Louisiana OJJ Officials Report Drop in Youth Prison Assult

Louisiana’s state-run youth detention centers have reported significant decreases in assaults, something officials attribute to a new detention facility for particularly at-risk youth and enhanced therapeutic approaches in the juvenile prison system.

In the juvenile justice system, a therapeutic model focuses on rehabilitation over punishment.

Overall, between 2023 and 2024, the system saw a 41% decrease in youth-on-staff assaults and threats of assault, from 249 to 145, officials reported during a January meeting of the Senate Women and Children’s Committee.

Meanwhile, there was a 20% decrease in youth-on-youth assaults and threats thereof, from 1,046 to 831.

The news comes after a difficult couple of years in which escapes and prison brawls frequently made headlines.

The statistics, which do not reflect youth assaults that take place in local jails, are based on code of conduct data, Deron Patin, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice, told legislators.

When youth violate the system’s code of conduct, the state keeps a record of it, he added. The data does not distinguish between actual assaults and threats of assault.

Officials say that opening a long-anticipated new facility, the Swanson Center for Youth in Monroe, in May was a driving force behind the change. It has far better security than the older campus there, according to the OJJ.

The facility has 72 beds and individual rooms for youths, and officials have long said that opening it would lower violence in the prison system by holding teens who were at the highest risk of committing assault.

There is a second location of the Swanson Center, in Columbia, which also houses youth in secure care.

“I’m kind of astounded by the change in the numbers,” state Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, told OJJ officials during last month’s meeting.

Mizell asked Patin if the change only had to do with having individual rooms for youth.

Patin said a transition to a therapeutic model has played a role.

The state has been touting a therapeutic model for years, yet it often has struggled to pay for the staff and other resources needed to implement that model.

Still, Patin said, the agency has made strides toward improving it, especially in the last several years. The system now evaluates youths’ needs and risk factors, and it also requires additional training for staff, he said.

The OJJ also trains staff to use a therapeutic trust-building model with youth, and it has hired a director of education, Patin added.

Since then, “we have seen the school performance across the state blossom,” according to Patin.

But some legislators were skeptical that, in the long term, the state will be able to hold to its promises of a therapeutic model.

“Louisiana has adopted a model that it has not funded. In doing so it has overexposed our children to the risk of harm, and also our staff,” said state Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe. “If we’re not going to fund it, we need to find another model.”

Over the years, she has found that circumstances in youth detention facilities to be “transient,” she said.

Kenny Loftin, who heads OJJ, has supported the therapeutic model, though he has acknowledged the agency faces challenges, especially when it comes to staffing.

“Child psychologists and psychiatrists, which we desperately need, are very expensive,” he told the committee, adding that the department plans to request money for social workers.

Meanwhile, the state has taken a harsher approach toward juvenile justice under Gov. Jeff Landry. Last year, it passed bills to send 17-year-olds to the adult system and implement tougher sentences for juveniles.

Legislators also placed a constitutional amendment on the March ballot that would allow them to more easily add to the list of crimes for which younger teens could go to adult prisons.

That amendment, Amendment 3, will be on the ballot during Louisiana’s March 29 election.