Basile prison closing announced

The Basile prison will close in the next few months, representatives of The GEO group, owners of The South Louisiana Corrections Center, announced to a group of elected officials at a parishwide meeting in Ville Platte on Nov. 18.
Louisiana Corrections Services sold the Basile facility and several others to GEO in February.
The prison opened in Basile in 1993.
Basile Mayor Mark Denette said he is disappointed in the company’s decision to close the facility since this will mean a loss of tax money and other spending by the prison and its employees here in the town limits in addition to a loss of monthly payments that the town was receiving per inmate.
At the meeting in Ville Platte, it was noted that the Basile prison has more than 1,000 beds and that only about 600 are being used.
The company’s Pine Prairie facility, which had previously been closed and refurbished, will be reopened and inmates from Basile will be transferred there.
Pablo E. Paez, vice-president of corporate relations with The Geo Group, Inc., made the statement on behalf of the company.
“Since acquiring LCS Corrections in February of this year, GEO has conducted a thorough evaluation of the facilities previously managed by LCS to determine the mission and customer best suited for each facility. As a result of this review, GEO has determined that the Pine Prairie facility is better suited to accomplish the mission currently being delivered at the South Louisiana Correctional Center; however GEO expects the current employees to transition to the Pine Prairie facility. GEO will actively work to remission and market the South Louisiana Correctional Center in the future. For security reasons, GEO is unable to provide a specific timetable or additional details related to this operational transition.”