Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) is a prison for women with its permanent pre-2016 facility located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. It is the only female correctional facility of the
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) (French: ) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquart ...
Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) (French: ) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquart ...
. 14/40. Retrieved on June 30, 2010. the prison has temporarily moved due to flooding that occurred in August 2016, and its prisoners are housed in other prisons. The administration is temporarily located in the former
Jetson Youth Center Louis Jetson Center for Youth (JCY) is a former juvenile correctional facility in unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge and Baker.Baker. By 2021 the Baker area address was given for the prison on the LCIW website.
History
In 1961 the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women opened on the grounds of a former
prison farm
A prison farm (also known as a penal farm) is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are forced to work on a farm legally and illegally (in the wide sense of a productive unit), usually for manual labor, largely in the open ai ...
camp. Female inmates were moved from the
Louisiana State Penitentiary
The Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South", "The Angola Plantation" and "The Farm"Sutton, Keith "Catfish".Out There: Angola angling. ''ESPN Outdoors''. May 31, 2006. Retrieved on August 25, 2010. ...
(Angola) to LCIW. A 200 bed dormitory intended to alleviate an overcrowding of female prisoners was scheduled to open in the northern hemisphere spring of 1995. In 1995 the state received federal approval for its plan to double-bunk inmates. That way the state could transfer state-sentenced female prisoners who were held in parish jails to the women's prison. The television special ''900 Women: Inside St. Gabriel's Prison'' is about the women inside the facility.
2016 flooding
In August 2016 the facility, which had 985 prisoners,experienced flooding, ranging from
to . LCIW, the only state-operated prison to receive flooding during that incident, temporarily closed. It was the first time in state history that the whole population of a particular prison was evacuated to other facilities. The chapel and one other building did not flood.
LCIW prisoners were immediately transferred to the former
C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center (PCC) was a Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections prison for men, located in unincorporated Beauregard Parish, Louisiana, about north of DeQuincy and northwest of Lake Charles. The center was loc ...
a facility near DeQuincy, which received 678 prisoners; the private Louisiana Transitional Center for Women in Tallulah, which received 221 prisoners; Avoyelles Parish Jail in Marksville, which received 47 prisoners; and Angola, which received 39 prisoners. By September the prisoners housed near DeQuincy were transferred to the former
Jetson Youth Center Louis Jetson Center for Youth (JCY) is a former juvenile correctional facility in unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge and Baker.Baker which closed in 2014. the prisoners are divided between Jetson, where the administration of LCIW is temporarily located; Angola; and Elayn Hunt.
the prison remained closed as the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...
(FEMA) had not yet determined how much of the facility sustained damage; once this is done the state plans to raze the flooded buildings as it determined that demolition is more cost effective. The new prison will cost about $100 million, with $36.2 million provided by FEMA. It will be somewhat smaller than the former facility and about from the original location.
In 2020 the
COVID-19 pandemic in Louisiana
The first presumptive case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in Louisiana was announced on March 9, 2020. Since the first confirmed case, the outbreak grew particularly fast relative to other states and countries. , there have been 1,454,828 cumu ...
affected various temporary facilities housing LCIW prisoners, many of which were more cramped than the previous LCIW prison.
Facility
The pre-2016 prison had two per room prison cells as the form. Prison toilets and showers had individual stalls.
Demographics
As of circa the 2010s the prison has about 1,100 prisoners. 80% of the prisoners had children. Only 126 of the prisoners had sentences of six or fewer years, 126 had life sentences, and two had death sentences. Many prisoners were convicted of drug use and/or of prostitution, as Louisiana law treats prostitution as a sexual offense.
Programs
The prison has the Program for Caring Parents and the
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
Extravaganza, and in 2016 women were allowed to participate in some programs offered by Hunt Correctional Center.
Notable inmates
Death row
*
Antoinette Frank
Antoinette Renee Frank (born April 30, 1971) is a former officer of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) who, on March 4, 1995, committed a violent armed robbery at a restaurant which resulted in the killing of two members of the Vietnamese- ...
- Former police officer with the
New Orleans Police Department
The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, while the city is divided into eight police districts.
The NOPD has ...
(NOPD), who was charged and convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. Sentenced to death.
Non-death row:
* Amy Hebert - Convicted of murdering her two children. She was held at LCIW as a pretrial inmate since
Lafourche Parish
Lafourche Parish (french: Paroisse de la Fourche) is a parish located in the south of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Thibodaux. The parish was formed in 1807. It was originally the northern part of Lafourche Interior Parish, whi ...
lacked adequate facilities for female inmates who needed medical care, and she remained at LCIW as a sentenced felon. she was held at the Jetson facility.
Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections (DPS&C) (French: ) is a state law enforcement agency responsible for the incarceration of inmates and management of facilities at state prisons within the state of Louisiana. The agency is headquart ...