6 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2017 I n Louisiana, elected officials enjoy cheap labor as the result of that state’s high rates of incarceration. The question for Steven Pylant is what percentage of an inmate’s labor a sheriff or warden gets to keep. Pylant knows a thing or two about the issue. He was the sheriff of Franklin Parish from 1996 to 2012, when he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives. He doesn’t seem like a law- maker that would fight for a bill that would take money from sheriffs. But the Winnsboro Re- publican has filed House Bill 429 to do just that. The bill would reduce the amount of money sheriffs are allowed to garnish from the wages of state prison- ers housed in the sheriffs’ jails. “I think it is wrong to take 65 percent of anyone’s money,” Pylant told report- ers with NOLA.com. “I don’t think that was what was intended when the prisoner job program was set up. When we first talked about it, it was to let inmates accumulate money before they were let out.” Research shows that pris- oners who’ve served their time stand a better chance on the outside if they’re not destitute and have some money for food and other necessities like shelter. Louisiana sheriffs cur- rently take 64 percent or $451.50 per week from wages of state inmates. Current state law au- thorizes sheriffs to take as much as 75 percent. Pylant thinks this is a bad look. His bill says that prisoners should be paid at least $8 per hour. The bill would also pro- hibit officials from taking more than $20 per day from an offender’s paycheck for a full day’s work. Louisiana is the only state where more than half of the state prison population is housed in local jails. Inmate labor has become an indispensable source of revenue for some Louisiana sheriffs. A state task force on reducing Louisiana’s incar- ceration rate came to the same conclusion. Mike Ranatza, executive director for the Louisiana Sheriffs Association, says that a lot of this stuff was a function of the fact that the previous governor, Bobby Jindal, cut law enforcement funding so severely that sheriffs had little choice but to rely on garnished inmate wages. “What happened dur- ing the last eight years by policy, driven by financial constraints, is that we kept upping the ante on the offender and we reduced the amount on the state,” Ranataza said during recent task force meeting. An inmate in the custody of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts paints a structure. A bill in Louisiana, sponsored by a former sheriff, would limit the amount of inmate wages sheriffs are allowed to keep. Part of that means figuring out what we do with all the individuals that are already in our nation. We need them here. They provide construction jobs. They provide agricultural jobs. – Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on illegal immigration solutions Guy who says God sends natural disasters to punish gays has his home destroyed in a natural disaster HEADLINE OF THE MONTH Whose money is it under the law? Whacking it up Badges Insignia Medals Awards Collar Insignia Nameplates Challenge Coins Pins Accessories Design your badge online /smithandwarren @SmithnWarren Contact@SmithWarren.com Ph: 914.948.4619 To learn more, visit your local Smith & Warren dealer or visit www.SmithWarren.com PRODUCTION FAST RELIABLE - It’s not JUST a BADGE