NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Over the last six months, at least nine inmates at the Bridge City Center for Youth have escaped the facility.
“I knew the escapes was going to occur. I said I brought it to their attention and I was ignored and I felt like I’m useless here,” said a former supervisor, who wishes to remain anonymous.
The former employee says the facility is out of control and says the staff is a big part of the problem.
“It’s not safe. They need to hire the proper and the trained individuals to come in there,” she said.
She says she’s witnessed several staff members develop inappropriate relationships with the youth inmates at the facility.
“They fraternize with them. They laugh with them. The youths sat on they lap. The youths hug them, the youths kiss them. Love letters was being passes out, phone numbers,” said the former supervisor.
This former employee says it’s through these relationships that the inmates get the information and the tools they need to escape.
“They tell them all the calls, the codes, they let them hear the radio, they give them the radio. They let them listen to the communication,” said the former employee.
She also says staff members would often smuggle illegal contraband into the facility for the inmates.
“Vape pipes, cigarette lighters, cigarettes, weed, marijuana, pills,”
Despite repeatedly reporting the misconduct she witnessed to upper management, the former supervisor says her concerns fell on deaf ears.
“I felt like something should of been taken care of when I spoke up, and when I spoke of how many other workers or staff members, they ignored them. What’s it going to take for them to do their job?”
We contacted Bridge City Center for Youth and the Department of Corrections for comment about the allegations and we have not heard back.