AMITE, LA — The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office had to work around the clock to repair a plumbing issue at the parish jail in Amite.
According to a spokesperson for the department, the plumbing problem occurred in the jail’s kitchen.
“Although very disruptive to operations, this repair was necessary to finally fix decades of problems with a permanent solution rather than a quick temporary fix,” Sheriff Daniel Edwards says in a news release regarding the problem.
The repair work required digging into the underground system of pipes at the jail. The work prevented the jail’s staff from using the kitchen, so the parish borrowed a portable kitchen from the Louisiana National Guard that could be used to prepare 1,800 meals in a day.
The Tangipahoa Parish Jail was built in the early 1980’s and can house approximately 560 inmates, the sheriff’s office says.
Sheriff Edwards and other parish leaders say the jail needs additional updates to keep up with best-practice management of correctional facilities.