Sheriff Talks About Causes of Crime in EBR

In an address to the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux addressed the root causes of crime in East Baton Rouge Parish. He said, “Most  of our crime is committed by people addicted to drugs or alcohol. The average offender has a 7th grade education. Also, when I started, 25 percent of our jail population had a mental health issue. Today, with the closure of mental institutions, 50 percent of our offenders have mental health issues.”
The Sheriff said these issues needed to be addressed
in order to reduce crime.