OBERLIN, La. (AP) - A new $8.3 million, 199-bed parish jail is starting to take shape in Allen Parish.
It’s not much to look at now except for a concrete slab, but I think everyone is looking forward to it being done,” Sheriff Doug Hebert III told the American Press (https://bit.ly/1eOXZNb). “I keep having to pinch myself to know that this is really happening. I think it’s going to be really nice once it’s completed.”
Construction crews recently poured the concrete foundation for the two-story center section of the facility and will soon begin pouring concrete slabs for the eight single-story inmate wing sections, Hebert said.
The project is being funded by $3 million in revenues from a gaming compact with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, $5.5 million from the State Bond Commission and other funding sources.
The 40,000-square-foot facility will be on a 47-acre site off La. 26, just west of Oberlin, and will replace the overcrowded and outdated 40-bed parish jail built in the 1950s. It will house both male and female inmates, including some state prisoners.
The facility, which will initially occupy about six acres of the site, is on target to be completed by December, Hebert said.
“We are still in the beginning stages, which is the slowest part, but hopefully in the next two to three weeks all the foundation will be poured and things will start moving rapidly as they erect the buildings,” he said.
Hebert hopes to have the administrative side of the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office, including the criminal, detective and patrol divisions, moved into the new facility by the end of the year. The dispatch room, 911 center and evidence room will also be relocated to the new jail.
“We want to move those offices and personnel in first and do several test runs on the jail’s operation and security,” he said. “We don’t want to have prisoners in there and find out the system is not working properly.”
Personnel will also have to be trained to operate the modernized facility, which will include new electronic systems for security and surveillance.
Hebert hopes to move the inmates in after the first of the year.
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Information from: American Press, https://www.americanpress.com
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