The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, a state agency based in Baton Rouge, manages nine state correctional facilities that house 19,000 adult prisoners. Prisons managed by the department include the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the state’s only maximum security institution. The penitentiary and other correctional facilities provide educational and vocational programs through which inmates can earn degrees and gain job training. Statistics show that inmates’ chances of finding full-time employment are greatly enhanced if they complete an education in prison, and a 2005 research review found that, on average, re-incarceration rates for participants in prison education programs were 46 percent lower than for nonparticipants.