No decision yet on moving juvenile inmates to Angola

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- Additional witnesses took the stand Wednesday in the lawsuit over sending juvenile inmates from the Bridge City Center for Youth to Angola.

Wednesday's main witness was Assistant Secretary of the Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) Asa Curtis Nelson Jr. He says the facility which will house juveniles in Angola will not have any contact with adult inmates.

Officials have not yet decided which higher-risk youth are to be transferred to the facility but said that will be determined later. The facility is expected to hold 24 to 30 juveniles, however, only about eight would be transferred in the beginning. Those who are transferred to the facility will be there temporarily with a goal of a minimum of four weeks to six weeks but it could be longer.

At the Angola facility, the state said juveniles are to be housed in individual cells. The plaintiffs argued that this sounds like solitary confinement. In response, the state said it’s not and it’s just for sleeping time, and if they do have to use those to de-escalate then they used to be checked on every hour and then released from their cells.

There is a new solitary confinement law that was recently passed. The state said they’ll be compliant with that law.