Jail

State of the Art Jail
As times progress, so must the Allen Parish Sheriff's Office Jail. As we proceed in our endeavors, we have built an entirely new jail facility. The facility known as The Allen Parish Public Safety Complex, is more than just a jail.

LET ME EXPLAIN:

Our complex is located at 7340 HWY 26 West on the north side of the highway as you are leaving the town limits of Oberlin. The facility was built in 2015 and was occupied at first in September of 2015. The facility house Allen Parish Dispatch & 911, which is in the administration wing of the entrance of the building. The Administration wing on the first floor also houses our bonding office, sex offender registration and compliance unit, D.A.R.E., and our patrol Division.

On the Second Floor of the facility is the Sheriff's Administrative offices. This houses the Sheriff and Office Manager, Investigations, Homeland Security, Warden and staff, Warrants office and medical staff. Our second floor has a large training room, which also doubles as our secondary Emergency Operations center during times of dire emergencies such as major flooding, hurricanes and mass events that would affect the daily operations of the parish.

On the first floor of the facility in the rear of the building is the Correctional Complex. Inmates are housed in this facility. The facility consists of several dormitories, which are maintained by the correctional staff. It also has a large Sally Port for receiving inmates and persons arrested by our patrol officers and other agencies. One wing of this facility houses a large kitchen area, which is manned by Trustee labor, who cooks for all the inmates in the facility and is managed by a Deputy who is specialized in Kitchen management.

Our corrections facility is managed by the Allen Parish Sheriff's Department personnel, and all operations are supervised by Warden Mike Manuel. Warden Manuel has a compliment of 40 corrections officers, who book in, guard, supervise meal preparation, transport to court. Five transport officers, who transport inmates to different facilities around the state, take inmates to doctor's appointments, and dentist appointments. As the facility to house prisoners for the parish, it is the responsibility of the sheriff's office to take care of all the inmates' nutritional and medical needs.

If you have any questions about jail operations, bonds, bail bonds, or inmate matters please direct your questions to our email, jail@allenparishso.com.

Aerial view of new facility

History of Allen Parish Correctional Center
The Allen Parish Jail was established in 1913 at the location which is now known as the "White House" which is now retired. The newer facility, which was put into service in 1966, houses the inmates for the parish is attached to the rear of the Allen Parish Courthouse. This design was instituted due to the fact that the correction center has access to bring prisoners directly from the jail into the courthouse through an entrance on the third floor of the correction center. This design was considered effective because the inmates had no access to the outside of the correction facility other than the exercise yard, and the level of security required to take prisoners from jail to court is considerably less. Inmates that were housed at the old jail (White House) had to be brought outside and then walked from the facility to the courthouse, there was considerable risk to the deputies and inmates. The deputies had to be on the lookout for anyone who wished to do harm to them or the inmate. The inmates were at risk that if someone wished to harm them, they were in the open and the other factor was that the inmate had ample room and opportunity to try and escape if he or she could.

The old jail facility, attached to the rear of the courthouse, which housed 41 inmates has been retired. The facility exists to maintain as storage for the courthouse and Police Jury. The Sheriff had a vision to be able to hold all of our prisoners and detainees, instead of sending out of parish for housing at other facilities. This has saved the Police Jury and the public many tax dollars. This culminated into the new facility on Hwy 26, which is now in operation.