Parish president pushing to build a new Terrebonne jail. Here's what we know.
Parish President Gordy Dove said he's advocating three big projects with just over a year left in office: a new power plant, a new Courthouse Annex and a new jail.
The power plant and courthouse are already in the works, but the jail is in the early stages. Parish government has applied for federal hurricane-recovery money to construct it.
"And that's just preliminary," Dove said. "And so we're waiting to hear word on that."
The current jail in Ashland houses 575 inmates. Dove said a major goal would be to add classrooms to the jail so inmates could learn a trade. This would allow those reentering society to have a skill to earn a living, and not fall back into crime to survive.
"Why let someone out of jail when they've got nothing to go do, and they go rob something or do something and go back to jail?" he said.
Such an approach is similar to Lafourche Sheriff Craig Webre has in that parish's jail, Dove said. Lafourche opened a new $40 million jail in 2018 near Thibodaux that houses 670 inmates, with an emphasis on programs aimed at reducing the number of inmates who return to crime after release.
Terrebonne's jail has a classroom area, Chief of Corrections Stephen Bergeron said. When the jail was built in the early 1990s, it had a centrally located gym that has since been converted to classrooms and storage.
Bergeron said the jail teaches GED programs and college courses through Ashland University, work-release programs, as well as courses through the Louisiana Department of Corrections, such as anger management and drug-abuse recovery and prevention.
Dove doesn't have an exact location poinpointed but said he would like to put a new jail on the northern Terrebonne boundary close to the Lafourche Jail.
Dove said Lafourche's jail was built with a quarter-cent sales tax. His plan is to use federal dollars set aside for communities hit by Hurricane Ida in 2021.
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"Remember, they've allocated so many billions of dollars after this hurricane; somebody's gonna get them, we just want go out and get it," he said.
The reason for the new jail, beyond dedicated classrooms, is that the current building is prone to flooding. According to Dove, any time there is a tropical storm or greater on approach the jail has to be evacuated and the inmates moved.
The Terrebonne jail sustained major roof damage from Hurricane Ida and was closed for repairs for nearly six months. About 500 inmates were evacuated prior to the storm and were sent to facilities in other parishes before returning in late March.
"So every time it rains, even though it has got a levee around it," Dove said. "When I say rain, I mean a tropical hurricane, and I should say the sheriff has to move them out, but remember, the parish owns the jail."
Bergeron said creating a jail farther north on higher ground would be a benefit. He said the jail lacks a generator to operate the facility, which makes it unsafe through a storm and creates security concerns.
"Any time we do a mass evacuation, it takes a lot of personnel on the security side, with the help of the Department of Corrections, our SWAT team is involved in the evacuation for escorts and movement," he said. "And we try to get it done as quickly as safely and as quietly as possible, but, yeah, it's a major security concern every time we do it."
This article originally appeared on The Courier: Parish president pushes to build a new Terrebonne jail. What we know.
