The Lasalle Detention Center, located in Jena, Louisiana, houses immigration detainees who have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The facility, which has the capacity for 1,160 inmates, opened its doors in November of 2008, receiving hundreds of immigrant detainees from other ICE facilities.  In May of 2010, the facility held 1,094 immigration detainees.  The jail is also known as the Jena Detention Facility or the Lasalle Detention Facility.

Contact Information

Contacting the Facility

Address:

Lasalle Detention Facility
830 Pine Hill Road
Jena, Louisiana 71342

Phone:

(318)992-7800

Contacting A Detainee

To speak to a detainee by phone, call the facility’s main desk at (318)992-7800, and leave a message for the person to call you back.  Make sure to include in your message the person’s name and alien number, and a date and time for the person to call you back.  Note: inmates are not allowed free phone calls to family and friends.  Thus, you will need to add money to the person’s phone account.

To deposit money in the person’s phone, call (888)524-5235 to speak to a customer representative of the CTI phone company.  To deposit money in person’s general account, visit  www.inmatedeposits.com.  Note: to deposit money in the person’s general account, you will have to know the person’s alien number.  If you do not wish to deposit the money online, you can mail a money order to the detention center.  Make the money order out to the immigration detainee, and be sure to include his or her alien number.

To visit the a person at the Lasalle Immigration Detention Center, go on either Saturday or Sunday between 8am and 4pm.

To send mail to the person, use the following address:

Inmate Name and Alien Number
Lasalle Detention Center
P.O. Box 560
Trout, Louisiana 71371

Contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

The ICE deportation office is located next door to the Lasalle Detention Facility.  To reach an officer there, dial (318)992-1600.  Usually, however, cases at Lasalle are assigned to deportation officers at the Oakdale ICE Office, located at 1010 East Whatley Road, Oakdale, Louisiana 71463.  To reach an officer there, call (318)335-7500. The head ICE officer in charge of the Lasalle Detention Center is Assistant Field Office Director Charles W. Jean.  The regional supervisor is Field Office Director Philip T. Miller, who can be reached at the New Orleans Field Office at (504)789-7800.

Getting Released

Immigration Bonds

Many immigration detainees at Lasalle are eligible for release on bond.  Whether a person is eligible for an immigration bond will depend on the nature of his immigration violations, his criminal history, his ties to the United States, and several other factors.  To find out if ICE is willing to release a person on bond, call the ICE office in Oakdale, Louisiana at (318)335-7500, and ask to speak to the deportation officer assigned to the person’s case.  (To be routed to the correct officer, you will need to provide the person’s alien number.)  Even when ICE denies bond, all hope is not lost.  The person may be able to get an immigration bond through requesting a bond hearing before an immigration judge.  For more details, contact an immigration attorney.

To post bond, visit any ICE ERO Field Office in the United States.  However, for Lasalle detainees, it is normally the quickest to post bond at the Oakdale, Louisiana Sub-Office:

1010 East Whatley Road
Oakdale, Louisiana 71463

Bonds can be posted in the form of a money order or cashier’s check written to the Department of Homeland Security.

Post-Release

Inmates released from the Lasalle Detention Center are not transported by ICE to the nearest airport or bus station.  A Lasalle detainee’s best bet is to call a taxi to get a ride to the airport.

The Removal Process

ICE detainees at Lasalle are typically placed in removal proceedings within 1-2 weeks of being arrested.  In removal proceedings, Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeks to remove a person from the United States.  Usually the detainee has the chance to dispute ICE’s allegations, and to present evidence in favor of granting him or her relief from removal.

Immigration Court

Inmates at Lasalle appear via televideo at the Oakdale Immigration Court in Oakdale, Louisiana, located at 1900 E. Whatley Road, Oakdale Louisiana 71463.  There are three immigration judges in Oakdale who are randomly assigned to cases out of Lasalle:

• Judge Jerry Beatman, Sr.
• Judge John A. Duck, Jr.
• Judge Agnelis L. Reese

When a person is released from the Lasalle Detention Center on an immigration bond, his or her case is automatically transferred to the New Orleans Immigration Court.  Former detainees are still responsible for attending hearings in New Orleans.  Failure to appear in court may result in automatic deportation.

Timeframe

It can take up to 3 weeks for a person detained at Lasalle to see an immigration judge.  Lasalle detainees’ cases take an average of 24 days to be completed.

Facility Background

The LaSalle Detention Facility is owned and operated by the Geo Group, which runs hundreds of detention centers across the United States.  The facility used to serve as a juvenile detention center, and in 2008 began housing ICE detainees.  At its opening, hundreds of Jena, Louisiana residents attended, praising the facility for its economic benefit to the town.  The mayor of Jena noted that the GEO Group would become the city’s largest taxpayer.

One ICE official called the Jena detention facility a “sole source provider,” meaning that the facility would house ICE detainees from the point of arrest to the time of removal to the United States.  The LaSalle Detention Center can hold 1256 detainees, but on average holds only around 900.

Nearby Facilities

If you are having difficulty locating someone at the LaSalle Detention Center, you may want to try contacting any the following immigration detention centers:

• Oakdale Detention Center
• South Louisiana Detention Center (Basille Detention Center)
• Tensas Parish Detention Center
• Basille Detention
• Laredo Detention Center (i.e., CCA Laredo)
• Port Isabel Detention Center (i.e., Los Fresnos Detention Center)
• Willacy Detention Center (i.e., Willacy Detention)
• Houston Immigration Detention Center (i.e., Houston Processing Center)
• Dallas Immigration Detention Center
• South Texas Detention Center (Pearsall ICE Detention Facility)
• Johnson County Detention Center (i.e., Cleburne Texas Jail)