St Mary Parish Sheriff Chief Deputy John Kahl and St Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell spoke to the St Mary Parish Council weeks ago, to discuss the rising costs of housing St. Mary Parish prisoners outside of the parish.

CENTERVILLE – St Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell has his fingers crossed to break ground on a proposed new $5 million substation and a $1 million new motor pool facility, near the end of 2024.

Since the mid-’90s, the sheriff’s office has maintained a substation in Morgan City, in the former Sumpter-Williams High School, (built originally as the Morgan City Colored School for African Americans during segregation.)

The sheriff’s office bought the school from the St Mary Parish School Board back then, and has used it for a myriad of facets for the department.

Driskell said the proposed new location will “bring us all together in one, from the criminal division, to patrol, to narcotics, to training new recruits.”

“We’ll be more organized and thus beneficial to the public. The move will also allow us to share more consistent information throughout the whole parish.”

“We will be dead center in the parish,” the sheriff said.

Chief Deputy John Kahl explained that once the new substation is functioning in Centerville, the present one in Morgan City will be closed, however a smaller satellite office will be located for taxpayers, and “other things of that nature.”

“This is an efficiency move, to expedite responses, divide work more efficiently, and make life easier on our personnel,” Kahl said.

He also explained the sheriff’s office will continue to main its offices in the parish courthouse, as that is the current location for department’s Civil Division.

He said plans for the new facility include two buildings, one for the substation and the other, a motor pool.

“Our motor pool has been on Hwy 182 for decades, but we do not own that land.

Relocating it next to a new substation will open a lot of options for us.”

Driskell said he will pay for the new facilities with a bond.

“We’ve been fortune with our investments, so well in fact, that we can use a bond to pay for the entirety of the project, as of right now.”

The sheriff said his office has purchased 10 acres in Centerville, roughly a mile and a half from the jail. “So if something large breaks out at the jail we’ll have more manpower to cover the issue.”

He said the current substation in Morgan City is putting an annual $100,000 drain on his budget, yet, the department is roughly $1.3 million in the black.

“What we’re planning will save us money in the long run,” he said. He expects the entire project to be completed in 18 months.

On another topic, Driskell and Kahl have met with the St Mary Parish Council along with St Mary Parish President Sam Jones, to discuss adding a wing to the current law enforcement center in Centerville, to accommodate female prisoners.

He explained that the land the jail sits on is parish property and thus the reason why the new substation could not located there, on the same property.

“We just don’t know yet how much space a new wing for the jail would entail,” Driskell said.

“But what we do know is that housing prisoners outside of St Mary parish is a draining cost to the parish, and adding a wing for 40 to 45 females would save a big chunk of money.”

The St Mary Parish Council has paid for a few decades now, to house inmates outside of the parish, due in part to size of the current law enforcement center, as well as security issues.

One parish councilman, Dr. Kristi Rink, M.D., has said previously, that including her first term on the council, the parish has parish over $1 million in costs.

Driskell said the jail in Centerville is only for men, and it is not a “maximum security facility, so high risk inmates cannot be housed there.”

“We don’t have a female jail,” he said. “We were using a part of the jail in Morgan City, however because details could not be worked out with the city and the former parish president, we have had to look elsewhere.”

Also, the sheriff said it would cost millions to repair the former parish jail, which is located on the seventh floor of the parish courthouse.

He said there are also transportation costs to take into account, which are high if the prisoner is transferred hours away from St Mary Parish, even more so, out of state.