(The Center Square) – Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith says his department’s arrests are contributing to overcrowding at the Caddo Correctional Center as the jail population approaches 1,700 inmates.
“SPD keeps CCC bursting at the seams,” Smith told the Shreveport City Council during its administrative conference Monday. “Our people are making arrests. We’re the ones who contribute to overcrowding. You bet. And we continue to do so.”
The jail population was “close to 1,700” Caddo Parish Administrator Erica Bryant told parish commissioners at a meeting last week. The Caddo Correctional Center has an operational capacity of 1,500 inmates.
Smith made his comments during a discussion about convicted felons carrying firearms. He said Shreveport police have removed at least 565 firearms from the streets so far this year, including 60 arrests involving felons carrying guns.
A 2023 examination of Caddo’s criminal justice system found the jail’s longstanding overcrowding problem was not simply the result of more people being admitted.
The Caddo Parish Criminal Justice Task Force found jail population increased 12% from 2012 to 2022 even as admissions declined 40%. The growth was largely driven by the pretrial population, while the average length of stay for pretrial inmates nearly doubled.
Smith was among the members of the task force, which also included representatives of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, parish administration, district attorney’s office, public defender’s office and First Judicial District Court.
In 2022, the jail had an average daily population of 1,406, according to the report. That was 31% above the facility’s original design capacity of 1,070. The pretrial population increased 42% between 2012 and 2022.
Operational capacity was increased to 1,500 after Hurricane Katrina despite no additional physical space being added, the task force reported.
The report also identified longer court processing times as a contributor to crowding. The median number of days from the opening of a criminal case to its disposition increased 144% from 2014 to 2022. The task force said the increase occurred across offense types, disposition types and charge levels.
The task force concluded that no single change would resolve the jail's overcrowding and recommended changes including expanding pretrial release options, speeding case processing and addressing inefficiencies throughout the criminal justice system.
Overcrowding also carries a cost for Caddo Parish taxpayers.
Parish officials said in August that housing an inmate at Caddo Correctional Center costs approximately $80 per day. Louisiana increased its reimbursement for eligible state inmates from $26.39 to $29.39 per day this year, covering about 37% of the parish’s estimated daily cost and leaving a gap of roughly $50 per inmate per day.