Separate storm shelter for sex offenders debated in Louisiana

Separate storm shelter for sex offenders debated in Louisiana - USATODAY.com

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Baton Rouge is not a good place for a proposed shelter to house sex offenders during hurricanes, according to Police Chief Jeff LeDuff.

"We're not 150 miles inland. We're just a mere 50 miles inland ... Our power lines fail. Our trees fall. It burdens an already (overtaxed) Police Department," LeDuff told a study panel at the Capitol on Tuesday.

The committee of state officials was meeting for the first time to look at the issues involved in establishing a stand-alone shelter for registered sex offenders.

The state initially proposed locating a 300-bed shelter on state police training property near Zachary.

The Zachary site, which local officials objected to, is neither on nor off the table, said Mark Smith, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

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Legislation to give parish officials a say in the location of an evacuation shelter for registered sex offenders stalled during the recent session.

Instead, lawmakers adopted a resolution to establish a committee to study the issue in light of a state law that calls for convicted sex offenders to be housed separately from a general population of evacuees.

The Zachary shelter is mired in a legal battle between state and local officials.

An appellate court recently ordered a state district judge to hold a full trial on what amounts to a conflict between two measures: the state law separating sex offenders from other evacuees and a Baton Rouge Metro Council ordinance forbidding shelters exclusively for sex offenders.