1,927 inmates go free; 23 from St. Mary Parish

Sixteenth Judicial District Attorney M. Bofill Duhé confirmed Tuesday to Franklin Rotary that as per the terms of the Justice Reinvestment Act, 1,927 inmates have been, are being, and will be released across the state by Thursday, despite their originally sentenced release dates.
The released are non-violent offenders only, and fall under several Department of Corrections caveats before being considered eligible. The cases chosen for early release are by and large, cases that have been affected by changes in sentencing laws while the inmates have been incarcerated; most of those who are released are drug offenders or theft-related offenders. Their average age is between 30 and 49 years old and they have served at least 35 percent of their original terms, and are up for “good time” (good behavior) releases.
In 2016, Duhé was on a legislative task force brought together to analyze the possible effects of such a reinvestment package as the one used to inform the JRA, made law by Governor John Bel Edwards, this year.
The task force concluded that by reasonably curtailing the sentences of non-violent offenders, they could retain costly prison space for “serious threats to society,” strengthen community supervision, clear away barriers to successful re-entry and reinvest approximately 50 percent of the projected $262 million in savings back into the program.
“The Justice Reinvestment Act began two (legislative) sessions ago and is dealing with the fact that Louisiana incarcerates more people than any other state in the nation,” Duhé said.
According to Duhé, aside from he, “a couple of judges and one other public defender,” there were no other members of the 30-person task force with any kind of knowledge of the “practical effects” of implementation of the JRA.
“Which was extremely frustrating,” Duhé said, “because I could see mistakes being made. I could see problems there. I know I had solutions, but unfortunately, they generally fell on deaf ears.”
Duhé said that in the package’s first iteration, it was almost agreed among the task force to consider releasing violent offenders under the umbrella of caveats for eligibility, as well as non-violent offenders. Duhé said that he was happy with the success the DA’s office had had with keeping violent offenders out of consideration in the package for the JRA.
“Our task force pushed some ideas to be considered by the legislature,” Duhé said. “The legislature took this, and in a matter of six weeks, put it in a massive legislative package and just started ramming it down everybody’s throat. This is what you are going to have as the end result: Some of it good, most of it bad.”
Of the parishes in the 16th Judicial District, St. Mary Parish will be the most affected, receiving 23 offenders back into the population, while Iberia Parish receives 22 and St. Martin Parish receives eight.
According to Duhé, Wednesday’s statewide prisoner release is more than double the inmates released in Louisiana in an average month.
“But what is included in this is that we incarcerated too many non-violent people,” Duhé said. “Certainly, I am here to tell you that there are many people in jail who should probably not be in jail, for whatever reason: low level drug offenses, or whatever might be the case.
“In 2016, 86 percent of the people that were in Department of Corrections’ custody were there for a non-violent offense. What is a non-violent offense? A non-violent offense is any offense that is not specifically listed under (Revised Statute) 14: section two, as a crime of violence— first degree murder, second degree murder, manslaughter, aggravated rape, aggravated battery… down the line. It’s about 26 crimes out of 450.
“So, these are the non-violent group. We thought, ‘Why are so many of these people being incarcerated? That sounds crazy.’ That was my reaction.”
Duhé said that it fell to the DA’s office of each district in Louisiana to assess the records of their inmates, and compile the data concerning non-violent offenders and the natures/ lengths/ severities of their offenses and sentences.
What Duhé’s staff found was that after studying every fourth case in the district, out of 300 non-violent offenders, 67 percent were repeat non-violent offenders, albeit felony offenders in most cases.
“It’s someone who has had many opportunities to curb their behavior, but was cycled through the system,” Duhé said. “It also could be someone charged with burglary, who has two prior armed robberies; but they are in on the burglary, because they’ve already done the time on the armed robberies, so now they’re back out. That is still a very dangerous person.”
Duhé asked of the state’s national incarceration standings, “Why are so many incarcerated?”
He said, “Incarceration is not the problem. Incarceration is a result of the problem. It goes back to the basic principles of human nature.
“You’ve got a problem with poverty, illiteracy, lack of job opportunities and skills; but most importantly, you’ve got so many single-parent families.
“The family unit has fallen apart. There are single mothers raising children without a father around, and in some cases—the opposite. We have to look at why that is.”
Duhé went on to say that in his 25 years in law, he had seen such things as a single parent giving their children over to their grandparents, to be raised by the very same grandparents who, when they were only parents themselves, gave up their kids (who were now parents) to be raised by someone else, because they were never up to the task, in the first place.
“And hence, you don’t have the type of morals with palpable discipline, with palpable accountability that was embedded in many of us, I dare say in all of us,” Duhé said.
He lamented Louisiana’s JRA having not been implemented in the manner employed by Texas in the implementation of their reinvestment act.
Duhé said that what Texas did was to establish an infrastructure of rehabilitation and mental health programs and facilities, before establishing their reinvestment program; thusly accounting for anticipatory increases in necessities, and increased stresses on systems already in place, once the inmates were released.
According to Duhé, Louisiana can implement measures similar to Texas, albeit after the fact.
He said that he would like to see a statewide infrastructure of drug courts, more funding to address the issues of mental health, all of the funds saved from the institution of the JRA, reinvested in the program, instead of just 50 percent, and funding increases for social programs aimed at early intervention through preventative measures.
Under the terms of the JRA, the state is set to release anywhere from 30 to 50 more inmates per month, through February.