NEW ORLEANS — The Bureau of Governmental Research has published a report calling on the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to resolve a long-running disagreement over funding for the parish jail. The dispute flared last fall when the City Council denied the Sheriff’s request for a $12.4 million funding increase. Voters subsequently rejected a Sheriff’s Office proposal to increase property taxes for the jail by a similar amount this spring.
BGR’s 2022 report, Keys to the Jail, documents how past funding disputes and a lack of collaboration have contributed to chronic problems at the jail. BGR’s research on the jail also charts a path to help the City and Sheriff’s Office resolve their budgetary differences and right-size jail funding. That research supports the following recommendations for crafting the jail’s 2024 budget:
- The Sheriff’s Office should support its 2024 funding request with detailed staffing, compensation and capital plans so the City and public can assess what the jail needs to be successful.
- The City administration and City Council should commit to funding the jail’s demonstrated needs and provide an explanation for rejecting any portion of the Sheriff’s funding request.
- The City administration and the Sheriff’s Office should collaborate and share information well in advance of the City Council’s budget hearings.
- The City administration, the City Council and the Sheriff’s Office should seek to meet any new jail needs through the City’s General Fund, which has advantages over a property tax increase as a means of solving the jail’s funding problems.
