Lafayette's juvenile and adult jails don't want to house 17-year-olds (2024)

Lafayette Parish's juvenile and adult jails are at odds over where to house 17-year-old offenders thanks to limited space at both facilities and a new state law that clashes with an existing federal law.

The new law, which treats all 17-year-olds charged with crimes as adults, went into effect April 19, reversing Louisiana's 2019 "Raise the Age" law that funneled 17-year-olds into the juvenile justice system. Federal law, however, requires "youthful" inmates younger than 18 to be housed separately from and not within "sight and sound" of adult inmates. Federal regulations are also strict for juvenile inmates when it comes to education, recreation, medical and mental health services.

The Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home has 32 beds for youth offenders awaiting trial for major charges. Not every bed is always available because of isolation requirements for some inmates, such as a juvenile charged with a sex crime or an offender displaying suicidal ideation.

As of mid-May, 13 of the 23 youth in custody were 17 years old. Moving those offenders to the adult jail would positively impact operations at the juvenile detention center, according to Facility Administrator Alonzo Thomas.

"It would definitely help us," Thomas said. "It would cut our population in half, and our 17-year-olds are our more aggressive population. It would relieve a lot of stress from the staff."

But there is currently no plan to transition 17-year-olds to the Lafayette Parish Correctional Facility.

Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber was lobbying for a new jail to be constructed outside of downtown Lafayette long before the topic of adding 17-year-olds to the population was on the table. The existing facility, which is over capacity, is not up to modern standards and could not provide the necessary separation or services for 17-year-olds.

"The jail would need to provide the sight and sound provisions," Thomas said. "And currently, they don't have the space. They can't move them there."

The past month has sparked confusion and conflict across the state assome elected officials push to move 17-year-olds out of juvenile jails and into adult facilitiesthat law enforcement officials say are at capacity and unable to safely house 17-year-olds.In some parishes,juvenile offenders are sent to other facilities in the state or even out of state due to limited space at youth facilities. Housing out-of-town offenders can be costly to taxpayers, too.

Fifteenth District Attorney Don Landry said sheriffs in Lafayette, Vermilion and Acadia parishes may have at one point housed 17-year-olds at their adult correctional facilities, but that time has ended.

"If they can't meet those federal regulations, they're just not going to do it anymore," Landry said. "Maybe in the past, they may have, but they're just not going to do it anymore because the liability is really out there hanging over their head."

The Acadiana Regional Juvenile Justice District was formed during the 2023 legislative session to address the lack of space for juvenile offenders awaiting trial. Although Lafayette doesn't face the same juvenile housing crisis as the more rural parishes in the region, Lafayette's facility is often tasked with housing out-of-parish and out-of-state offenders, charging other government entities $250 per inmate per day for the service. There are currently two juvenile offenders from Vermilion and Vernon parishes housed in Lafayette.

"We always make space for our Lafayette kids," Thomas said. "As long as I've been here, we've never had to send a kid anywhere because we didn't have the bed space."

The average length of stay for an offender in the Lafayette facility is 89 days, although one juvenile has been at the facility for more than 480 days. The facility houses juveniles ages 10 through 17 who are awaiting court dates and are unable to post bond.

At present, 17-year-olds remain at the juvenile facility until they are either convicted and moved into a state facility, found not guilty and released, or turn 18. Around 5 a.m. on an offender's 18th birthday, Lafayette Parish Sheriff's deputies move the offender to the adult correctional center.

The Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office issued a statement in response to interview requests for this story.

"The Sheriff's Office has worked closely with the Lafayette Consolidated Government, which funds and operates the Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home, to ensure all juvenile offenders are properly and safely housed," Valerie Ponseti, an agency spokesperson, wrote in an email to The Acadiana Advocate. "This includes 17-year-old offenders, regardless of their status and/or charges in juvenile or adult court. In accordance with state legislation, there are no current or future plans to house 17-year-old offenders at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center — or at any of the adult facilities within Lafayette Parish. To that point, it would not be appropriate to hypothesize or speculate about plans of that nature."

Proponents of the new legislation, authored by Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, said it would give prosecutors the ability to combat violent crime committed by juveniles. Opponents said it would take away discretion from district attorneys, traumatize children by placing them in adult jails for relatively minor crimes and disproportionately hurt minorities.

Landry and other district attorneys are still determining how to interpret the law when it comes to prosecuting 17-year-olds.

"If a 17-year-old gets a traffic ticket, under the new law, you would think it's got to be tried in adult traffic court," Landry said. "But the way the law is written, it's not clear. There's confusion about it."