ST. LANDRY PARISH, la. (KLFY) -- The St. Landry Parish Jail is facing overcrowding issues due to a dispute over inmate costs between the sheriff's office and parish government.

Sheriff Bobby Guidroz has pointed to the lack of payment for inmates sent out of the parish as a contributing factor to the overcrowding and potential legal action.

"Parish government quit paying outside sheriffs to hold our inmates," Guidroz said. "So, they're in the process of negotiating a payment schedule, which is probably impossible at this point, or suing parish government."

Parish President Jessie Bellard insists on adhering to Louisiana State law, which mandates a payment of $3.50 per day for inmate care, despite outside sheriffs requesting over $26 per day.

"We're not going to be paying $26.39 a day anymore. We're going to pay what the law says, which is $3.50 a day. The state statute is clear." Bellard said.

Bellard explained that the lack of a written agreement between the parties has led to confusion over payment expectations, contributing to the overcrowding issue.

"But it also states in there that when doing so, you have to produce a written document between the two parties and give it to the parish government so they can know what to expect on payments and what has to be done," Bellard said.

Both the parish government and the sheriff's office plan to go before a judge to resolve the payment dispute. The ongoing disagreement over inmate costs is expected to be addressed in court, which may determine the future financial responsibilities for housing inmates in St. Landry Parish.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KLFY. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KLFY staff before being published.

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