The state of Louisiana recently lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 17. Under that new state law, 17-year-olds can no longer be housed in the parish juvenile detention center. So, in East Baton Rouge Parish, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome wants to put the 17-year-olds in the parish jail. But the local sheriff, Sid Gautreaux, is refusing to take them, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.
Citing moldy ceilings, flooded floors, broken sewer pipes that left a wing “covered in raw sewage,” among other problems, Gautreaux says the facility cannot safely or legally hold the youth. He says that the parish prison also can't be remodeled to satisfy the requirements of the federal law, which requires “sight and sound” separation of juveniles and adults. Without any place to put them in town, the sheriff's office is only booking 17-year-olds accused of violent felonies. It sent the seven teens already in custody to a prison in Jonesboro in Jackson Parish — nearly 200 miles away.