LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / July 14, 1999

KILLONA – Ground-breaking for the new St. Charles Parish CorrectionalCenter was held Thursday morning, just south of Louisiana Highway 3127, near Killona.

“We’re tired of talking, we’re ready to do!” Sheriff Greg C. Champagnedeclared, as he welcomed a bumper crop of public officials to the ceremony.

The new correctional center (“not a jail”) on the 62-acre site will include everything from computer-equipped learning labs to religious service facilities, all directed at rehabilitation rather than warehousing and punishment of lawbreakers.

Champagne noted, in an aside on Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, that Lee tried unsuccessfully three times to get tax approval for a new jail, despite being “the most popular sheriff since white bread.”Champagne welcomed keynote speaker Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, who described the planned St. Charles Parish facility as “exactlywhat we need.”Actual construction of the facility is due to begin in late October or early November, with completion due in spring 2001.

Meanwhile, 60 to 70 more jobs will be created, as staffing and training for the new facility is conducted. Under this plan, by the time the facilityis ready for use, the employees will also be ready for the job.

The $15.5 million project is a cooperative effort between the St. CharlesParish Law Enforcement District, St. Charles Parish government and theLouisiana Department of Corrections.

It will be paid for, not through new taxes on the local citizens, but rather through a 20-year bond issue which will be repaid by housing fees received for housing state Department of Corrections prisoners, and joined by $4 million from parish Capital Outlay funds.

The new correctional center is based on the Terrebonne Parish model and is a 590-bed facility with separate maximum-, medium- and minimum- security sections.

It will replace a 119-bed jail located on the third floor of the parish courthouse in Hahnville.

The present jail, built in 1978 on the third floor of the St. Charles ParishCourthouse, is now at capacity now and a frequent problem for jailers is finding space. Local inmates are often shipped to neighboring parish jails,but that problem is shared by parish jails across Louisiana.

However, Champagne expects the need for more inmate space to only grow, and anticipates that in 20 years the need will increase from 200 now to nearly 350 inmates.

Additional problems at present are housing female and juvenile inmates.

Both present special difficulties and have specific requirements from the U.S. Justice Department.The present facility in the courthouse is to be converted to a 75- to 80- inmate juvenile facility. The new facility will include a separate 78-bedfemale inmate unit with room for expansion.

Other speakers included Parish President Chris Tregre, who said in his 16 years of public service he had never seen a better example of various agencies working in cooperation for a common goal.

“If we all work together,” Tregre said, “we can do a lot more for the public.”Other speakers included Rep. Joel Chaisson II and 29th Judicial DistrictJudge Emile St. Pierre.Members of the Correctional Center Review Committee, who worked to design and select the site for the new facility, included Champagne, Tregre, 29th Judicial District Attorney Harry Morel, Judge St. Pierre andparish council members Barry Minnich, Terry Authement and Dickie Duhe, with Brian Champagne and Ron Phillips serving as alternates.

Other public officials attending Thursday’s ceremony included Clerk of Court Charles Oubre Jr., Assessor Clyde “Rock” Gisclair, Superintendent ofSchools Dr. Rodney Lafon, Circuit Court Judge Edward Dufresne Jr., 29thJudicial District Judges Robert Chaisson and Kirk Granier, and parish council members including Dee Abadie, Ellis Alexander, Bill Sirmon, Curtis Johnson Sr. and G. “Ram” Ramchandran.

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