Tagged: corrections

Tickets are on sale for the spring rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Events are scheduled for April 20-21.

The Advocate reports that all seats are priced at $15. The prison gates will open to visitors at 9 a.m. each day.

Rodeo performances begin at 2 p.m.

The City of New Orleans is asking a federal court to reject a proposed reform plan for the Orleans Parish Prison — a plan that the city says it will have to pay for even though the Orleans Parish Sheriff runs the facility.

The U.S. Justice Department and Sheriff Marlin Gusman agreed to the plan in December. That upset city officials who said it will add to the city's financial burden under a separate reform plan for the New Orleans Police Department.

A federal judge has granted preliminary approval of an agreement between the Justice Department and the city of New Orleans that's designed to clean up the city-funded jail.

The consent decree with Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman calls for him to provide adequate medical and mental health care and overhaul policies on use of force and rape prevention, among other reforms. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk's approval Tuesday is a step towards implementing some of those reforms.

Two Rapides Parish inmates who walked away from a detention center have been recaptured.

The sheriff's office told The Town Talk Thursday that both 48-year-old Ronald Vantress and 27-year-old Raymond Weston escaped Wednesday and were found and taken into custody without incident. Each has been booked on a charge of simple escape.

Weston, of Alexandria, was serving time for narcotics convictions while Vantress, of New Orleans, was serving time for a felony theft conviction.