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When Ouachita Parish voters head to the polls April 30 to renew a tax for upkeep of the Ouachita Correctional Center for the second time, they will decide, not if the jail will continue, but how.
The Ouachita Correctional Center is owned by the Police Jury, which is required by law to provide a jail for Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office.
If approved, the millage would raise an estimated $10.8 million per year for the 5-year period from 2022-26.
More: Ouachita Parish jail millage renewal to go on the ballot again
If the millage is not approved, Ouachita Parish Police Juror Lonnie Hudson said the parish will have to continue to run the facility using the money left from the last renewal until it runs out and find other sources of funding to continue to operate the parish jail.
“At the end of the day, the Police Jury and the sheriff have got to make a way to continue to operate the facility,” Hudson said.
Ouachita Parish Police Juror Jack Clampit said the parish could potentially go in debt trying to keep the jail operating.
“Closing it down is certainly not an option,” Clampit said. “No business would want to come if we didn’t have a jail system to deter crime.”
“This not a new tax,” Clampit said. “This is simply a renewal of the tax and it’s vital to get it passed to keep OCC open.”
The continuation of the 9.2-mill property tax, which funds operations and maintenance of the jail, failed in the Nov. 13 election by a 56-44 margin.
After that defeat, Ouachita Parish Police Jury President Shane Smiley said, while the jail will still operate, it could result in some severe financial consequences for the parish after the property tax expires in 2023.
“Without that millage being in effect, it could very well bankrupt the Police Jury,” Smiley said. “The only source of revenue we’ve got that could go toward keeping that jail open is the general fund.”
More: Here are the results of Saturday’s elections in Northeast Louisiana
The jail has been in operation since 1962 and is currently run by Ouachita Parish Sheriff Jay Russell. The facility, with a maximum bed capacity of 1,152, also houses inmates for the state Department of Corrections and staffs 150 deputies.
OCC is currently the only jail in Ouachita Parish. The Monroe and West Monroe police departments closed their jails in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
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