Catahoula Correctional Center Release Paths
Catahoula Correctional Center is not the same facility as Catahoula Parish Jail. The parish jail is the local booking point for many arrests. The correctional center is a larger contract setting where a person’s legal custodian may be Louisiana DPS&C, another local jurisdiction, ICE based on documented historic use, the U.S. Marshals Service, or another contracting authority. Search by custodian, not merely by the Harrisonburg address.
A Louisiana prisoner can leave Catahoula Correctional Center for the community under a DPS&C release or supervision status, or transfer to another state or local placement. A transitional-work participant may release or move to a different program. A local prisoner can return to the sending parish. A federal pretrial detainee can transfer under USMS authority. Someone in immigration custody can be released, transferred, or removed. Each event looks like departure from the building, but only some are community releases.
| Legal custodian | Primary search path | What departure can mean |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana DPS&C | LAVNS and the DPS&C locator line | State release, parole, discharge, or transfer |
| Sending parish or local agency | That agency’s jail and records custodian | Release, return, or transfer |
| ICE | ODLS and ICE ERO | Release, transfer, or removal |
| USMS | Federal court, named facility, counsel, and Marshal route | Federal transfer or court-directed release |
The destination field resolves much of the ambiguity. Ask for it by name. A record that only says “released from facility” may describe the end of one placement without showing the end of all custody.
Confirm Catahoula Center Release Records
Gather the person’s legal name, date of birth, and any DPS&C, booking, court, BOP, FBI, or A-number identifier. Confirm that the facility name is Catahoula Correctional Center, not Catahoula Parish Jail. Then search the broadest system for the suspected custodian before filtering by location, since a transfer can make an old facility filter hide the current result.
- Identify the case type. State sentence, parish booking, federal case, and immigration detention follow different records systems.
- Check the correct locator. Use LAVNS for Louisiana DPS&C, ODLS for searchable ICE custody, or BOP only for covered sentenced federal records.
- Read the exact status. Save the agency, location, update time, and any transfer or release label.
- Call the custodian. Ask whether the event was a community release, transfer, removal, or return to another jurisdiction.
- Request the transaction. Seek the releasable movement entry with date, time, legal authority, and receiving agency.
For a Louisiana state prisoner, the DPS&C inmate-information page routes searches to LAVNS. Its automated locator at 225-383-4580 can return a housing assignment and projected release date when applicable. LAVNS is updated on a stated 24-hour cycle, so a recent transfer can lag.
The main Catahoula Parish released-inmate search on the home page explains how to use a dated event instead of a missing roster name.
Catahoula Center Records and Contact
The official CPSO and Louisiana DPS&C listings identify the facility at 499 Old Columbia Road, Harrisonburg, Louisiana. The published facility number is 318-744-2121. The research identifies Warden Gary Allen and a stated capacity of 900. Verify volatile contact and operating details before relying on them.
Catahoula Correctional Center499 Old Columbia Road
Harrisonburg, LA 71340
Phone: 318-744-2121
Ask facility staff which authority is the record custodian for the person. A privately managed building does not necessarily own the underlying sentence, immigration, federal, or parish record. Direct a Louisiana discharge-date request to DPS&C, an ICE status inquiry to ICE, and a sending-parish movement request to that parish.
The official correctional-center page is the source for the local facility details captured below.
The official page confirms the center’s identity and contact route. It does not replace the correct state, federal, immigration, or sending-jurisdiction locator for an individual.
Note: No published release hour, family waiting area, passenger route, or standard pickup procedure was verified for this center.
Catahoula Facility Names Change Searches
Research Section 19, Angle T identifies a naming trap. Catahoula Parish Jail and Catahoula Correctional Center are not interchangeable labels. The parish jail is at 301 Bushley Street and serves as a local arrest and booking facility. The correctional center is at 499 Old Columbia Road and has had contract populations. Searching the wrong name can lead to a false negative or to a record for a different custody episode.
The Louisiana DPS&C Catahoula Parish directory lists the two facilities side by side. Use the booking record, court paper, notification, or agency correspondence to fix the actual building. Then ask which agency has legal custody. A person physically housed in Catahoula Parish can remain a state prisoner, a federal detainee, or another parish’s prisoner.
The sibling Catahoula Parish Jail release page covers the separate local booking and sheriff-record route. Mixing those pages would blur the custodian and the kind of record needed.
- Physical custodian
- The facility that houses the person.
- Legal custodian
- The authority responsible for the sentence, detention, or case record.
- Transfer
- Movement to another facility or authority while custody continues.
- Community release
- Departure from confinement without immediate pickup by another custodial agency.
Catahoula Center ICE History
Research Section 19, Angle K makes immigration custody a real local issue, but only in a careful historic sense. Federal inspection records from 2019 and 2020 identify Catahoula Correctional Center as an ICE contract facility during that period. The research did not independently confirm that the same ICE contract or population remains current. Do not describe every person at the center as an ICE detainee, and do not state that ICE currently holds people there without a fresh first-party check.
The ICE facility-inspection archive is the source for that historical evidence. The successful capture below documents the inspection-record route, not present detention status.
Historic inspection entries establish past use. Current custody still requires the ICE locator, ERO, the facility, or another responsible agency.
ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System accepts a nine-digit A-number and country of birth, with leading zeros added when needed, or exact biographical data. Official guidance says it covers current detainees and people released from ICE custody during the last 60 days. That limited window is not a permanent archive.
An ODLS nonmatch can mean a recent admission, transfer lag, protected case, input mismatch, or a record outside the public locator. The Detention Reporting and Information Line, 888-351-4024, provides basic case information Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. Leaving Catahoula Correctional Center under an ICE detainer can mean transfer into immigration custody, not return to the community.
Catahoula Federal Custody Release Routes
BOP and USMS serve different populations. The BOP inmate locator covers federal prisoners from 1982 onward and can show “Released,” a past release date, or that someone is not in BOP custody. That result addresses BOP custody only. It does not end federal supervised release, state custody, immigration custody, or another detainer.
A federal pretrial detainee is often under U.S. Marshals Service authority and may never appear as a current BOP prisoner. USMS offers no public released-person locator comparable to BOP. Its public guidance directs location questions through the named detention facility and case channels. Use the federal court docket, counsel, the Marshal’s office, and the center. A FOIA request may be possible, subject to exemptions, but it is not a live status tool.
Search BOP by register number when possible. It also accepts BOP, DCDC, FBI, or INS numbers and name plus demographic refiners. A BOP location of “RELEASED” indicates the person was no longer in BOP custody as of the shown date. “UNKNOWN” means BOP cannot determine a date, not that release occurred.
Catahoula Transitional Work Release Audit
A 2024 Louisiana Legislative Auditor report supplies rare local evidence about the Catahoula Correction Center Transitional Work Release Program and Louisiana Workforce LLC. It does not describe every person at the 900-capacity center or anyone at the parish jail. For the audited year ending June 30, 2024, it counted 28 transitional-work participants, one community release, and 23 transfers. That sharp difference shows why “left the program” cannot be converted into “went home.”
The audit also described trust-account handling for that program. A released participant received the account balance at release, and receipts arriving later were mailed within 30 days. Abandoned funds went to DPS&C after 90 days. A balance for transfer to another transitional-work program or local jail was to move within 14 calendar days, while return to DPS&C used a seven-day window.
Those are dated audit findings, not a current promise or a rule for all people leaving Catahoula Correctional Center. The sample’s sole released participant had saved under $500, while DPS&C identified $1,000 as a reasonable minimum goal. Verify that the program and policy still operate before relying on any timing or account practice.
Request Catahoula Center Movement Records
Ask the legal custodian for a narrow event record. Give the full name, date of birth if known, facility, approximate dates, and the authority’s identifier. Request the admission or placement date, movement date and time, event type, legal authority, destination, receiving agency, and any releasable discharge status. Electronic delivery and an advance cost estimate can help control scope.
For Louisiana DPS&C, written public-record requests go to the Deputy Secretary’s Office, P.O. Box 94304, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, or docpublicrecords@la.gov. The published records number is 225-342-6744. R.S. 15:574.12 limits the broader prison file, but subsection G makes selected facts, including discharge date, public upon request. Sentence-computation questions belong with the locator and time-computation routes rather than the records inbox.
If the record belongs to ICE, use ODLS and ERO. If USMS owns the custody, use the federal case, named facility, and Marshal route. For a sending parish, address the request to that parish’s custodian. Ask for a written statutory basis for any withholding. The goal is a positive, dated event, not an inference built from a stale photo or missing search result.