The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

LeBlanc said closing and selling the Tallulah facility may require
legislative approval.

Once sold, LeBlanc said the facility may be used as a federal
detention center, and if so, the private firm running the facility
could hire back the laid off employees to staff it. Otherwise, he said the correctional officers could be shifted to vacant posts at other prisons, though there are none nearby. The officers would have to be willing to move or travel long distances for work.

"I know that it's not an ideal situation, but it's something," he said.

Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said he believes many laid off
employees could be rehired for other positions, particularly guard
jobs at state prisons, where openings are frequent because turnover is high.

"We're going to do everything we can to try to avoid anybody losing a
job, at least trying to help them find jobs in another area," LeBlanc
said in an interview Monday.

The number of layoffs could grow if statewide elected officials and
public colleges choose to cut staff to cope with budget reductions in
the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Jindal can make some of the budget cuts, but the Legislature's joint
budget committee must approve the rest. The committee meets Friday to
vote on the governor's proposal.

While state agencies largely have stopped hiring new employees, most
have yet to suggest layoffs will be needed to shrink costs. The Jindal administration estimates a partial hiring freeze enacted in November will save at least $31 million this year.

LeBlanc's department, which oversees state prisons, is one of only two agencies so far that plans layoffs to cut costs. The corrections
department intends to lay off 323 of its 6,400 employees, plus dozens
of student workers, to help cut $11 million from its $554 million
annual budget.

Seventy people hired for a new skilled nursing unit for prisoners will be let go because the facility at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel won't expand as planned.

LeBlanc said as many as two dozen of those laid off will be
correctional officers who will have first priority when other guard
jobs open.

The other laid off employees will be medical workers, and LeBlanc said he expected they would find jobs outside state government because of the shortage of medical professionals in Louisiana.

"I just don't see anybody really being hurt," he said.

Meanwhile, 102 positions will be cut throughout the corrections
department. LeBlanc said those positions were people who were "on
call" for when needs arose, mainly correctional officers.

The only other state agency to announce layoffs so far is the
Department of Veterans Affairs, which intends to eliminate 12 filled
administrative jobs at the state's five war veterans homes, out of 827 jobs in the department.

The move wouldn't necessarily mean unemployment for the people in
those jobs. Veterans Affairs Secretary Lane Carson said several
employees are eligible for retirement, some can be moved to other
direct patient care jobs at the veterans homes and others would be
offered jobs with a new federally funded homeless veterans program.
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