EVANGELINE PARISH — People serving time in the Evangeline Parish Jail will soon be housed in a brand-new facility as construction on a $21 million, state-of-the-art jail nears completion.
Evangeline Parish Sheriff Charles Guillory recently gave an inside tour of the new jail, highlighting upgraded security features and expanded housing capacity.
“You see this over here—this is solid concrete. This is where the jail starts,” Guillory said during the walkthrough.
The jail, located on Maxie Rae Boulevard, will house both adult and juvenile inmates. The facility is designed to hold up to 18 female inmates and as many as 200 male inmates, with housing areas kept completely separate.
“Female inmates have no contact with the male inmates at all,” Guillory said.
Inside the female dorms, the jail will feature nine beds, a shower operating on a one-minute interval, three bathrooms, and a sunroom. Six male dormitories will follow the same layout.
In addition to housing units, the facility includes a centralized control room to monitor and manage inmate areas. The jail will also feature a kitchen, laundry room, multi-purpose rooms, and a doctor’s office.
Sheriff Guillory says the new facility will help the parish save money by reducing the number of inmates housed outside Evangeline Parish.
“Having this facility—number one, it’s brand new, and we will save money,” Guillory said.
According to Guillory, at any given time, 30 to 50 pretrial inmates are housed outside the parish, a practice that can be costly for local taxpayers.
“So anyone holding inmates for Evangeline Parish—we’re going to bring them back here,” Guillory said.
The sheriff also says plans are in place to build a chapel next door to the jail. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility is expected to be scheduled sometime this spring.
