No prison site near school

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal announced Wednesday night, before an audience full of concerned parents, that a new prisoner work release facility will not be moved to its proposed site near Caneview Elementary.

The site, the Cajun Printing building located at 2408 Darnall Road, was purchased by Louisiana Work Release Systems, a private work release management company, to house about 80 prisoners by the end of the year. Caneview Elementary, which is in close proximity, is scheduled to open by Dec. 1

After word spread about the location of the facility, parents, school administrators and public officials set out to stop the work release center from being housed there.

Caneview Principal Dorothy Small and Assistant Principal Chantel Helms scheduled Wednesday night’s meeting so parents could speak with the contractors, Ackal and others involved.

“I understand your interest,” Ackal said. “Your voice was heard ... and they are not going to that building. They’re not going near that school. I can guarantee it.”

Ackal said he signed a 10-year contract with the private company because the old work release center, located across the street from the Iberia Parish Jail, was costing the Sheriff’s Office $30,000 a month in rent for a 7,000-square foot facility.

Under the new contract, Ackal provides the prisoners, but has no deputies on site because it is under private management.

The prisoners in the program are in their last six months of a sentence for nonviolent and nonsexual-related crimes, and go to work with various companies during the day and live at the separate work release facility, Ackal said.

“I want you to know how pleased I am that you expressed concern,” said Dale Henderson, superintendent of Iberia Parish schools. “Our first and foremost priority is the safety of our children.”

Though there is no state law that prohibits the facilities from being within a certain distance of a school, Ackal said he threatened to break the contract if the company did not “abide” by his request to move the facility away from the school.

Louisiana Work Release Systems purchased the building for $460,000, but Ackal said the contractor will sell the building and keep the work release center at its current location.

“We’ve worked diligently to make our streets safe, and we won’t jeopardize that,” Ackal said.

Parish Council Vice Chairman Roger Duncan, whose district the school is in, worked with state Reps. Simone Champagne, D-Jeanerette, and Taylor Barras, D-New Iberia, state Sen. Troy Hebert, D-Jeanerette, and Ackal to ensure the facility did not move to its current location, the sheriff said.

“We got a commitment from the commissioner of the DOC (Department of Corrections), and he said he would not put prisoners there because it’s common sense,” said Champagne.

“We need our kids. They’re our future.”