Jail shows numerous signs of age

Published: Monday, April 28, 2014 at 10:43 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 9:20 a.m.

The German shepherd and French mastiff are laying in mud puddles on opposite sides of the entrance. Having rained the day before, the dogs are subjected to the intense Louisiana humidity.

However, the dogs may be the most comfortable living things that spend their days at the jail, located just off of the Thibodaux bypass at 952 La. 3185.

The jail was built in 1976 and was designed to hold fewer than 100 inmates. It now has a capacity to hold up to 245 inmates. But there are more people arrested than that in Lafourche. The overflow is housed in three other jails.

It costs Lafourche $4 per day to house an inmate in its parish jail. On Friday morning, 98 inmates were being housed in facilities outside Lafourche, costing the parish an extra $2,220 per day.

Sheriff Craig Webre is pushing for money to build a new detention center to replace the jail that is outdated and deteriorating.

Registered voters can cast their ballots Saturday on a 0.2 percent, 30-year sales tax to build a $30 million, 600-bed jail.

The outside of the jail looks like any other nearly 40-year-old building in south Louisiana.

The color is fading from the red brick exterior walls. The inside looks much older than its age.

The dull, beige paint is peeling off inside walls, though repainting the facility is the least of the sheriff's concerns.

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Jail shows numerous signs of age