The Detention Center
West Baton Rouge Parish Detention Center
- Operated byWest Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office (Corrections Division)
- Jail address1150 Northwest Drive, Port Allen, LA 70767
- WardenRhonda Alleman, Warden (sheriff's staff; the parish page sits under Services > Sheriff > Divisions > Criminal Division)
- Built"built in 1997"; "constructed to house 330 inmates, 297 males, and 33 females"
- Bookings"approximately 3,400 bookings in a single calendar year"
- Scope"provides jail services for all law enforcement agencies in West Baton Rouge Parish"
- Other facilityTransitional Work Program Facility, covered by the sheriff's 2024 Annual PREA Report
- PREA2024 Annual PREA Report (agency report, not an external audit): 2 reports, both sexual-harassment allegations found unfounded; no sexual-abuse allegations
- PhonesMain 225-346-6400; booking desk 225-346-6420
- RosterThe Detention Center page links a jail roster at westbatonrouge.lavns.org and VINELink; neither is the parish's or sheriff's own domain
- Parish budgetThe parish's 2026 financial recap lists a Detention Center fund (017) of $139,000 and "Inmate Housing" intergovernmental revenue of $2,870,000
- Public recordsThe parish government has a public records request page (wbrparish.org/1080/Public-Records-Request)
- What was triedOpened: wbrparish.org Detention Center page, 2024 PREA report, home, Government, Agendas-Minutes, Parish President, Parish Council, 2026 Budget Documents, 2026 Financial Recap, Services; wbrcouncil.org Facilities. Refused: www.wbrsheriff.org/inmateSearch (robots.txt), www.wbrsheriff.org (PROVENANCE_REQUIRED).
Source: West Baton Rouge Parish - Detention Center · checked 2026-09-18
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1997
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds330 (297 male, 33 female), as constructed
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jeffrey Bergeron
- Runs the jailYes - the sheriff's Corrections Division operates the West Baton Rouge Parish Detention Center and a Transitional Work Program facility
- How the office is filledElected parish sheriff; keeper of the public jail of the parish (La. R.S. 15:704)
- Source caveatNamed as sheriff in the sheriff's 2024 Annual PREA Report posted on the parish's own site; the sheriff's domain (wbrsheriff.org) could not be opened to confirm his tenure in 2026
- Office850 8th Street, Port Allen, LA 70767; 225-343-9234
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office - 2024 Annual PREA Report · checked 2026-09-18
The Judges
Louisiana district judges are elected in partisan elections to six-year terms. They are state judicial officers, not parish officials. Who sets bail at first appearance varies by parish - a district judge on rotation, a magistrate or commissioner, or in some parishes a justice of the peace - and Louisiana's bail statutes do not require that first appearance to happen in open court.
- The parish's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-18
The Parish Governing Authority
They maintain the jail building. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe physical maintenance of the parish jail and the jail physician (La. R.S. 15:702, 15:703).
- What they don'tCustody of the jail. Under La. R.S. 15:704 the elected sheriff is “the keeper of the public jail of his parish.”
- The governing bodyParish governing body page →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Louisiana has no general parish-jail inspection law. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections monitors compliance with its Basic Jail Guidelines at least annually, but only for jails that house state inmates for the state per diem; no public repository of those compliance reports was located.
- The parish government's CivicPlus site carries the sheriff's Detention Center page under Services > Sheriff; the pages describe a sheriff's division, not a parish-run jail, so jail_administrator is null.
- PREA is recorded as no on a strict reading: the parish site posts the sheriff's 2024 Annual PREA Report, an agency data report, but no certified PREA audit result was found.
- Capacity is recorded as no: the as-built bed count is published, but no daily population. Contracts is recorded as no: the budget shows inmate-housing revenue but no agreement or rate was found.
- Budget is recorded as yes from the parish's 2026 financial recap, which lists a Detention Center fund (017).
- Parish president and parish council. The parish's pages list Jason Manola, Parish President, and nine council members: Kirk Allain (District I), Daryl "Turf" Babin (District II), Atley Walker Jr. (District III), Brady Hotard (District IV), Kenneth Gordon (District V), Carey Denstel (District VI, Chairman), Alan Crowe (District VII, Vice Chairman), Katherine Andre (District VIII) and Gary "Shaq" Joseph (District IX); Michelle Tullier is Council Clerk. The council meets the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the West Baton Rouge Governmental Building, 880 N Alexander Avenue, Port Allen. The parish posts 2025 and 2026 budget documents.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in West Baton Rouge Parish and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So is the parish governing body that pays for it.
Names verified 2026-09-18 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered