There’s a bill quietly making its way through the current legislative session that should be raising red flags with lawmakers and criminal justice advocates alike.
House Bill 357, by Rep. Mike Huval (R-Breaux Bridge) may well have the best of intentions in addressing the state’s myriad problems with its juvenile justice system but as written, the bill would seem to open the door to sweetheart deals with private prison operators in the nine-parish Acadiana region of the state.
And while the bill does create a governing board that would administer the proposed Acadiana Regional Juvenile Justice District, in reality it would allow potentially lucrative lease agreements with private individuals for property and facilities with little to no real oversight.
In fact, the bill specifically stipulates that the board may “purchase or otherwise acquire, construct, reconstruct, rehabilitate, improve, repair, operate, lease as lessor or lessee, manage, and administer or enter into contracts for the management, administration, and operation of a juvenile detention facility or facilities, shelter care facility or facilities, or such other juvenile justice facilities as are useful, necessary, expedient, or convenient…”
Nowhere in the bill would the board be required to take bids or to even issue a request for proposals (RFP) for any such lease agreement(s).
HB357 also provides “such facilities may include but are not limited to office facilities, parking facilities, diagnostic facilities, dormitories, residential units, administration and social service buildings, cafeteria buildings, gymnasium, educational and recreational buildings, and other similar facilities for delinquent, neglected, or abused children or children in need of care or supervision, as well as for employees, patrons, visitors, and relatives of children who may enter the juvenile justice system, or who are in need of care or supervision.”
And while the wording doesn’t make it exactly clear if “employees, patrons, visitors, and relatives of children” may be “in need of care or supervision,” that is probably not the intent of the bill, its wording notwithstanding.
Likewise, it is probably not the intent of the bill to imply that the proposed juvenile facilities may “otherwise acquire” troubled juveniles as “property,” since that practice was abolished in 1863, though the wording does leave that point unclear.
What it does clearly do, however, is give the board carte blanche to enter into leases, acquire and/or construct buildings without the pesky requirement of going through the bid process or even issuing an RFP.
That leaves the door open to all kinds of back-room deals with the relatives of judges, district attorneys, and/or sheriffs and other influential movers and shakers who might have a brother-in-law or a cousin with a tract of land he just happens to being nothing with and which would make a dandy juvenile jail, by the way.
The bill even allows financing of construction projects through the State Bond Commission upon authorization of the 11-member governing board., which is a pretty nice deal for a private entity such as a prison that wants cheap, low-interest financing via the issuance of general obligation bonds.
That board shall, according to the bill, consist of one member each from the parishes of Acadia, Allen, Evangeline, Iberia, Jefferson Davis, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion. Their appointments will be made by the chief judge and district for the respective judicial districts and the sheriff of each parish. Two at-large members will also be appointed – one by the parish presidents and presidents of the police juries of the nine parishes and the other by the city court judges in the member parishes.
Co-sponsors for Huval’s bill are Reps. Beryl Amedee (R-Houma), Beaullieu, Gerald Bourriaque (R-New Iberia), Marcus, Bryant (D-New Iberia), Rhonda Gaye Butler (R-Ville Platte), Dewith Carrier R-Oakdale), Kenny Cox (D-Coushatta), Paula Davis (R-Baton Rouge), Phillip Devillier (R-Eunice), Julie Emerson (R-Carencro), Adrian Fisher (D-Monroe), Bryan Fontenot (R-Thibodaux), Jonathan Goudeau (R-Lafayette), Kyle Green, Jr. (D-Marrero), Jason Hughes (D-New Orleans), Ed Larvadain, III (D-Alexandria), Rodney Lyons (D-Marrero), Troy Romero (R-Jennings), Vincent St. Blanc, III (R-Franklin), John Stefanski R-Crowley), Malinda White (R-Bogalusa), and Matthew Willard (D-New Orleans).
Louisiana Voice 
I hope you enjoy semi-retirement while continuing to pop in on occasion with pieces like this. This is one hell of a terrible, corrupt legislature. This session can’t end soon enough.
Thanks for this article! We have missed you! You have to wonder how such an important bill gets approved by so many educated people while missing the most important pieces?! Hauntingly similar to the ‘Jindal’ days.
When the state accepts its obligation to its citizens and assumes repsonsibility of prisons and the incarcerated it assumes the obligation of providing for the public safety and providing humane treatment of prisoners and a responsibility to rehabilitate. But when the state privatizes its obligations it dumps all responsibility on to a private company who doesn’t give a damn about anything but profit margin. That’s a good arrangement for garbage pickup but hardly anything else and certainly not anything to do with another human being.
I’m confused by this proposed legislation. Why does the Acadiana region alone need a “regional juvenile justice district”? Is there more need for services and physical facilities in the Acadiana region than the rest of the state? Why are existing parish and state services so insufficient that a regional authority needs to be created? (as if I don’t already know the answer to the question, as DSCF is an out-of-control and inefficient agency, and the Office of Juvenile Justice appears to unable to adequately serve the needs of incarcerated youth)
Aside from the probability that blatant corruption will ensue from this legislation as Tom has detailed, what is the purpose and the need for this proposed “juvenile justice district”? Why not clean up, shore up and support existing state agencies and parish services that are already charged with providing services and supervision to our troubled youth and families?
Jerel Giarrusso, retired from the Office of Juvenile Justice