Local governments in Louisiana have submitted applications to a criminal justice funding commission requesting more than $500 million in state funding to expand, renovate, and build new jails and juvenile detention facilities around the state. Only a limited portion of those requests are likely to be filled — at least for now, The Lens reports. Through a bill passed this fall, the state has set aside between $100 million and $150 million for a new correctional construction boom. Juvenile facilities will be given priority, officials said. The applications were prepared in the wake of measures by Gov. Jeff Landry and state legislators that moved 17-year-olds from the juvenile system into adult jails and Act 3, which could allow the prosecutions of many more kids as adults, if voters pass it in March.
While many of the newest statewide measures will shuffle more youth into the adult system, the planned burst of new juvenile facilities is intended to address gaps in juvenile pre-trial detention facilities and in slots in state custody that pre-date Landry’s new policies. Some youth advocates see the funding commission as a doubling down of failed juvenile-justice policy, and argue the state should instead be focused on funding community-based preventative services. “These facilities that exist now are understaffed and these folks are not trained in restorative practices the way they need to be,” said Antonio Travis with Family and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children. “We want a system where instead of continuously investing in these prisons, we’re investing in community alternatives,” he said. That way, “while a kid is undergoing rehabilitation, they can still get support from their family, within their community.”
Comments