Connect with us

Louisiana

River Parishes want $36 million from state to build a juvenile detention center. Is it needed?

Published

on

River Parishes want  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. 

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

“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.

Advertisement

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.”



Source link

Advertisement

Louisiana

Louisiana Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 results for March 2, 2026

Published

on


The Louisiana Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at March 2, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from March 2 drawing

02-17-18-38-62, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Advertisement

Winning Pick 3 numbers from March 2 drawing

3-9-9

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from March 2 drawing

4-1-1-0

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 5 numbers from March 2 drawing

0-5-2-9-5

Advertisement

Check Pick 5 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:

  1. 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).
  2. Photocopy the front and back of the ticket (except for Powerball and Mega Millions tickets, as photocopies are not accepted for these games).
  3. Complete the Louisiana Lottery Prize Claim Form, including your telephone number and mailing address for prize check processing.
  4. Photocopy your valid driver’s license or current picture identification.

Mail all of the above in a single envelope to:

Louisiana Lottery Headquarters

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.



Source link

Continue Reading

Louisiana

National Guard deployment in New Orleans extended for six months

Published

on

National Guard deployment in New Orleans extended for six months


NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana National Guard announced Monday that 120 troops will remain deployed in New Orleans through August.

The six-month extension comes after 350 Guard members deployed to New Orleans in late December, in the run-up to New Year’s and other high-profile events like the Sugar Bowl. The troops, which had mainly clustered in the city’s historic French Quarter, had been scheduled to depart in the aftermath of Mardi Gras.

New Orleans is one of several Democrat-run cities, such as Washington and Memphis, Tennessee, where the federal government deployed armed troops under the administration of President Donald Trump. Hundreds of federal agents also converged on Louisiana in December as part of a separate immigration crackdown in and around New Orleans.

During his State of the Union address last week, Trump touted the deployment in New Orleans as a “big success.” In January, Trump credited the troops with reducing the city’s violent crime within a week of their deployment. City police data shows violent crime rates have significantly declined over the past three years in parallel with national trends.

Advertisement

According to a press statement from the Louisiana National Guard, the remaining guard members will serve as a “visible presence to deter criminal activity in New Orleans.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who initially opposed the deployment, said that the troops would benefit the city in the coming weeks. She pointed out that National Guard troops had assisted the city during last year’s Mardi Gras in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming attack in the French Quarter that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.

“I continue to support the partnership with the LA National Guard to assist in our major events and there are several coming up in the next few weeks,” Moreno said in a statement.

While Moreno did not address which events she referred to, visitors flock to New Orleans in the spring for events like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, requested the deployment of the National Guard last September, citing rising violent crime rates in New Orleans despite the data showing crime was down.

Advertisement

“This continued deployment will help us combat violence in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana,” Landry wrote on the social platform X on Monday, noting Louisiana had also sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., last year.

Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry, said the federal government would cover the cost of the extended deployment. She did not respond to a question about whether Guard members would be deployed outside New Orleans.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said in a statement the troops had already worked closely with other city, state and federal agencies to improve public safety during a stretch of high-profile events in the city, including the flood of visitors over Mardi Gras and the city’s carnival season.

“We remain committed to those partnerships as we continue supporting efforts to keep the City of New Orleans safe for residents and visitors,” Friloux said.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Louisiana

Jury selection begins Monday in one of Louisiana’s largest auto insurance fraud cases

Published

on

Jury selection begins Monday in one of Louisiana’s largest auto insurance fraud cases


NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Jury selection begins Monday in what prosecutors describe as one of the largest auto insurance fraud cases in Louisiana history, with two local attorneys set to stand trial on charges that include fraud and obstruction of justice.

Attorneys Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles are accused in an alleged scheme in which drivers — referred to as “slammers” — were paid to intentionally crash into 18-wheelers, file injury lawsuits and allow attorneys to collect the settlements. Both have pleaded not guilty.

63 people have been charged in the case. Many have already pleaded guilty. Motta and Giles are being tried together.

Criminal defense attorney Craig Mordock, who is not directly involved in the case but has been following it closely, said the scope of the litigation is significant.

Advertisement

“You have 10 years of personal injury cases and almost… almost a billion dollars in recovery. That’s all at issue,” Mordock said. “So yeah, this could go two to three weeks.”

Motta’s defense team has advanced a narrative that she was manipulated by a co-defendant.

“There is a compelling narrative that’s been advanced by Vanessa Motta’s lawyer in terms of her being manipulated by one of the co-defendants… about being manipulated by him and him having a prior federal conviction for fraud,” Mordock said.

Motta’s team originally claimed she did not know the crashes were staged. In 2024, her team told FOX 8 she is the victim.

Mordock said Giles faces a more difficult defense.

Advertisement

“I don’t see a favorable juror for one of the other lawyer defendants, Jason Giles. There’s not a clear theory of innocence. This is basically a standard white-collar prosecution where knowledge and intent are going to be the issue,” Mordock said.

The case carries what Mordock described as a shadow. In September 2020, key witness Cornelious Garrison was killed in New Orleans four days after his name appeared in an indictment. Garrison’s admitted killer, Ryan Harris, is expected to testify.

The judge in the case is also allowing the slain witness’s recorded descriptions of the alleged scheme to be admitted at trial.

Mordock said Louisiana drivers have a direct stake in the outcome.

“As your average Louisianan, the idea would be you would save… because the people committing this fraud have been wrapped up. The insurance companies are going to know how to look for this,” Mordock said.

Advertisement

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.

Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending