This story was originally published by The Appeal.
Last September, a young person at Louisiana’s Jackson Parish Jail tried to kill himself, according to documents obtained by The Appeal. When he called his dad and told him he was on suicide watch, his father started to cry.
During a previous facility inspection, a licensing specialist from the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) reported that the jail failed to “identify youth who may be at risk of suicide or who may need prompt mental health services.”
OJJ licensing specialists visited the jail multiple times between July and February and found the facility violated state regulations 83 times. The Appeal also received reports for an additional 11 juvenile detention facilities inspected during the same period. Jackson Parish had more violations than the combined total of those facilities and almost 12 times more than the second-worst lock-up. The Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Office of Juvenile Justice did not answer a list of questions sent by The Appeal.
Inspectors detailed numerous violations of the kids’ rights. In February, an OJJ inspector reported that the Jackson Parish Jail “failed to ensure the youth are available for the minimum minutes in a school day as required by law.”
During multiple visits, specialists observed that the young people had no privacy when using the bathroom.
“Based upon observations, the provider’s bathroom facilities are not designed to allow youth to shower and/or perform bodily functions without others viewing them naked,” an OJJ specialist wrote in a February report. At the time, the jail held 20 young people. Their ages were not listed.
In another report, a specialist wrote that “a youth was observed on the toilet using the restroom in full view of other youth.”
Since 2022, civil rights attorneys have fought a protracted legal battle to ensure incarcerated kids receive the services they’re entitled to in a supportive environment. That year, the state announced it would send children to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. A federal judge allowed the transfers to proceed, ruling that the unit is “therapeutic and rehabilitative while maintaining discipline, safety, and security,” in line with OJJ’s “rehabilitative, not punitive, mission.”
But after that judge visited the prison a year later, she ordered all children removed from Angola, finding that they “are being victimized, traumatized, and seriously and irreparably harmed.” State officials moved the kids to the Jackson Parish Jail. Since then, children at the jail have said that they’ve been held in solitary confinement, sprayed with mace, shot with pepper balls, and denied educational and therapeutic services.
In November, OJJ terminated its contract with the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office, but the facility continues to hold kids. Invoices show that the agency paid the sheriff’s office more than $82,000 and over $86,000 for “juvenile housing” for December 2024 and January 2025, respectively. OJJ was billed more than $47,000 for March’s “juvenile housing.”
OJJ’s inspection reports echo many of the same issues documented by the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, which visited the jail last April. As of July 1, 2024, OJJ became responsible for regulating and licensing juvenile detention facilities.
Although federal law requires that carceral facilities separate juveniles and adults by both sight and sound, an OJJ inspector reported in July that two adult detainees were housed in a room that was licensed to house children. The inspector did not specify if kids were also present. However, multiple young people have told the court that they frequently encounter adult detainees.
“The guards, who all wear sheriff deputy uniforms, did not keep me safe when I arrived here,” one child said in a January statement. “I was jumped by other kids thirteen (13) times, and once I was beaten up by guards.”
He says guards maced him seven or eight times.
“The mace really stings,” he said.
OJJ investigators found that the Jackson Parish Jail improperly handled suicide attempts that occurred in September and October.
According to a report on the September attempt, video shows a young person tying a ligature while an officer sat at a desk. About seven minutes later, the youth attempted to harm himself. The officer then radioed for assistance.
“[OJJ] [s]pecialists observed very little to no movement by staff during this time,” the investigator wrote. “Staff members must be moving around. The bunks are a critical issue and need to be addressed immediately to avoid any more attempts of suicide.”
The young person was placed on suicide watch. But, from Sept. 9 to Sept. 17, jail staff missed over 50 scheduled checks, which must occur every 15 minutes.
The OJJ specialist interviewed staff members who had spoken with the youth: three counselors, a nursing assistant, and several corrections officers. A counselor reported that the young person should speak with a psychiatrist, but documents do not indicate that he ever did.
One of the counselors told the OJJ specialist that only the nurse practitioner could take the young person off suicide watch.
In violation of state regulations, the jail also failed to report the suicide attempt to the “parent/legal guardian, defense counsel, and judge of record.”
Another report details an Oct. 30 suicide attempt, but it’s unclear if it involved the same person who attempted suicide in September.
In the October case, the report says jail staff failed to properly monitor the youth.
“Based upon record review, the level of mental health supervision provided to C-1 [the youth] was not determined by a qualified mental health professional,” the OJJ specialist wrote. “Provider failed to provide current policy for Suicide Management and Prevention.”
Instead of conducting in-person suicide watch checks, the report says jail staff monitored the young person using cameras—yet another violation of state regulations. On nine separate occasions, staff did not conduct the required 15-minute checks.
The reports also detail abuse by employees. During a five-week period from August to September, staff sprayed kids with a “chemical agent” at least 15 times, sometimes multiple times a day. After one incident, the staff failed to obtain immediate medical follow-ups for two young people. Specialists also found that the jail violated the required staff-to-youth ratio of 1 to 8. On one occasion, the specialist observed one staff member supervising 15 youth.
In a January inspection report, an OJJ specialist said he viewed footage of a jailer using a “chemical agent” against a youth. Although a “medical professional” told the specialist that he had “conducted an assessment” of the victim, there was no documentation that any examination had occurred.
The specialist viewed a video of another attack that occurred on the same day. In that case, two staffers used “a type of intervention on a youth that was not an approved physical escort technique, physical restraint, or mechanical restraint device.” The investigator said the detainee was removed “in a seated position,” and that the restraint techniques were “disproportionate to the actions and behavior” the youth exhibited. The specialist said the youth was not threatening themselves or others.
The two staff members “each had an arm extended above [the victim’s] head and behind his back,” and “were walking out of the room while dragging [the victim] out by the arms.”
After reviewing the inspection reports provided by The Appeal, David Utter, a member of the kids’ legal team, said that two state agencies have “found the jail to be severely lacking in the most basic treatment and rehabilitative and educational programs.”
Utter said that decades of research show that subjecting children to these types of conditions has catastrophic consequences.
“Kids do better when they’re home,” he told The Appeal. “Kids do better when we wrap services around them in their community. But Louisiana keeps on sending children to these punitive environments in the face of proven justice policy.”
The Appeal is a nonprofit newsroom that exposes how the U.S. criminal legal system fails to keep people safe and perpetuates harm.