Overdetention

Louisiana routinely jails people weeks, months, years after their release dates

The end result is a decades-old problem that damages lives and costs taxpayers millions of dollars.

“We know that there is an issue here and we want to solve it,” said department spokesman Ken Pastorick.

A 55-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia was illegally imprisoned 95 days past his official release date.

“It’s human decency, that after someone has served their time – if it was you, me or anyone else – we would want to be released,” Jackson said.