The 29-acre Lafayette Parish Public Safety Complex consists of five separate buildings: a 320-bed work release center; a 216-bed outside worker dormitory; a 38,000-square-foot warehouse; a networked video visitation area that is also linked to the downtown jail; and a training center for law enforcement officials that contains administrative offices, a workout facility and a large multipurpose space.

The work release center is a transitional, minimum-security dormitory where inmates are encouraged to become more responsible for their day-to-day activities, involving less staff intervention. The ultimate goal is to facilitate a more successful reintegration of the offenders back into society.

The transitional housing facility also supports the highly successful transitional worker program, which helps inmates develop critical job and life skills. The program started with less than a dozen inmates in 2004. By the following year, local businesses were employing approximately 150 inmates transitioning out of incarceration.

Outside worker dorms also serve shorter-term inmates and offer more security than the work release residence. As inmates in this area help maintain the parish’s medians and roadways, the facility also includes a paved sally port for the sheriff’s van and trailer fleet. The large dormitory building is subdivided into two, 100-bed spaces and was positioned to accommodate future expansion.

Not far from the worker dorms, a 51,000-square-foot building houses the department’s central laundry as well as warehousing space that allows the parish to buy supplies in bulk to cut costs.

Although not LEED certified, the complex does utilize sustainable design principles.