- at Shreveport-Bossier City ADVOCATE
As Caddo Parish’s 2023 homicide total continues to surge, parish voters have the opportunity to say “yes” or “no” to a proposal supporters hope will address violent crime from the ground up.
When Caddo Parish voters cast their ballots they’ll be asked to vote on a proposed property tax that would create extra funds that Caddo Commissioners would be empowered to direct towards a variety of crime prevention measures and initiatives to help the local criminal justice system run efficiently. Early voting lasts until Oct. 7 and election day is Oct. 14.
The exact text of the millage proposal reads:
“Shall Caddo Parish, Louisiana be authorized to levy a special tax of 3.5 mills on all property subject to taxation in Caddo Parish for a period of 15 years, beginning with the year 2024 and ending with the year 2039, for the purpose of maintaining public safety by supporting costs for community mental health programs, workforce development programs, neighborhood development programs, litter and blight abatement, a criminal justice system, the juvenile justice system, including acquiring, equipping, improving, maintaining, and operating these systems?”
Parish officials expect that the millage would net about $5.25 million a year or roughly $79 million over the life of the tax.
Tax revenue generated by the proposed milage could only legally be spent on initiatives that match something described in the proposal. The tax an individual would need to pay would be based on how much a property owner’s land is appraised at.
2023 has been particularly violent in Caddo Parish, as 65 killings have been investigated as homicides in the parish so far this year. While this year’s homicide total likely won’t surpass 2021’s peak of 93, 2023 is already Caddo’s third deadliest year since 2012 with nearly three months still remaining. The Parish has seen more than twice as many homicides so far this year than it did in 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to the coroner.
A startling amount of the violence in Caddo Parish in recent years has involved young people. Since the start of 2020, 49 teenagers have been victims of homicide in Caddo Parish, including seven aged 12- to 15-years-old, according to the coroner. At least 36 people aged 15 to 19 are being held in parish corrections facilities on charges of murder, attempted murder or aggravated assault with a firearm, according to jail records.
John-Paul Young, commissioner for District 4 which includes Shreveport’s Highland and Anderson Island neighborhoods, said the milage is necessary because violent crime is a key factor behind Shreveport’s declining population.
“People who live here are usually pretty die-hard about Shreveport, but no one actually wants to take a bullet for Shreveport,” said Young, a Republican who is currently seeking re-election. “We’re in a population crisis that’s driven by a crime crisis that’s driven by kids who are hopeless and have so little exposure to good ways to spend their time that they shoot stray bullets in our houses.”
Young said the millage would give Caddo commissioners the flexibility to provide support to initiatives looking to reduce crime by approaching the problem from different angles.
“We have many people committing crimes so, of course, there are many reasons why they’re committing crimes,“ Young said. “It needs to be addressed by our policy makers if we’re going to make this a safer place to live.”
One of the most prominent figures in Caddo Parish law enforcement has not taken such a rosy view of the proposed property tax. Longtime Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said the proposed tax would not do much to address the area’s immediate problems with violent crime.
“I’m all for community programs, but there’s nothing in there that will help us this weekend,” said Prator, who will be retiring in December after six terms as the parish’s top lawman. “It’s certainly not what law enforcement is asking for.”
Prator is also concerned that the proposal’s wording is too vague and that a number of the things mentioned in the proposed millage are already supported by taxpayer money.
“These are unspecified programs,“ Prator said. “That’s not good governance in my opinion.”
Prator also believes that the proposal would do nothing to address a bed shortage for violent detainees in the Juvenile Justice Center that he said has created problems for jail staff.
“We need more bedspace, and that has never been addressed by the Caddo Parish Commission,“ Prator said. “That is our immediate need.”
Young said the sheriff’s assessment of the proposal’s wording is incorrect. He said requests to use the money generated by the proposed tax to finance expansions and improvements to juvenile and adult jail facilities would be considered by Caddo commissioners as they are part of “equipping, improving, maintaining, and operating” the local criminal justice system.
Funding re-entry services and hiring more public defenders in an effort to reduce the backlog in cases that’s leading to overcrowding in the Caddo Correctional Center are two jail-centered initiates Young said he could see the proposed property tax supporting.
Young said Prator’s requests for more beds in the Juvenile Justice Center likely wouldn’t receive the support of the commissioners because most commissioners do not view it as an effective or fiscally responsible way of preventing crime.
“It’s not clear if building a bigger Juvenile Detention Center will make us safer but it certainly will deplete our resources exponentially compared to other forms of prevention, ” Young said.
The Juvenile Justice Center has been reshaped over Prator’s time in office by pieces of legislation. The capacity of the Juvenile Justice Center was reduced from 48 to 24 beds when standards for juvenile corrections facilities changed and “double-bunking” was prohibited. Then in 2020, Louisiana’s Raise The Age act went into full-effect, putting 17-year-old offenders not charged with serious violent crimes under the supervision of the juvenile justice system.
While the age range of offenders the Juvenile Justice Center houses has increased and the number of beds they have access to has decreased, overcrowding in the Juvenile Justice center has not gotten worse, according to parish records.
In 2005, the Juvenile Justice Center operated with an average daily population of 52 in a facility with a 48-bed capacity, or 108% of the facility’s intended capacity, according to parish records. In 2022, the Juvenile Justice Center’s average daily population was 22, or a little less than 92% of the facility’s 24-bed capacity, according to parish records.
Juvenile recidivism also decreased over that span, with 33% of juvenile offenders being incarcerated twice in one year in 2005 compared to 17% in 2022, according to parish records. The number of juveniles admitted to the facility in a year also decreased by more than 65% between 2005 and 2022.
Young also said that juvenile services confirmed to him that no juveniles released from the facility due to a lack of space since 2020 have subsequently been charged with a violent crime.
Young said these decreases can be attributed to programs the parish supported for at-risk youth. Young said passing the proposed millage would give the parish the ability to renew their support for those types of programs.
“There’s other ways to keep kids from doing things that require locking them up than locking them up,“ Young said.
Young also said that juvenile services confirmed to him that no juveniles released from the facility due to a lack of space since 2020 have subsequently been charged with a violent crime.
Young said these decreases can be attributed to programs the parish supported for at-risk youth. Young said passing the proposed millage would give the parish the ability to renew their support for those types of programs.
“There’s other ways to keep kids from doing things that require locking them up than locking them up,“ Young said.
Email Brendan Heffernan at Brendan.Heffernan@TheAdvocate.com or follow him on Twitter, @HeffTheReporter.
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