Each month, East Baton Rouge Parish taxpayers spend $368,000 to send inmates to prisons in other parishes, almost four times the $96,000 they spent just six years ago.

While the COVID crime spike and new laws have played a role, many parish officials say the main problem is simple: The nearly 60-year-old parish prison is falling apart.

Rusted bars and ceilings, crumbling sewage pipes and long-obsolete parts often fail, taking sections — sometimes entire wings — out of commission and leaving the jail with too few beds.

On top of sending inmates elsewhere, in recent years the parish has spent millions annually on repairs to keep what beds open that it can.

Some leaders now question whether the constant patchwork repairs are wasting taxpayer dollars. They wonder if building a new priso

See Full Page