Louisiana
River Parishes want $36 million from state to build a juvenile detention center. Is it needed?
A group of Mississippi River parishes is seeking more than $36 million in state money to build a juvenile jail on land owned by Lafourche Parish.
The proposal for a 56-bed lockup follows the state’s tough-on-crime legislative push in 2024.
The state funding application, obtained via a records request by The Advocate, was submitted earlier this year by the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office and the River Parishes Juvenile Justice District. The district includes Ascension, Assumption, St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Charles parishes.
The new jail would focus on rehabilitation, which officials say is especially needed amid high juvenile incarceration rates. Certain Louisiana juvenile offenders are held out of state, because of a lack of space here.
The site for the planned 62,151-square-foot jail is on Veterans Boulevard in Thibodaux on a tract owned by Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.
St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said planning for another juvenile jail began several years ago, yet it will likely be years before a new one is built if a state-appointed commission approves it.
“It’s not that we want to just hold more juveniles. I mean, I think it would be fantastic for everybody if we didn’t have to hold any, but that’s just not reality,” he said. “Some juveniles really commit serious crimes.”
The long-term sustainability and need for a 56-bed youth jail, which the proposal says can be expanded to 72 beds, remains an open question. The New Orleans juvenile center has 76 beds, while the East Baton Rouge juvenile center’s capacity is 36.
And other parishes across the state are competing for the same funds, including a proposed 841-bed jail in Lafayette Parish, according to reporting by The Lens.
Richard Pittman, director of juvenile defender services for the former Louisiana Public Defender Board between 2013 and 2024, said the overall number of youths statewide in custody has decreased.
“When I started there, it was in the middle of a long-term trend of reducing the number of children in custody,” he said. “… This was also in the middle of a long-term downward trend in youthful offending, and an upward trend in reform efforts and reform legislation.”
State sets aside $150 million to house for juvenile offenders
State Sen. Gregory Miller, R-Norco, drafted the 2023 law that created the River Parishes Juvenile Justice District. According to the proposal for the new jail, legislators are working to add Lafourche Parish to it.
The state has allocated $150 million for grants for juvenile detention centers, adult jails, buildings for parish sheriffs and restoration to buildings owned by the Office of Juvenile Justice. State Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, said at an August meeting that $100 million was available for the first round of funding.
Pittman said the state’s model was a good idea, but questioned whether the state needs such a large expansion of juvenile jail space.
“If we’re going to have detention centers, having regionalized detention centers where different jurisdictions now share the cost, share the burden, share the risk of putting all this money together … is actually not a bad way to do it,” he said. “That that’s actually kind of a preferred model of how to do it.”
The juvenile justice district plans to levy a 0.75 tax millage across the parishes within it to raise an estimated $5.2 million annually, with additional funds of close to $2 million annually anticipated to come from the state paying to house juveniles in secure care.
That type of secure care is used for more serious offenses, according to the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice. The office’s data shows 480 youths were held in secure care in the final quarter of 2024.
How much space needed for juvenile detention?
A little over a decade ago, the St. James Parish juvenile detention center closed. A few years later, Assumption Parish Sheriff Leland Falcon closed that parish’s juvenile detention center due to a lack of funding.
But Falcon said he supported the new proposal, since the state plans to reimburse local districts for 30% of the juvenile detention beds whether they are filled or not.
St. Charles Parish Sheriff Champagne said he currently has one youth in a secure-care facility in Mississippi, highlighting the need for a local jail. But he said the parish sometimes goes months without any juveniles in pretrial detention.
Pittman, former juvenile defender services director for the Louisiana Public Defender Board between 2013 and 2024 highlighted such gaps, saying he thought many beds might go unfilled. That public defender board was replaced last year with a new nine-member Louisiana Public Defender Oversight Board.
“The total detention bed space in the state is probably a couple hundred … right now,” he said. “And if you’re talking multiple new detention centers that are that big, you’re talking about dramatically expanding the detention space of the state.”
Louisiana authorities captured the third and final inmate who escaped from St. Landry Parish Jail following a weeks-long manhunt.
In early December, three inmates — all 20-somethings jailed on “charges of a violent nature” — removed the mortar and concrete blocks of a deteriorating part of a jail wall, then used sheets and other materials to scale the side of the building, dropped to the first-floor roof, and escaped, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office has said.
The last remaining escapee, 24-year-old Keith Eli, was apprehended Friday without incident in Opelousas by narcotics detectives and SWAT, the sheriff’s office said. Eli faces one count of attempted second-degree murder.
Eli’s capture comes weeks after authorities apprehended Johnathan Jevon Joseph, 24, on December 8. Joseph had been jailed on charges of principal to first-degree rape, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, among other counts. “Numerous tips” and “intelligence gathering” led authorities to find the escapee, the sheriff’s office said.
Days earlier, Joseph Allen Harrington, a 26-year-old in custody on numerous felony counts, including home invasion and cruelty to juveniles, died by suicide after authorities found him, Port Barre Police Chief Deon Boudreaux told the Associated Press.
A tipster had recognized Harrington, who was pushing an e-bike. Authorities found the e-bike at the home and then used a loudspeaker to urge the individual to come out of the house. They later heard a gunshot and authorities found his body inside with a hunting rifle, Boudreaux said.
Authorities announced the inmates had escaped on December 3.
Maj. Mark LeBlanc, of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, told the AP that he hadn’t heard of anyone escaping from the jail in this manner before.
“These three were just a little more creative than in years past,” he told the outlet.
However, the three men’s jailbreak came months after 10 inmates at another Louisiana jail — the Orleans Justice Center — in May.
The group was able to open a faulty cell door inside the New Orleans-area jail, squeeze through a hole behind a toilet, and then scale a barbed-wire fence to freedom. They escaped in the early hours of May 16.
Authorities found a message drawn around the hole: an arrow pointing at the gap and the words “To Easy LoL.”
While nine of the escapees were captured within six weeks of their jailbreak, the final inmate — who had the most violent criminal record of the group — wasn’t found until October.
The Louisiana Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Dec. 20, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
04-05-28-52-69, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 3
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
6-8-5
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
7-2-9-7
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 5 numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
0-7-9-8-1
Check Pick 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Easy 5 numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
07-17-20-28-33
Check Easy 5 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto numbers from Dec. 20 drawing
10-11-15-16-26-28
Check Lotto payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Louisiana Lottery retailers will redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes over $600, winners can submit winning tickets through the mail or in person at Louisiana Lottery offices. Prizes of over $5,000 must be claimed at Lottery office.
By mail, follow these instructions:
- Sign and complete the information on the back of your winning ticket, ensuring all barcodes are clearly visible (remove all scratch-off material from scratch-off tickets).
- Photocopy the front and back of the ticket (except for Powerball and Mega Millions tickets, as photocopies are not accepted for these games).
- Complete the Louisiana Lottery Prize Claim Form, including your telephone number and mailing address for prize check processing.
- Photocopy your valid driver’s license or current picture identification.
Mail all of the above in a single envelope to:
Louisiana Lottery Headquarters
555 Laurel Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70801
To submit in person, visit Louisiana Lottery headquarters:
555 Laurel Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70801, (225) 297-2000.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This office can cash prizes of any amount.
Check previous winning numbers and payouts at Louisiana Lottery.
When are the Louisiana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 5: Daily at 9:59 p.m. CT.
- Easy 5: 9:59 p.m. CT Wednesday and Saturday.
- Lotto: 9:59 p.m. CT Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Louisiana editor. You can send feedback using this form.
ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) – The federal government is building a nationwide standard as the United States competes in a global A.I. race, much the same as the Space Race of the 20th century.
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at establishing a uniform federal regulatory framework for artificial intelligence in the United States.
The order emphasized a need for AI companies to be allowed to innovate without hinderance from excessive regulations, so that the system would not become fragmented.
Marva Bailer is the CEO and founder of Qualaix, which works to improve productivity and innovation with AI through conversations. She said this framework a step towards realizing an untapped potential in the United States for innovation and productivity through AI.
“We are leading the AI race,” said Bailer. “What is getting people’s attention is there are areas that we could be a lot stronger and lean in a lot faster.”
We spoke with KALB political analyst Greg LaRose to learn how this new framework might impact Louisiana’s development.
Since 2024, the construction of multiple AI data centers has been announced across the state, with each new center estimated to be worth billions of dollars and promising new jobs and growth for Louisiana.
According to LaRose, the executive order should not realistically confine any of the state’s major AI projects.
“Through the Louisiana lens at that executive order from President Trump, I’m not really seeing anything that really confines what’s going on in the state.”
The majority of the state’s laws are concerned with deep fakes.
In October, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry issued his own executive order which banned, “Communist Chinese AI platforms’ from systems within state government.”
While it is unclear how Louisiana will enforce Landry’s order, LaRose said the state does face other concerns.
“I think they’re more concerned about giving China access to the data that is used to create, say, a Louisiana-based deep fake or any type of issue,” said LaRose. “For example, like transcription software that people are increasingly using to make record-keeping a lot easier. I think the idea is that that type of information be kept out of hands that we don’t want it in.”
This, as the global AI race heats up heading into 2026.
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