BATON ROUGE – The resignation of Louisiana’s prison chief in the wake of recent reports by WBRZ Investigative Unit about the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center has sparked a discussion about what is really going on inside the state’s prisons.
Rev. Alexis Anderson, a founding member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition, says the alleged problems at the facility are widespread.
“Elayn Hunt is not the only institution. The same conversation could probably be had about any other institution,” she says.
This came after a DOC employee and an inmate at the facility contacted WBRZ’s investigative unit about alleged drug trafficking and unsanitary living conditions. Anderson believes people should look at all correctional facilities, not just Hunt’s.
“These facilities are often oversized, not to meet the public safety needs of the community, but to make a profit,” she says.
She says Governor Landry’s new criminal laws, which include trying 17-year-olds as adults and revoking their parole, could only lead to prison overcrowding and worsen corruption.
“The governor has no interest in rehabilitation. These facilities do not have the capacity to do so,” she says.
She also says that the same problems that exist outside the centres also exist within them and that both need to be addressed appropriately.
“The facility doesn’t produce drugs. It imports drugs. If you don’t address this problem, you potentially turn a community into a drug smuggling facility,” she says.
WBRZ reached out to the governor’s office after hours for comment. This is a developing story.
