Tagged: prisons

When the warden at the 942-bed state prison in DeQuincy called a late-afternoon meeting of top staff, workers thought it was a send-off for an assistant warden who was retiring that day.

The warden's secretary, Carol Lee Fruge, tells the American Press that was when warden Robert Henderson told staffers he had just learned the C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center would be closing.

Closing has been discussed before, but employees say there was no indication it might happen.

Attorneys for Angola 5 defendant David Mathis have persuaded a judge to allow them to use a jailhouse confession they say would show jurors their client had no intent to kill a prison security officer in 1999.

Mathis faces a first-degree murder trial in the stabbing and beating death of Capt. David C. Knapps.

The Advocate reports jury selection is set to begin Sept. 24 in Covington, where juries were chosen last year for three of Mathis' codefendants. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Facing budget constraints and a growing inmate population, state officials are moving ahead with a plan to shut down two prisons, including one with a well-established addictive treatment program.

Loyola University's Institute for Quality and Equity in Education, in conjunction with the Foundation for Louisiana, will host “Louisiana Incarcerated: An Evening with Cindy Chang,” a panel discussion convened to examine the multifaceted issue of the business of incarceration in Louisiana.