BEAUMONT, Texas — As families loaded buses to evacuate the Beaumont and Port Arthur areas ahead of Hurricane Laura, school buses were moving up and down the area as well, except they were filled with inmates.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Beaumont Police Department and the department’s SWAT Team organized multiple trips to transfer hundreds of inmates from the Jefferson County Correctional Facility to the Jefferson County Jail downtown.
“We have over 700 inmates and we gotta get them transported down here,” said Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephen on Tuesday.
She added that it also entailed transferring employees, food and more to the downtown Beaumont facility.
“We’re all going to hunker down here together and make sure everybody’s safe including our inmates,” Stephen said. “That’s part of a sheriff’s responsibility to protect not just people in the community but the inmates – many of them who haven’t had their court date yet and so that’s what we do.”
Throughout Tuesday, school buses were escorted by police back and forth between the two facilities.
Stephen said it’s typical for this operation to happen when a storm hits, but it’s important nonetheless.
“We don’t want anything to happen at the facility first of all that might jeopardize the safety of the community if there’s a breach in the jail – then we don’t know where the inmates might go,” Stephen said.
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