ST. LANDRY PARISH — A legal battle over who should pay for housing state inmates brought St. Landry Parish leaders before a judge Thursday morning.
The case centers on a dispute between St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard and Sheriff Bobby Guidroz over the costs of housing inmates.
According to court records, Guidroz attempted to have the case dismissed based on legal grounds. The judge declined to dismiss the case, allowing it to move forward with additional evidence and discovery.
“It shows that we do have a strong case in reference to this, so there's talks of negotiations on this issue, and it's really not hard to negotiate. The issue is the cost per inmate per day, and that's all we're asking for. We're not asking for a dollar more,” Bellard said.
Bellard filed the lawsuit in 2024, accusing Guidroz of “enriching” his office at the parish’s expense. The suit claims the sheriff is housing state inmates for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which pays more than the parish does to cover those costs.
“Especially if he's getting $29.39 a day per state inmate, and if it's costing us $17 a day to house that inmate, pay us the $17 and keep the other $12.39. I don't care,” Bellard said.
Bellard said the two sides are also discussing fixed versus variable costs — expenses that remain the same regardless of the number of inmates and costs that increase as the jail population grows.
“They don't want to pay the fixed cost, that's fine. But pay us what it costs us to house that inmate in our jail. And just taking that into consideration, it'd probably be down to $13, $14 a day to house that state inmate,” Bellard said.
KATC reached out to Guidroz for his response. He referred the station to his attorney, who said it is against their policy to comment on pending litigation.
“We want to make sure we get to a good outcome because we both have our jobs to do, and our jobs are to make sure that we’re being good stewards of the money,” Bellard said.
