Gov. Jeff Landry, center, a Warden Kristen Thomas cut a ribbon to open the new Louisiana Correctional Institution for Women in St. Gabriel on Aug. 28., 2025. (Governor's office photo)
Officials cut the ribbon Thursday on a state prison for women, Louisiana’s first new state correctional facility in 35 years.
The new $160 million Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel will have 958 beds. The 15-building campus is spread over nearly 7 acres and includes a rehabilitation center, classrooms, a gymnasium, health care facilities and a treatment center for women who deliver babies while in prison.
About 1,000 women state prisoners had been housed at the nearby Elayn Hunt Correctional Center until historic flooding in 2016 rendered the facility unusable. Since then, incarcerated women in state custody have been held at facilities around the state, including the former Jetson Correctional Center for Youth in Baker.
Hunt Correctional Center, which was opened in 1972, has since been repaired and is now used to hold men in state custody. Plans to replace the state’s only women’s prison stalled as state officials sparred with the Federal Emergency Management Agency over whether the damaged campus should be rebuilt or repaired.
Plans call for 472 women currently at Jetson to move to the new prison in the coming weeks, along with 400 others from the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women in Madison Parish. The state is not disclosing exactly when those transfers will take place for security reasons, a Department of Corrections spokesperson said.
The new prison will employ 261 people and a health care staff of 56. The medical team includes
full-time physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and a dentist, along with other part-time specialty physicians.
“The Department [of Corrections] takes the dignity, care and treatment of incarcerated women in its custody seriously,” Kristen Thomas, the prison’s warden since 2021, said in a statement. “Today’s grand opening reflects the culmination of many years of extensive work and a centralized new beginning for my staff, the women in our custody and the volunteers who dedicate their service.”
Before Thursday’s ceremonies, Louisiana last opened a new state prison in 1990 when the Allen Correction Center in Allen Parish was brought online. That came a year after the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center opened in Avoyelles Parish.
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