NEW ORLEANS — Civil rights attorneys are asking a judge to keep inmates from the Bridge City Youth Center from being moved to Louisiana’s State Penitentiary in Angola according to a report on NOLA.com.
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced in July that half of the inmates at the Bridge City Youth Center would be moved to Angola.
Edwards made the announcement after the latest problem at the youth center when six young inmates broke out of the facility last month. Five of the escapees were quickly recaptured but only after being accused of stealing a car. A sixth escapee was accused of a violent carjacking in Uptown New Orleans, before eventually being recaptured. Nearby residents and Jefferson Parish politician have been asking the governor to close the facility.
A complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana comes amid mounting anger over officials' plan to put the two dozen youths on the grounds of the sprawling state prison — a last-ditch response to increasingly chaotic conditions at the state-run Bridge City Center for Youth in Jefferson Parish.
The complaint asks Judge Shelly Dick to issue a temporary restraining order barring the youths from being moved to the state prison and returning and who have been move to juvenile facilities.
The civil rights attorneys say that despite assurances from the governor and Department of Corrections officials, they are doubtful that the young inmates would be kept totally separate from the adult inmates and would get the services that they need.
"As a maximum-security adult prison (the Louisiana State Penitentiary) does not have a school capable of providing those services and Defendants have provided no plan for doing so," attorneys said.
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