A funny thing happened on the way to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s anticipated 11 a.m. press conference on Wednesday to announce his plans for the privatization of several state prisons: it never happened. And what did occur quickly morphed into damage control in the governor’s office.
Instead of a real live press conference, the media received only a four-page press release that said, in essence, that the state was transferring Dabadie Correction Center in Pineville and Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport to the sheriffs of the two parishes.
The press release even contained extensive laudatory quotes by the sheriffs of the two parishes as well as by the executive director of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and James LeBlanc, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. To a man, they praised the agreement, claiming the move would be beneficial to the state and to both communities.
But when the Alexandria Town Talk hit the streets on Thursday morning, readers learned that both sheriffs had, almost in unison, disavowed any such agreement. Both Rapides Sheriff Charles Wagner, Jr. and Avoyelles Sheriff Doug Anderson indicated they had no inclination—or intention—to take over the facilities.
The governor’s press release quoted Wagner thusly: “Our intention is to save the jobs at Dabadie for our community and to continue to sustain Camp Beauregard. Working with the Louisiana Department of Corrections, we have developed a partnership that has proven beneficial to both of us.”
By Thursday morning, however, Wagner was singing a different tune—that is, if he did in fact utter the statement attributed to him by the governor’s press office in the first place. He quickly notified LeBlanc to reiterate his opposition to the plan.
Anderson was quoted as saying Avoyelles Correctional Center “represents an opportunity for this sheriff’s office to provide a basis for continued employment of those correctional officers in Avoyelles Parish.” Later, like Wagner, he would deny ever having agreed to take over the 1,564-bed prison.
Where were Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Hal Turner and LeBlanc when the dust had settled on Thursday? Well, Turner didn’t have much to say. He apparently said enough on Wednesday through the governor’s press handout. “Today’s announcement is further evidence of the strong partnership Louisiana sheriffs have with the Department of Correction,” he gushed.
LeBlanc, however, was not so reticent, sniffing “In the event the Avoyelles and Rapides Parish sheriffs do not want to take over these prisons, the department will begin to seek private sector bids on the facilities to move forward with their sale/operations.”
Jindal, meanwhile, has had little to say. Of course, it’s hard to speak with egg all over your face and with your credibility having taken a hit broadside.
So, what, exactly, happened? How did such a monumental misunderstanding of such epic proportions occur?
Simple.
Either somebody (read: Jindal) jumped the gun with an announcement that turned out to be embarrassingly premature, ill-advised, and inaccurate, or
Somebody (read: two sheriffs) lied after receiving a groundswell of protests from local residents.
This much is known: State Reps Robert Johnson (D-Marksville) and Chris Roy (D-Alexandria) and State Sen. Joe McPherson (D-Woodworth) got an earful from their constituents. The main complaints were that they (the citizenry) were not informed about the planned transfers, had seen nothing to convince them that the state would save money or that employees would not have their salaries cut or worse, lose their jobs.
But we digress. Back to what happened.
An administration official close to the situation says flatly that the sheriffs are lying. “They knew about this and they agreed to it,” he said. “The real screw-up was that there was nothing in writing. Nobody in the governor’s office had them sign off on something as simple as an agreement in principle and it gave the sheriffs deniability. It gave them the chance they needed to weasel out of the deal.”
So why in the name of everything neat and binding didn’t Jindal’s boys get the sheriffs’ signatures on a document of some sort? No one but Jindal’s boys can answer that one.
It also brings into question his ability to act like a governor. The state pays local sheriffs in every parish $31.51 per day for each state prisoner housed in local jails and the sheriffs love the arrangement. With the 1,564-beds in Avoyelles and another 580 in Dabadie, that’s potentially a combined income of more than $24.6 million per year for the two sheriffs’ offices. What’s not to love about a sweet deal like that?
Practically any governor dating all the way back to Huey Long would have had buses waiting at the gates of both facilities come dawn Thursday morning to remove all state prisoners from the facilities in retaliation for the sheriffs’ having the temerity to show him up in such a brazen manner.
It would have been one of the better—and one of the more effective—shows of force by a governor since Huey Long coerced 15 state senators to sign his infamous “Round Robin” statement, pledging to vote “not guilty” in his 1929 impeachment trial, though maybe not as clever as brother Earl’s firing the head of state hospitals in 1959 and replacing him with a crony who subsequently ordered Earl’s release from a state mental hospital in Mandeville. Such muscle-flexing sends a clear message as to exactly who is in charge.
Instead, Rhode Scholar Jindal, Louisiana’s Ivy League governor, let two first term sheriffs make him look silly.
And even though he insists he has the job he wants, this latest debacle begs the question: What will happen if he is elected president and participates in an economic summit with Vladimir Putin? Or Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao?
It could get ugly.
Louisiana Voice 