Public Invited to Share Input on Vision for New EBR Adult and Juvenile Correctional Facilities

Baton Rouge, LA - September 19, 2024 - Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, in collaboration the East Baton Rouge Juvenile and Jail Task Force, invites the public to share input for a potential new adult jail, juvenile detention, and court facilities in East Baton Rouge Parish. Public meetings will be held at several locations and dates as part of the Metropolitan Council-approved 90-day program study, led by architects who will prepare recommendations for the public.

"It's critical as we look to ensure we are providing correctional facilities here in East Baton Rouge Parish aimed at cutting crime and reducing recidivism, that we do this in close communication with our East Baton Rouge Parish residents to hear what we all want together for our community in the future," said Mayor-President Broome. "I want to thank the EBR Juvenile and Jail Task Force for their work over the past year in bringing to the public's attention the need for our community to support bringing our jail, juvenile detention, and court facilities in line with best practices in justice design today. In planning to improve our correctional facilities, we must focus on designing facilities that can offer educational and life-skills programming in a way that prepares those who are incarcerated to return to society and lead productive, healthy lives in our community."

"Many of those being held in our jail and juvenile detention facility here in East Baton Rouge Parish are awaiting trial," said Task Force Chairman Councilman Darryl Hurst (District 5). "The task force has heard over the past year how important it is that we treat people with humanity and respect. We have learned about national best practices that can be built into jail design and programming that will help encourage reform. Now we need to hear the public's feedback on where they want to see our adult and juvenile facilities located, and what they want those facilities to look like."

The public listening sessions will be held at various public libraries around the parish, beginning with a Visioning Session for the study's steering committee, which includes the EBR Juvenile and Jail Task Force members. Then, four different public library listening sessions, spaced two weeks apart, will be held over the next two months, to be facilitated by Grace Hebert Curtis architects, the firm conducting the planning study on behalf of the City-Parish.

Visioning Session:

• Tuesday, September 24, 2024, River Center Downtown Library, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Library Listening Meetings:

• Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 5:30-7:30 p.m. - Scotlandville Branch Library, 7373 Scenic Highway, Scotlandville
• Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 5:30-7:30 p.m. - Zachary Branch Library, 1900 Church Street, Zachary
• Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 5:30-7:30 p.m. - Central Branch Library, 11260 Joor Road, Central
• Monday, November 25, 2024, 5:30-7:30 p.m. - Jones Creek Regional Branch Library, 6222 Jones Creek Road

Planning Session:

• Monday, December 9, 2024, Grace Hebert Curtis offices, 501 Government Street, Baton Rouge

Once the public's input has been received on the possible designs and locations for these new facilities, the study plans to provide an additional town hall-style presentation to show the public the final recommendations that come out of this process. City-Parish leaders would then be able to move forward with the public to choose how best to fund and bid out the recommended designs and construction of these updated correctional facilities.

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