The City Planning Commission’s vote is a recommendation. The ultimate decision on the proposal will be made by the New Orleans City Council. 

The Planning Commission’s vote is the latest development in a protracted debate over the size of the jail, and how to accommodate prisoners with acute mental illness who have been held at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, a state facility about 70 miles away from New Orleans, since 2014. Those prisoners will be returning to New Orleans in April 2020, when OPSO’s agreement with the state expires. 

The request from the Sheriff’s Office would amend the jail’s conditional use permit to allow the city to renovate the Temporary Detention Center to house those inmates until Phase III is built,  changing the bed cap from 1,438 to 1,731. It would also allow housing state inmates participating in work-release programs and inmates working as kitchen staff to be housed in the TDC. The City Planning Commission’s staff recommended setting a cap of 1,438 inmates, rather than a bed capacity of 1,438. 

Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman has long sought additional capacity at the jail. In 2016, Gusman relinquished operational control of the jail, pursuant to a federal court order as part of a 2013 consent decree intended to correct dangerous and unconstitutional conditions at the jail. 

The officials who have taken that control, former Independent Compliance Director Gary Maynard and current Compliance Director Darnley Hodge, have likewise pushed for additional beds to accommodate inmates who need acute mental health treatment. Criminal justice reform advocates have argued against an expansion, saying that the current jail, opened in 2015, could be renovated instead. 

Credit by - The LENS

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