Morgan City mayor seeks more money to house parish prisoners

FRANKLIN — Morgan City’s mayor on Wednesday asked the St. Mary Parish Council for a raise in the amount the parish pays the city to house parish prisoners. He came away Wednesday with an offer that he said he can’t recommend to the City Council.
Morgan City is one of four municipalities that house prisoners in parish custody. The parish pays Berwick, Franklin, Patterson and Morgan City $14 per prisoner for each day the municipalities house them.
Morgan City houses more prisoners than the other municipalities combined, according to figures from the parish. Those figures calculate “prisoner days” — one prisoner housed for one day. Morgan City was reimbursed for nearly 12,000 of the nearly 20,000 prisoner days for which the parish paid in 2020 and received $163,000 of the $278,000 in reimbursements.
Morgan City has received about $93,000 in reimbursement so far this year.
Morgan City’s unique role is that it houses the parish’s female prisoners at its city jail, which has a floor where women can be isolated from male prisoners more easily than at the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center in Centerville.
Morgan City Mayor Lee Dragna told the Parish Council on Wednesday that the city government is losing money on the parish prisoners, partly because female inmates require female guards, who are in higher demand than male guards, Dragna said.
“Our jail was in a negative and we traced it back to this,” Dragna said.
He asked for a $19-per-day rate, which he said is the amount needed to break even.
The additional $5 a day would have increased the reimbursement to Morgan City by more than $58,000 for the 11,659 prisoner days it recorded in 2020.
“We want to help,” Dragna told the council. “But we can’t get hurt by it.”
Assumption Parish reimburses Morgan City at a rate of $22 per day for housing prisoners, Dragna said.
Parish President David Hanagriff called Dragna’s request reasonable. But it comes as the parish is putting together its own budget for the next fiscal year, he said.
Hanagriff suggested raising the reimbursement rate $2 to $16 per day with a 1% yearly increase, and then looking for a way to raise the reimbursement further next year.
Dragna wasn’t a fan of that idea.
“In right mind, I can’t go back to my council and say, ‘Hey, they want to give us half what we need to break even,’” Dragna said.
Councilman J Ina asked what would happen if Morgan City exercises its 30-day option and ends its agreement with the parish.
The parish would have to find other accommodations for the prisoners now housed by Morgan City, said Chief Administrative Officer Henry C. “Bo” LaGrange.
The council talked about the possibility of reopening the jail in the courthouse, which was used before the Law Enforcement was built. That would require time to fix the jail up again after years of disuse and would require staffing, LaGrange said.
Councilwoman Kristi Prejeant Rink asked the administration to develop an estimate of how much it would cost to put the courthouse jail in use again.
Dragna said housing the prisoners is something Morgan City does for the parish as a whole. Hanagriff responded the parish provides services including the animal shelter and landfill that city residents use.
“It’s give and take for everybody,” Hanagriff said.