Rotary hears from CASA rep, Sheriff Blaise Smith

Amanda Landry, advocate supervisor for the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association of the Judicial District Court 16, and St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith were the speakers at Wednesday’s Franklin Rotary meeting at the Forest Restaurant.
The program began with Landry, who explained what CASA is and does.
The National CASA mission statement is “to support and promote court-appointed volunteer advocacy for abused and neglected children so that they can thrive in safe, permanent homes.”
Landry said that there are three parishes that are covered by the CASA of the 16th JDC: Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary.
The 16th JDC CASA is overseen by a board of directors who come from various civic organizations throughout the district.
“Our 16th JDC mission,” she said, “is to train, recruit and encourage our community to get involved and help these children, one at a time.”
According to Landry, there are 10,505 children in Louisiana with confirmed child abuse cases in one year. There are 7,868 children that enter the foster care system in Louisiana annually. And in St. Mary Parish, there are 89 children annually with open child abuse cases.
“At CASA, what we do is make sure those children don’t have to face it alone. We are going to be there every step of the way,” Landry said.
That is done through individual advocates trained by CASA in 30 hours of “intensive training” in interview methods and court report preparation.
Once training is completed, the advocates are sworn in as officers of the court.
It is now up to the advocate to keep monthly tabs on their assigned child, and to make sure the home they are in is a safe and effective home.
“We also ask that they follow up with all of the teachers and physicians to make sure that all of these children’s needs are being taken care of,” she said.
To find out more about the CASA of the 16th JDC, visit https://www.casa16jdc.org/.
Following Landry’s address was Smith’s report.
Smith won the general election in October of 2018, so Smith began his state of the parish list with his accomplishments as of ten months prior to winning re-election.
He said the first thing SMPSO did during this time was to increase their patrol divisions.
Of the five law enforcement districts in the parish, SMPSO was patrolling with three to four units assigned to each district. They increased that number to seven units, and now have a K9 on each shift.
“We secured the jail,” Smith said. “So now the jail is a locked-down facility. If you go to visit the jail, you have to call a phone number to get in and you have to call that same phone number to get out.
“Another of the things we’ve done is to hook up one of those old-timey air raid sirens. We put that there because there are a lot of communities that surround the jail, and in the past when they had escapes from the jail, the people that lived close by knew nothing about it until it was too late.
“So, we’re putting up early warning devices so that people will know that something is going on.”
He went on to tout reducing the debt at SMPSO to such a level that it is the first time in 23 years they didn’t have to borrow money to pay bills. He said the feat was achieved through budget cuts, eliminating overtime, and procuring refurbished patrol cars instead of new ones.
He also said his reelection last year came along with the assignment of a new, donated K9 asset to a US 90 patrol area of operation, a cold case unit to work with local families in solving cold cases, ongoing increases in deputy training, and an improved SMPSO shooting range with extended hours.
He closed by sharing jailhouse statistics. “Presently we have 250 inmates incarcerated in Centerville, 64 of which are Department of Corrections prisoners. We recently had two inmates get their GED (General Education Diploma) while incarcerated. I was told it was the first time in four or five years that has happened,” he lauded.
“We are working right now with a lot of programs for the inmates, to give them something to do when they get out other than come back.”
When asked what he estimated was the matrix for success for the Sheriff of St. Mary Parish, Smith said, “Never forget where you came from.”
He also said the most important thing to the SMPSO is that St. Mary Parish continues to grow into a better place to live.