A Jefferson Parish Councilman says Governor John Bel Edwards has "blood on his hands" because he didn't order the closure of the Bridge City Juvenile Correctional Center or do enough to secure the site.
Councilman Deano Bonano's pronouncement comes one day after another escape at the Bridge City Juvenile Correction Center. Six inmates escaped during Sunday's incident. One of the suspects is accused of carjacking and shooting a man in uptown New Orleans before being caught.
Now, according to Bonano, Jefferson Parish officials are looking for ways to force the state to close the prison.
"Right now, the parish is looking at all of our options, including suing the state if necessary to force the closure of the facility," Bonano told WWL's Tommy Tucker on Monday. "The governor should realize that he has blood on his hands because he had an opportunity to prevent this from happening. We told him before that somebody's going to get hurt. Now you have a victim in the hospital who's been shot by one of these violent offenders who got out. We need to know from the state: what are they doing? What are we going to do from here? We can't continue to sit around on our hands and say, 'Well, I hope it's going to get better one day.'"
Bonano says the Bridge City Youth Center was never designed to be a prison.
"It's a dormitory-style setting with fences around it," Bonano said. "The scary part is this ain't in the middle of the woods or in the middle of a vacant business district on a Sunday. This is in people's backyards.
"This is a horrible situation. The building is not designed for it. It needs to be closed, and the kids need to be moved out of there as soon as possible."
According to Bonano, parish officials and residents want the jail closed as soon as possible.
"Their patience is gone," Bonano said of the residents who live near the prison. "They're talking about having a protest later this week at the prison.
"The state's telling us they're building a new prison in North Louisiana," Bonano added. "It's going to be a maximum security facility for juveniles, but it won't open until next year. We can't afford to wait until next year."
