VCF INMATES TEST POSITIVE FOR DRUGS

Facility Has 120 Days To Comply With DOC Mandate

In a development that could possibly lead to the closing of the Vernon
Parish Correctional Facility, The Department of Public Safety and
Corrections notified Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft in a letter dated
July 15, that the center has 120 days to either correct deficiencies
or develop a specific and realistic plan for correction of
deficiencies.

Problems at the facility located on Hwy. 468 east of Leesville arose
this week after several inmates tested positive for drugs. If
deficiencies aren't corrected within the 120-day period, the remaining
inmates could be removed and relocated to other facilities.

On Wednesday, July 14, members of the Department of Public Safety and
Corrections performed a "shake down'" at the VCF which resulted in 41
positive testings for various drugs. The inmates who tested positive
have since been removed from the VCF and now reside in another facility.

Pam LaBorde, Communications Director, DOC, said, "There were 186
inmates tested and 34 inmates tested positive, four refused to be
tested, which we count as positive and three inmates had marijuana in
their lockers."

LaBorde also stated that eight of the inmates that had tested positive
for drug use were work release inmates.

According to Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft there were 189 inmates
incarcerated at the facility and of those 142 were on work release.

"Steps have been taken to control this problem since it was discovered
on Wednesday," Craft said. "We are going to decrease the number of
work detail inmates going out and tighten internal security measures."

The VCF had been notified, in a letter to Craft dated June 8, that
effective June 6, intake of inmates had been suspended until
improvements had been made and compliance reported by the Basic Jail
Guideline (BJG) monitors.

Craft was advised that the Vernon Correctional Center was not in
compliance with the following, BJG 111-007- "There are written
procedures for institutional emergencies such as riots, disturbances,
hostage situations and escapes. Such procedures include the reporting
of these incidents to DPS&C when they involve state inmates."

"The DOC has been concerned with the VCF for one to 1 1/2 years. Not
only because of the 41 who tested positive on Wednesday, but also with
some of the security," LaBorde said.

Craft explained that it only takes one inmate to smuggle in one
marijuana cigarette to create this kind of problem. Craft also said
that random sampling drug testing is completed on a monthly basis in
an effort to curtail the problem.

This is not the first time at the VCF has seen a high number of
inmates testing positive for drugs.

When asked, Craft had trouble recalling if there had been another
incidents of excessive drug use, but according to the DOC in April of
2003, 54 of the jail's 209 inmates tested positive for drugs. Nineteen
had been jailed for two or three weeks; the others were on work release.

The inmates who tested positive on Wednesday will face a DOC
discipline hearing and could lose their trusty status or even lose
credit toward early release.