There was a popular game about 40 years ago called “Whack-a-mole.” (For all I know, it may well still be around.) Anyway, the object of the game was for a player to “whack” a rodent with a rubber mallet each time it appeared out of one of five holes. The problem was each time a mole was “whacked”, it invariably popped up again from one of the remaining four holes.
So it is with certain news stories that just when you think you’ve written about all there is to say on the subject, up pops another angle to pursue.
This time though, two separate—and seemingly unrelated—stories that have been covered extensively in the past by LouisianaVoice have now converged to warrant a fresh look at old news.
Before I go any further, I should acknowledge the ever-sharp eyes of my bronchitis-infected friend and Ruston High School classmate John Sachs (Class of ’61). It is he, after all, that brought an otherwise routine local news story in the Farmerville Gazette to my attention. (I guess I’m going to have acquiesce and give him that honorary Deputy Ace Reporter badge he’s been clamoring for.)
Eagle-Eye John called me about efforts to hire a private prison management company to take over management of the 380-bed Union Parish Detention Center. You may recall that LouisianaVoice had a couple of stories about the facility last year, on MAY 10 and MAY 31 about a convicted rapist who was allowed out of his cell to rape a female prisoner. Twice.
That incident, deplorable as it certainly was, is not what this is about, however.
The Gazette story recounted the reason for the decision by LaSalle Corrections to decline Union Parish’s offer. Those reasons dealt with the potential shortage of prisoners if Gov. John Bel Edwards is successful in reducing the number of state inmates and the financial impact of such a move.
Another factor, said LaSalle Chief of Operations Johnny Creed, was the size of four other facilities in north Louisiana managed by LaSalle: Richwood Correctional Center (1,129 inmates), Jackson Parish Correctional Center (1,285), LaSalle Correctional Center (785) and Catahoula Correctional Center (835).
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
And then Creed said the thing that caught Sach’s eye, prompting him to call me with his croaking voice and rattling cough: “As small as (Union Parish Detention Center) is, we would need to bring our work release inmate that work for Foster Farms from our Richwood facility.”
Wait. What?
Foster Farms has 100 work release inmates working at its cotton-pickin’ chicken-pluckin’ plant in Farmerville?
Isn’t this the same plant that Bobby Jindal, with the support of State Sen. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), gave $50 million to in order to get Foster Farms to take over the plant from Pilgrim’s Pride back in 2009?
Wasn’t Foster Farms supposed to provide up to 1,100 jobs with that $50 million?
Does Foster Farms get a $2,400 tax credit for each inmate it employs in the work release program?
And aren’t work release programs something of a cash cow for sheriffs and private prisons farming out prisoners to work for just a smidgen more than minimum wage?
Yes,
Uh-huh.
Yep.
Hell, yes.
You mean to tell me Foster Farms gets a $240,000 tax credit (that’s credit, not a deduction, meaning that’s $240,000 income on which Foster Farm pays no taxes) for hiring 100 prisoners at $7.75 per hour (about 60 percent of which goes to the local sheriff), jobs that should be going to local folks?
Very perceptive, Grasshopper.
This, folks, is yet another lingering smell that hits our olfactory like a pair of dirty socks but which we affectionately call the Jindal Legacy.
The work release program is such a golden egg that sheriffs all over the state, reading the tea leaves shaped like dollar signs, rushed to build their own programs, complete with barracks and vans for workers. And to make sure the beds stayed filled, which is the only way they can get the maximum state dollars, the accommodating Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association lobbied (read parties, booze, women and campaign contributions) Louisiana’s law and order legislators to be more law and order-oriented and pass stiffer penalties for even the most insignificant crimes.
To see just how lucrative this could be for a small parish like Union, let’s run the numbers.
State law allows the sheriff or operator of the private prison to take up to 62 percent of a prisoner’s earnings. One hundred prisoners working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year at $7.75 per hour. That comes to $1.55 million earned by the prisoner.
The Union Parish Detention Center is unique in that it is the only such facility in the state in which neither the sheriff nor a private company has operational controls. It is operated by committee comprised of a member of the Union Parish Police Jury, the district attorney and parish police chiefs. Lincoln Parish at one time was run in the same manner but it is now run by the sheriff.
If the parish takes “just” 60 percent, that’s $930,000 per year for the sheriff/operator. And that’s over and above the rate the state pays the sheriff/operator to house the prisoners. More than six years ago, LOUISIANA VOICE published a story that examined some of the housing contracts between the state and several Louisiana parishes.
Despite the money generated by the work release program, the Union Parish Detention Center has continued to lose money. That is the reason for the unsuccessful attempt to lure LaSalle into managing the center.
We followed our December 2010 post with a story in AUGUST 2015 that illustrated the abuses that can occur when someone with the right connections can use that advantage to manipulate a system like work release for his own monetary gain.
Jail operators, be they sheriffs or private corporations, love the money the work release program brings in to augment that paid by the state for housing the prisoners.
And businesses like Foster Farms love being able to hire 100 prisoners at near-minimum wage and receive a $240,000 tax credit in the process.
It’s a win-win for everyone but the taxpayers.
So, bottom line: Thar’s gold in them thar jails.
When Jindal did this deal he had the Legislature break laws governing how mega-fund monies were to be spent. Instead of giving 50 million to an out of state agribusiness conglomerate he could have given less to local chicken farmers to form a cooperative AND kept profits within the state. Senator Walsworth (R-West Monroe) declared it great because it saved his chicken farmer constituents. That same year Jindal seems to have received large campaign contributions from CA where Foster Farms is located. About a year later I heard many employees were coming in from AR. Now to hear the plant is using prison labor is maddening, though not too surprising in yet another of li’l Bobby’s crooked schemes. It would be good to know just how many free men from LA this plant actually employees.
The damning fact that always surfaces about Jindal (or most any other Louisiana corruption story) is how many other willing Louisiana elected officials, business people and citizens there are to take advantage of Jindal’s corruption. They just can’t seem to “just say NO!”
Simply incredible. SMH
Once Again, You can bet, the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association is tied to this.
Just “bidness” Louisiana-style. It really is hard to figure what is going to happen to all the facilities sheriffs have built across the state IF we are actually able to reduce our incarceration rate significantly.
It might be worth noting that, while the state does pay sheriffs a per diem for work release inmates, it is less than half what they pay for regular incarceration. However, since the inmates are ostensibly paying for their room and board from their wages (what we ostensibly pay sheriffs for regular incarceration of our inmates) and the sheriffs and private firms are making a profit from that same source (the law allows them to take up to 75% of the inmate’s earnings) one might legitimately question why we pay anything. One area of investigation might be: How many inmates in these facilities are really employed on a full, or even part-time, regular basis and are we paying for those who are not? I don’t know, just asking.
Who is gonna investigate? Street the Jindal IG, his former chief sleuth, Greg Pharis, the ratfu****g Republican legislature, or best the LBI, our astute and rude Attorney General Jeff Landry? I believe(note believe) that President Trump will call in the “feds” as soon as he ferrets out the 3 million illegals who voted for Hillary. love always ron thompson
Right on, Ron! Based on Street’s findings (no problems, nothing to see here) versus the ADVOCATE’s recent reports on Burl Cain, we certainly don’t want him swooping in and certifying that all is well with these work release programs. As I have said many times before, the only watchdog we have in government is Darryl Purpera and he does not get nearly the attention and respect he deserves. Just one example (of many I could cite): The hearing last week where former DWF Secretary Barham (now head of State Parks) was allowed to accuse Purpera of “Monday morning quarterbacking” without being vigorously called to task for doing so by committee members was unconscionable.[somebody who saw the whole hearing correct me on this if I am wrong and, believe me, I hope I am].
Stephen, what got me with the whole Barham thing was that he said the BP money was “not” taxpayers’ money. Maybe I missed something. When did the BP payments not become “public” monies? Yes, the money was earmarked, but it was paid to the “state”. Stephen, correct me If I am wrong.
You nailed it in every respect!! Also, I want to point out that Pupera is the only one who felt so strongly that Sandy Edmonds committed payroll fraud that he referred his findings to DA HIllar Moore for prosecution. Caldwell? Don’t even get me started! Street? Mr. Thompson summed it up best. Ms. Herring’s commentary is spot-on, and it’s frustrating why seemingly nearly all elected officials seem to just bury their collective heads in the sand (and that’s an optimistic assessment of their attitudes). I remain optimistic on Jeff Landry, and I hope I’m not disappointed over the next 18 months.
Clifford, I absolutely agree and I, too, was astounded when his defense was something like, “Not one penny of this was taxpayer money. It was BP money.” So, it was okay to blow it? As you know, the BP money went to the state treasury. A state agency cannot spend money that has not been appropriated and the BP money was clearly appropriated and is public money. There is NO excuse for wasting money no matter where it comes from, so this was about as stupid a defense as he could have given – of course, he may not have figured anybody was the wiser so that made misrepresentation okay. The only legislator I saw who confronted him on his actions in a concrete way was Bodi White and it upped him in my estimation significantly.
It never stops. After reading the article in the Advocate the other day, comparing the state’s sales tax collections vis a vis the tax credits and exemptions, I called a former co-worker at the legislature to confirm the numbers. Disgusting. We are giving the revenue away. Then, I read this post. Heaven help us.
Is it any wonder LA cannot balance its budget???
The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office does not run the correctional facility. The Union Parish Police Jury decided several years ago to take it over because they believed they could run it better.
Not entirely correct. The Legislature in 1989 created Union Parish Detention Center Commission to oversee operation of the detention center. By statue, the sheriff was absolved of responsibility to operate the jail. Providing (read “bankrolling”) the jail is the responsibility of the Police Jury (or parish governing authority) as it is in every parish in the state.
It was supposed to be a new administration and a new day in Louisiana. A year after the regime change, sadly it appears to be more of the same in many agencies. Disappointing. The one thing that remains the same, and is a force for good, is LouisianaVoice, still ferreting out government corruption.
Yes, earthmother it is a new administration and a new day. However, it takes people like Darryl Purpera to find this stuff and point it out to the new regime. Yes ,JBE did appoint his own cabinet. But, those departments and offices are actually run by long time civil servants. Who were there long before the new administration got there. JBE’s department heads and JBE himself would not be aware of such corruption and misdeeds until pointed out by people like Darryl. Once he has been made aware, it is incumbent upon him to do something. If it is in his power to do so.
I agree. However, my pet peeve continues to be that, notwithstanding an entrenched bureaucracy, the governor should absolutely demand his department heads ferret out these problems and fix them before the Legislative Auditor has to catch them after-the-fact. I don’t know what department undersecretaries really do now, but the original intent was that they would be the governor’s appointed eyes and ears within departments reporting directly to him. If they are not doing this, what are they doing now? Supervising accounting, payroll, etc. and, even if that is all they are doing, can’t they be held accountable for catching these things by holding the entrenched bureaucrats accountable?
Can’t argue with that, Stephen.
Jimmy LeBlanc, Edmonson, Barham…known quantities, not civil servants, still in government positions. No secrets there, same old, same old. No need for Darryl Purpera to dig out secret goings-on. No need for me to go on, either, point made. .
earthmother, you are right. Those three should have been gone.
There are always two ways of looking at a story! Morehouse parish was excited to get a chicken processing plant. We needed the jobs it would produce, but Surprisingly (insert sarcasm here!) majority of the unemployed here did not WANT a job. Most were content with the government assistance they have over a job at the plant. Hence, reaching out to the work release program to stay open after spending the mega $$$ to locate here. Just my two cents…
Baseballfanatic, I understand. On another issue involving Foster Farms. Yesterday, I spoke to a person who has relatives who operate chicken farms in that area. I was told that many of the local chicken farmers were left out, some of her relatives included. Were you aware of such?
I worked at plant in Bastrop. People complained about work release inmates taking jobs there. This is no exaggeration: If 10 people were brought in for orientation on Monday, one didn’t come back from lunch, and by Friday four of the 10 had quit.
Ever wonder where the parole money goes? Just asking
The fees charged probationers and parolees go to the Corrections Probation and Patrol division budget for its field services (agents who supervise parolees and probationers) expenses. The most recent number I could find is that these fees generate about $18.5 million a year and the total field services budget is somewhere around $60 million..
My Daddy, and his retired barber neighbor sharpened scissors from the chicken plant. When Jindal and Walsworth celebrated $$ flow in 2009, Jindal wore cowboy boots. You wear rubber boots in those plants, never cowboy boots. I guess he thought he was at the “chiken” ranch with his friend Gov Perry. love always and still laughing at the Jindalites, ron thompson
Now that’s downright hilarious! Cowboy boots! I guess the rubber boots didn’t give him enough elevation to reach 5’4″ in height.
Also, to Ron’s point, I’ll bet he had to throw his cowboy boots away after that visit. I hope they were expensive, but not paid for directly with state funds.
It is 200 convicts. And 74 cents for every hour. Every day from 3 different jails. Do the math. Foster Farms has paid over 37 million to inmates. Income tax? The jails get funding from D.O.C. and charges only the nonviolent offenders for housing. Double dip.
Re the income tax: Foster Farms receives a $2400 tax credit for each inmate worked. If there are 200 inmates, that amounts to a $480,000 tax credit each year. A credit means that’s what is taken right off the top of their tax bill each year—which is different than a tax deduction.
As to the 74 cents per hour, I believe inmates are paid at least minimum wage but the jail or private prison can take 60 percent of that right off the top, plus prisoners are charged incredibly high prices for snacks—like $4 for a Honey Bun and $5 for a soft drink.
According to an LED spokesman, Foster doesn’t get tax credits for its employees. The deal brokered with Foster was loaded heavy on the front end, e.g. $40 million of the $80 million purchase price of the plant and $10 million of upgrades. The LED spokesman said with so much cash going into the deal that the agency wasn’t going to continue giving them what would amount to a $2.6 million income tax credit each year – 1,100 employees @ $2,400 per.