Each month, East Baton Rouge Parish taxpayers spend $368,000 to send inmates to prisons in other parishes, almost four times the $96,000 they spent just six years ago.
While the COVID crime spike and new laws have played a role, many parish officials say the main problem is simple: The nearly 60-year-old parish prison is falling apart.
Rusted bars and ceilings, crumbling sewage pipes and long-obsolete parts often fail, taking sections — sometimes entire wings — out of commission and leaving the jail with too few beds…