. We need to expand upon the kind of things that our hospitals do so that we can help them with Department of Ed,” said Fontenot.

The jail population has been increasing since 2021 and the discussion for building instead of rehousing is moving closer but they say now is an important time to get the community involved. Many who live in the area say that public input will help the outcome.

“It’s easy for me to sit here and say what I may want is another thing where the public actually come and give their assessment of what they want to see,” said Checo Yancy, founding member of VOTE.

With location further pending, many community members want to see work be done to help those inside of the prisons. Now that the age range has been lowered to 17 to go to prison, their concerns lie within the facility.

“As we go forward with intentional planning again, rehabilitative or punitive,” said Dr. Wade with juvenile services.

Councilmembers and the task force both agree that more work is needed and now with the involvement of the community they can continue to move forward to better the lives of the youth in the juvenile center.

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“People do change, but given the right environment, people do change. And that’s what we want productive people coming back to the community,” said Yancy.

Metro council members along with the juvenile task force is continuing to push forth the involvement in the rebuilding by inviting the public to tour both EBR facilities on June 11.

Spots are limited as it is first come, first serve. City members plan to send an email regarding more details at a later date.

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