NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – As New Orleans experiences a dramatic drop in crime, the number of inmates incarcerated in the Orleans Parish Jail is becoming too high for Sheriff Susan Hutson.

Hutson presented data to the New Orleans City Council this week as it moves through the process of developing the city’s 2025 budget. Hutson told Fox 8 that the jail’s inmate population is increasing at- beyond the management capacity of the OPSO.

“When I came into office, we had about 1,000 people in custody, and now we have 1,500,” Hutson said. “So you’re talking about 500 more people in detention, at $53,000 a year to house them. Just do the math. That’s tens of millions of dollars more needed to house them, make sure they have medicine, food, transportation, all that.

Hutson is requesting a budget of $88.3 million, an increase of $33 million over this year’s allocation. With about 350 deputies on staff, some told the board they were dangerously outnumbered and the prison’s boundaries were being stretched.

“It’s very overcrowded and the reception center is overcrowded beyond capacity,” Rep. Rayquain Johnson told the budget committee.

Hutson said: “It’s hard work. Working in a prison, sometimes, is like being in prison. You have to be there every day, in a group of 60 men or women who are there for very serious charges, and you have to deal with that all day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Metropolitan Crime Commission Chairman Rafael Goyeneche said the Orleans Parish sheriff is in a unique position. Unlike many other Louisiana sheriff’s offices, the Hutson agency is not the primary arresting authority in the parish. Goyeneche says Hutson’s primary role is that of a jailer, with little control over who enters and leaves the prison.

“The reason the prison population is increasing is that the back end of the criminal justice system is clogged with cases, some of which are the result of COVID-19-related system shutdowns in 2020 and 2021,” Goyeneche said. “We’re still trying to get over it. She is responsible for all the people incarcerated in her prison.

In addition to maintaining and modernizing the jail itself, Hutson says it needs additional money in its budget to improve deputies’ salaries, which have been compared to those of fast food workers. OPSO Sgt. Brian Favorite asked some pointed questions of council members this week.

“Would you work for $15 an hour?” Would you serve as a board member for $15 an hour? Would you sit for $18 an hour? How much would it cost you to sit in this seat,” Favorite asked.

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Goyeneche said he thought a $33 million budget increase was ambitious. Orleans Parish voters have already rejected a proposed property tax increase that would have generated $11.7 million for Hutson’s office over 10 years by a resounding 91-9% margin in April 2023 .

“She can ask for it. I don’t know if she will get everything,” Goyeneche said. “But without examining what exactly she is asking for, I agree that there needs to be a significant increase for MPs.”

Hutson said without the requested budget increase, furloughs and layoffs may be necessary. Meanwhile, the jail population is expected to increase as Louisiana State Police Troop NOLA makes more arrests in addition to the work of the NOPD.

“We’re looking at what we think is just the beginning of the population increase,” Hutson said. “As this goes on for years, it’s going to continue to be a problem for all of us.”

Hutson said she needs to hire 150 additional deputies to manage inmates safely. If the prison population reaches 1,550 people, the prison will not be able to accommodate more inmates, she says. The prison population reached 1,530 this week, compared to 1,694 in September 2017.