Young People Say They’re Beaten and Maced at Adult Louisiana Jail

Louisiana imprisons young people in an adult jail where they’re attacked by guards, deprived of an education, and kept away from their families, according to statements filed last month in federal court.   

“The guards, who all wear sheriff deputy uniforms, did not keep me safe when I arrived here,” a 16-year-old said in a statement. “I was jumped by other kids thirteen (13) times, and once I was beaten up by guards.” 

He said that guards at the Jackson Parish Jail, which sits in the state’s rural north end, have maced him seven or eight times. 

“The mace really stings,” he said. 

The new court filings are the latest development in a years-long lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, in which children held at adult lockups have fought to be transferred to juvenile facilities. The state’s Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) began incarcerating kids and young adults at Jackson Parish Jail in 2023 after a federal judge ordered them to move all children out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary—better known as Angola prison. 

Since their arrival, those children, as well as new transfers, have sent the court harrowing accounts of abuse and isolation. 

“I thought as a juvenile I would get to speak to my family but I don’t,” the 16-year-old told the court.

Last month, another young person told the court in a statement that the guards “are very quick to use mace and put their hands on us.” He says he’s housed in a “modified shipping container” in the middle of a field which he likens to “slave quarters.” Like several other young people at the jail, he faces adult charges. 

“I have seen people get stabbed, and there was a lot of drugs and violence in the dorms,” he said.

Children have previously told the court that they have been maced, shot with pepper balls, and had “taser gloves” used on them. Several kids have reported that they regularly see adult prisoners, potentially in violation of a federal mandate that requires adult and child prisoners to be kept separate.

“We see adults incarcerated in the Jail every day,” the 16-year-old said. “The trustees, who are incarcerated adults, can go a lot of places so we see them a lot; the guards tell them to step to the side so they can’t touch us, but that’s all the guards do.”

He said the only schooling he’s received has been on a computer a “few days a week for an hour or two,” and that the limited program didn’t even start until he’d been at the jail for several months. 

The other young person said he is “only one credit short of graduating from high school but there is no school available for me here.” 

They also told the court that the jail forbids in-person visitation and that they can only call home if they have money in their accounts. 

Via email, the Sheriff’s Office told The Appeal, “OJJ offenders get 87 minutes a month of free phone call and video visitation,” and onsite visits are allowed if requested.  

However, David Utter, who is part of the legal team representing the youth, said parents have reported that the Sheriff’s Office told them they cannot visit their children. While it appears some young people have received free phone calls, Utter says others have not. He said the legal team had to put money in one client’s account just to be able to speak with him on the phone.

Utter says that if Jackson Parish cannot provide schooling and other services to the OJJ youth, then they should be moved into a truly rehabilitative and safe environment.

“State law in Louisiana is very clear that a child who is adjudicated delinquent is not convicted of a crime,” Utter told The Appeal. “You can’t take their liberty away without providing services that are, bottom line, treatment.” 

OJJ—which is tasked with rehabilitating, not punishing, the young people in its care—appears to be trying to distance itself from the jail. In November, OJJ terminated its contract with Jackson Parish. At a state Juvenile Justice Commission meeting the next month, an OJJ official said, “We don’t have any kids, any young people in secure care at Jackson … [since] before summer, maybe.” 

Utter called OJJ’s assertions “disingenuous.”

“There are young people in the Jackson Parish Jail that OJJ is paying the Sheriff of Jackson Parish to hold,” he told The Appeal. 

Invoices obtained by The Appeal show that the Sheriff’s Office billed OJJ more than $330,000 for “Monthly Juvenile Housing” for the months of June, July, and August, and more than $270,000 for September to December.

The Sheriff’s Office told The Appeal in an email that as of Feb. 3, there were 18 young people at the jail who had been found guilty in juvenile court; one 16-year-old and the others are between the ages of 18 and 20. Out of the 18, 11 also have pending adult charges. Young people can be in OJJ custody until the age of 21.

The state has also held younger children inside the jail. When Utter visited in January, he saw a 12-year-old child who had been there since October, according to court filings. The child was transferred to an OJJ “secure care facility” on the day of Utter’s visit.

The road to the Jackson Parish Jail has been a circuitous one. In 2022, after several young people ran away from an OJJ facility, state officials announced that they planned to temporarily imprison children in Angola’s former death row unit.

Utter and other attorneys filed a class action suit to stop the transfers. But U.S. District Court Judge Shelly Dick allowed the move after OJJ assured her that the children would receive schooling and therapeutic services. About a year later, she ordered OJJ to remove all children from Angola after finding that the kids were “being victimized, traumatized, and seriously and irreparably harmed.” 

While the kids are no longer in Angola, the court case has continued. The kids’ attorneys argue that, despite the State’s protestations to the contrary, the Jackson Parish Jail, like Angola, is an adult lock-up where young people are held in dangerous conditions and denied programming.

The Appeal has sent OJJ a list of questions and requested information on on-site visits, Prison Rape Elimination Act reports, and use-of-force incidents involving youth at the jail. The agency has not responded. 

As first reported by The Lens, the state’s Department of Children and Family Services inspected the jail last April. According to the inspection report, published by The Lens, the agency found that children held pretrial were not receiving the amount of school required by law, were not allowed to have on-site visitors, and were not provided with pillows or pillowcases. 

The inspector also reported that, based upon interviews, staff used pepper ball guns and two mace-like substances on children. Jail staff allegedly told the inspector that “a resident” can be placed in isolation for up to 10 days. With limited exceptions, state law caps solitary confinement for children at eight hours. The Lens also reported that the Sheriff’s Office has requested $26 million to build a 64-bed lock-up for children.

Utter says kids in the juvenile justice system are entitled to counseling, education, contact with their families, and safety. But when it comes to providing any of these services, “Jackson fails on every single level.”