Gov. Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Legislature created new laws in 2024 that would keep more people in jail for longer periods of time. Predictably, that effort is costing taxpayers more money. The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O’Donoghue explains how the governor’s “standstill” budget proposal for next fiscal year includes new spending on state and local prisons:
Landry’s team presented a budget proposal Friday that includes an $82 million year-over-year increase in state funding for its corrections system, which pays for nine prisons as well as the parole and probation system. State spending on Louisiana State Penitentiary, the maximum security prison in Angola, would go up at least $17.5 million alone, according to Landry’s budget presentation. The change equates to an 11% hike from current state funding in the corrections budget and would bring yearly state general funding spent on those services from $716.5 million to $798.2 million starting July 1.
The 2024 special session on mass incarceration moved so quickly that fiscal analysts didn’t have enough time to determine how much the various bills would add to the state budget. Some legislators were even dismissive of the common-sense notion that keeping more people in jail for longer periods of time would cost more money. A former legislator provides a warning on future cost increases:
The longer sentences went into effect in August 2024, meaning that, for now, most people in Louisiana prisons are still serving time under the older, more lenient system. “It’s only just begun. You are going to be spending more money on incarcerating people every year going forward,” [Former Gretna state Rep. Joe] Marino said in an interview Monday. “I would suggest that this increase is the tip of the iceberg that is coming.”
Linking racism to health disparities
Black Americans have a shorter life expectancy than white Americans. A new study published in JAMA Network Open found that nearly half of this mortality gap can be attributed to stress. The Washington Post’s Akilah Johnson explains how structural racism – and its effects – contribute:
[Researchers] found that decades of stress — childhood adversity, trauma, discrimination and economic hardship — were associated with higher levels of inflammation later in life, which correlated with earlier death. … The study, which was largely driven by Washington University in St. Louis graduate student Isaiah Spears, supports the “weathering hypothesis,” which posits that biological wear and tear is caused by striving to overcome hardships in an unequal society.
The study may actually undercount the problem:
Study participants, on average, were in their late 50s when the study began and were then followed into their 70s and 80s. “The most-weathered have already died,” [University of Michigan professor Arline T.] Geronimus said, noting that age span 35 to 60 is “the hardest, most stressful period of life for marginalized groups.”
SNAP soda and candy ban delayed
Louisiana’s latest effort to tell people with low incomes how they can spend their grocery money has been delayed until Ash Wednesday. Starting Feb. 18, nearly 750,000 Louisianans who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will no longer be able to use their benefits to buy soda or candy. The ban is the result of a waiver sought by Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration and approved by the Trump administration. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Emily Woodruff reports:
Under Louisiana’s waiver, “soft drinks” are defined as any carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage containing high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, such as regular or diet sodas. … Candy is defined as a sugar- or sweetener-based product combined with ingredients such as chocolate, fruit or nuts and sold in bars, drops or pieces.
Louisiana’s effort to promote healthier eating comes at a time when federal funding for that goal has been reduced:
Marcus Coleman, a public health researcher at Tulane University, said federal cuts to SNAP education funding in September undercut efforts to help families actually eat healthier. “We’re telling people to buy healthier foods, but what if they don’t necessarily have the knowledge about how to prepare certain things?” Coleman said. In rural areas, sometimes candy or a soft drink is what’s available, said Coleman, who grew up in Tensas Parish.
Research has shown that SNAP recipients are no more likely to spend money on soft drinks and candy than low-income people who don’t receive benefits.
There has to be a better way on immigration
A Louisiana high school student seeking asylum in the United States was deported to Guatemala last week after accompanying her father to a routine immigration meeting. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Elyse Carmosino explains how Maria Bolvito became ensnared in the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps:
Bolvito, who arrived in the U.S. from Guatemala as a fifth grader, said she didn’t typically accompany her father when he regularly checked in with immigration officials on his request for asylum. But she said that officials asked her father to bring her to his most recent appointment, which came just a week after her 18th birthday. … “I can tell you she’s not a criminal — she’s just a regular girl who wants to have friends,” [Bolvito’s] teacher said. “She’s loved by so many people, and she’s so missed.”
Meanwhile, a pregnant mother of two American-born children, including one who is still breastfeeding, is awaiting deportation in a Louisiana immigration detention facility. Cecil Elvir-Quinonez has experienced heavy bleeding and cramping while in custody, but has not received proper medical attention. Shefali Luthra of the 19th reports:
“The fact that parents aren’t with the kids, that she’s breastfeeding an infant, pregnant and having complications — those kinds of things are not being looked at or considered as relevant — it’s inhumane from my perspective,” said Kerry Doyle, a Boston-based immigration lawyer who led ICE’s legal division under President Joe Biden. “There are alternatives and discretions that have been exercised in the past to at least not have family separation.”
Number of the Day
318,901 – Number of single parents in Louisiana in 2024, an 18.6% increase since 1999. (Source: Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race)