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A proposed law that would allow sheriffs operating work-release programs to use electronic ankle bracelets to keep track of inmates is drawing fire from local authorities, who say it will result in needless cost to taxpayers with little return.
“It is very ridiculous,” said Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, when asked about a bill under discussion in the current legislative session, authored by Rep. Chuck Kleckley R-Lake Charles, the speaker of the House of Representatives. “If an individual wants to escape he is going to cut that ankle bracelet off. It’s good for people who come out of court and are ordered, need, to stay home.”
Work-release inmates are those who serve their time while actually employed on a daily basis. They generally live in barracks-type housing in a work-release center that operates under Louisiana Department of Corrections rules.
Terrebonne’s work release program is operated by a private company. Lafourche Parish operates its own work-release program.
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso supports the bill, part of a package of reforms he has discussed with Kleckley as a result of a murder that occurred in his jurisdiction.
A work release inmate, Dustin Pleasant, allegedly murdered a woman authorities described as a former girlfriend Brittany Grosse, last year.
He later hanged himself at Angola.
Mancuso has maintained that allowing ankle bracelets to be used for work release inmates can cut down the risk of similar cases occurring.
At his own work-release site, Mancuso now allows only Calcasieu inmates. Pleasant had been convicted of assault in connection with the non-fatal shooting of a New Orleans police officer.
Mancuso and Cleckley have said that if Pleasant had an ankle bracelet they would have been notified of his absence from the job he was assigned to.
Under the Kleckley bill, inmates would be assessed the cost of the ankle bracelet.
Larpenter, and a growing number of sheriffs in the state opposed to the bill, aren’t so sure that will work. Many defendants are indigent, and the costs of ankle bracelets, Larpenter noted, can be high.
Part of the agreement with host job sites, Larpenter said, is that if a work release employee leaves the premises his office is supposed to be notified immediately.
“I am not in this business to get somebody rich in the ankle bracelet business,” Larpenter said. “If you are going to have the ankle bracelet for work release it will only be a matter of time before you will need it for trustees.”
