‘Wall Street Journal’ spotlights Louisiana town making headlines over detainees


    When the oil glut in the 1980s sent Louisiana’s economy reeling, leaders of Jena, a town about 45 minutes north of Alexandria, knew it needed to diversify. 

    As the Wall Street Journal writes, private-prison company GEO Group stepped in and built a facility in the town in the late ‘90s and later won a contract to run the site as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention center. That contract has thrust the town—home to about 4,000 residents—into the national spotlight for its role in the recent migrant crackdown by the Trump administration. Local leaders, however, contend the facility has positively impacted the community. 

    “It’s been a very successful facility, and it’s done a lot of good for our parish,” says Walter Dorroh Jr., president of the region’s economic development group for roughly 35 years. GEO is the third-largest employer in the area, he notes, with the facility providing roughly 250 jobs to the parish.

    Tom Kendrick, the parish assessor, says it was the area’s third-largest taxpayer in 2024, paying roughly $950,000 to the parish and $35,000 to Jena. 

    “They’re what a community would want as a business partner,” says Craig Franklin, co-owner and editor of the Jena Times newspaper. 

    GEO Group provides thousands of dollars in scholarships each year and sponsors a luncheon in town each quarter, he says.

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