Jail classification will remain due to budgetary constraints

The Louisiana Department of Corrections will take over Allen Correctional Center on Sept. 1, the day after the GEO Group ends its management of the facility, said DOC spokesman Ken Pastorick.

The GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut, has run the facility since it opened in late 1990, just north of Kinder. The company notified the state in June that it would end its contract, which was set to expire in 2020.

Pastorick said budget constraints forced the state last year to reclassify the facility as a jail and cut the inmate per diem to $24.39. That, he said, made it “economically unfeasible for GEO to continue operating the facility.”

GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said the company is proud of the partnership it had with the state over the years and is “committed to ensuring a smooth transition as our management tenure ends.”

“Due to state budgetary constraints, over the last year, the Center has been operating as a jail facility, which we had hoped would be temporary,” Paez said in an email.

“Unfortunately, continued state budgetary constraints will not support returning the Center to a full service correctional facility with robust rehabilitation programs.”

As of September, Allen Correctional Center is expected to be a 920 bed-facility, Pastorick said. It will include a reception center, which will help assign incoming offenders to prisons and jails statewide, he said.

The reception center will serve inmates coming from the five parishes that account for 40 percent of the intake — Caddo, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammy.

The prison will also house the Southwest Regional Reentry Center, which will help prepare offenders for reintegration into society. The program will serve offenders returning to live in the southwestern parishes of the state.

The prison’s current population — 1,459 — will be reduced under the new management. Some offenders will remain, and others will be transferred, Pastorick said.

Allen Correctional Center is expected to employ 160 people under state management. It now has 202 employees. Pastorick said Tuesday that officials are reviewing applications and interviewing applicants.

“Allen Correctional Center has a qualified workforce already in place,” Pastorick said. “Many of the prison’s current employees are expected to apply for these jobs.”

State Rep. Dorothy Sue Hill, whose district includes the prison, said her priority is keeping good-paying jobs at the facility.

“I just want to keep the jobs in my district because it was bad when they laid people off, but they promised me they wouldn’t close it,” said Hill, D-Dry Creek. “My request is they keep the good workers there. Those are jobs for my constituents.”

Hill is urging the state to keep the workers at their same employment status and not make them start at the bottom.

“I am asking that our employees receive benefits commensurate with their experience as corrections professionals,” she said. “One of the main reasons I supported taxes last year was to keep this facility open and protect these jobs in Allen Parish.”

Some employees have been there 20 to 26 years, she said.

Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, credits Jim LeBlanc, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, for helping keep the facility open.

“Allen is one of the state’s newer facilities, has a qualified workforce living in the surrounding communities and will play a role in putting into action the recently passed criminal justice reforms,” LaFleur said.