Lafayette could send 17-year-old offenders to facilities outside the parish under a plan the Parish Council advanced Thursday in a special meeting.
Council members approved introduction of an ordinance authorizing the Boulet administration to strike deals with other jurisdictions to temporarily house 17-year-olds arrested in Lafayette Parish and budgeting $125,000 to pay for those contracts. Final adoption is scheduled for Sept. 12.
The plan attempts to work around the legal limbo created by the Legislature this year when it revised criminal statutes to allow 17-year-olds to be charged and tried as adults. Federal law prohibits jailing minors alongside adults.
“The sheriff had decided back in April that our facility wasn’t appropriate for 17-year-olds, and so we have been holding them at the juvenile detention center,” Mayor-President Monique Boulet told The Acadiana Advocate. “And the state is evaluating our license, and so we’re not going to be able to house the 17-year-olds going forward. A lot of parishes are facing this issue.”
Facilities in Jackson Parish, roughly 165 from Lafayette, and in Lake Charles are among the possible landing spots.
The measure was passed during the February special session on crime, which upended landmark criminal justice reforms the Legislature passed on a bipartisan basis in 2017.
A Calcasieu Parish program connects young offenders to services that can help them and their families get back on track. State officials are developing something similar for Lafayette.
The misalignment could put Lafayette Parish in the crosshairs of a federal suit should authorities detain a 17-year-old at Lafayette Parish Correctional Center, which is owned by the parish but operated by the sheriff.