St. Landry Parish has a new jail capacity. A month ago, the jail was considered overcrowded with the inmate population surpassed the approved 222 people. Recently the Fire Marshal deemed the new limit to be 244—making the jail full, but not overcrowded.

“We’re just waiting on parish government now to come in and build some additional bunks and do a little modification in some of the cell blocks,” explained St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.

Guidroz also said that if the inmate inflow continues at such a high rate, another option would be to transfer some prisoners to other jails.

“Any time you transport an inmate it becomes a dangerous issue, and we have precautions we take,” he explained.

Those precautions include secure vehicles and having at least two deputies present on a transport.

Guidroz also hopes to see the beginning of his work release program as early as one month from now. The program would allow inmates with minor offenses who are near the end of their sentence to take on jobs such as construction work, fencing and seasonal farming.

“It’s a win-win situation in my mind,” Guidroz said.

“It gets the inmate out of the jail, gives them work and job skills, it sends money home and of course it helps pay some of the expenses here in the jail.”