Louisiana Voice

William Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet that “A rose by any other name…”

LaSalle Management, LaSalle Corrections, WMC Enterprises, it doesn’t seem to matter what you call it, the Ruston-based private prison company just can’t seem to stay out of trouble.

Five former inmates of the LaSalle-run Richwood facility in Ouachita Parish settled their LAWSUIT against LaSalle for $177,500 after prison guards pepper-sprayed them while they were handcuffed and kneeling back in 2016.

And though LaSalle did not admit liability in the confidential settlement with Adley Campbell, Darin Whittington, Sidney Stephens, Jareth Vinet and Jimmy Klobas last March, the father of one of the men said he preferred that the settlement offer be declined so that facts about the facility might become public.

Larry Vinet of Charleston, West Virginia, father of Jareth Vinet said, “I told my son I’d give him 20 grand to not sign (the agreement) and let the truth come out.”

LaSalle holds both state inmates and immigrant detained for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and one such immigrant killed himself in October 2019. An Associated Press investigation indicated that the suicide was PREVENTABLE.

Associated Press also took issue with the confidentiality terms of the pepper spray lawsuit, successfully seeking that they be made public.

In 2017, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the state’s public records law applied to private entities performing public functions. Thanks to that ruling and the Associated Press’ public records request, Vinet can have his $20,000 from LaSalle and the truth can come out.

More and more, the trend for corporations and individuals named as defendants is to negotiate confidential settlements without an admission of guilt in cases in which they feel they are at a legal disadvantage.

Often, these confidential settlements involve public officials in which vast amounts of taxpayer dollars are spent in legal defenses, yet the taxpaying public is never told the amount of the settlements it is paying for.

LouisianaVoice has long held the position that such lack of accountability is wrong and that the public has the right to know how its money is being spent – and how much. Such settlements amount to little more than an official way to protect wrongdoers from exposure.

The lawsuit alleged that in 2016, the five men were pulled out of a dormitory, strip-searched and interrogated about tattoos. After they put their clothes back on, they were handcuffed and escorted to an area called the “White House,” where they were accused of being members of a gang and made to kneel. They were then sprayed with pepper spray, according to the suit.

A federal INDICTMENT in March 2018 charged five former Richwood guards with conspiring to assault inmates and filing false reports concerning the incident. All five pleaded guilty to conspiracy during 2018 and 2019, saying they filed false reports to cover up why the inmates needed medical care. One pleaded guilty to plotting to violate the inmates’ civil rights and the others to conspiring to cover up wrongdoing.

Four admitted in writing that they had sprayed pepper spray into the faces of kneeling, handcuffed inmates; the fifth said he stood by during the spraying. One of four who used the spray were died in an unrelated shooting before he could be prosecuted. The other guards received sentences ranging from 15 months to five years.

Former Capt. Roderick Douglas admitted pepper-spraying two inmates’ eyes, then passing the can to other guards.

He said the officers “rounded up five inmates whom they suspected of gang activity.” They were taken to an area without security cameras and placed facing the walls on their knees, with hands cuffed behind their backs.

LaSalle, which had taken down its Web pages recently, has apparently re-worked its Web profile into an attractive presentation that makes it seem the ideal place to work, inviting PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES to “Join a team where you can make a difference in people’s lives” and pitching itself as committed to PROVIDING SAFETY and SECURITY to ENSURE the WELL-BEING if the PEOPLE in OUR CARE.”

It touts 25 locations in five states (Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico) with the capacity to warehouse 17,318 prisoners paying up to $65 per day per person.

The breakdown is as follows:

• Louisiana – 8,208;
• Texas – 6,905;
• Georgia – 1,201;
• Arizona – 860;
• New Mexico – 144.

That number will be reduced by at least one facility and 921 beds in February when LaSalle’s contract to run the Bowie County Correctional Center in Texarkana, Texas, ends.

While LaSalle’s facilities have come under criticism by regulators from without, it hasn’t done too well from within, if EMPLOYEE REVIEWS rating it as 2.3 on a scale of 5.0 are any indication.