Story Courtesy Rapides Parish Journal

Officials in Winn and seven other parishes are seeking almost $39 million to expand the Renaissance Juvenile Detention facility.

The applicants constitute the Central Louisiana Juvenile Detention Center Authority.

Rapides, Grant, Avoyelles, LaSalle, Vernon, Winn, Catahoula and Concordia will kick in a total of $2.67 million for the proposed operating budget of the expanded facility and the state Office of Juvenile Justice $1.55 million in guaranteed daily bed rate (30% of the beds reserved for OJJ), according to the proposal submitted to the Division of Administration.

The expansion of the current facility at Bayou Rapides Road and Vandenburg Drive in Al3exandria would add 56 beds for housing juveniles either awaiting court resolution of their cases or whose cases have been through the system, juveniles charged as adults and 17-year-olds (no longer juveniles under Louisiana law but unable under federal law to be housed with offenders 18 or older).

The Renaissance proposal is in competition with many others for the $100 million to $150 million appropriated this year by the Legislature for such projects.

The bill initially was for juvenile facilities alone but along the path to passage was amended to include other uses as eligible categories.

Thus about $500 million in requests have been submitted, several having nothing to do with the juvenile justice system, and are undergoing screening and scoring by Division of Administration staff and state/local stakeholders.

Once scored on the pre-determined point system, the applications will go to the Criminal Justice Priority Funding Commission.

From that review, applications will go the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget for action