First of Six: How Will You Vote on Caddo Public-safety Tax?

QUESTION: On October 14 Caddo Parish voters rejected a 3.5-mill “Public Safety” millage. It would have collected an estimated $2.40 a month from Caddo property owners to yield $5 million per year for 15 years. The money would support programs for criminal justice, juvenile justice, workforce development, mental health and litter cleanup. How are you voting on this tax proposal?

JOHN NICKELSON: Yes. The juvenile justice program is underfunded. We have to give it the resources it needs. There won’t be wholesale misuse of the funds. We have a serious crime problem and much of it involves juveniles. The city and parish will be better off.

HENRY WHITEHORN: Yes. The millage supporting juvenile justice dates to the 1950s. We can’t operate on 1957 dollars. We have to be willing to support our community.

Second of Six: Prator Has a $25-million Balance in His Budget?

QUESTION: A recent audit of the Caddo Correctional Center shows the jail holding a 59-percent fund balance totaling more than $25 million. Most government accounting experts consider 25 percent to be high, so 59 percent is unusual. It means the sheriff is raising 59 percent more money than he needs to run his agency, including the jail. Meanwhile, the parish is asking voters for $5 million more per year to expand public safety, and Shreveport Police needs a new headquarters and substations. Is something amiss here? Should the sheriff share his largesse?

HENRY WHITEHORN: These may not be recurring revenues. The jail makes money housing State and Federal inmates. I’m committed to investing in juvenile justice, in the crime lab, and criminal justice. By the end of this year the fund balance may be $50 million. That’s a lot of money that could support public safety. It’s taxpayer money and should go back into the community.

JOHN NICKELSON: Steve Prator has done an excellent job managing the finances of the jail. We should not be criticizing him for doing a good job. I’ll review the budget and make adjustments as needed.

Third of Six: The Role of the Sheriff in the City

QUESTION: What is the proper role of the Caddo Sheriff’s Office in fighting crime in Shreveport?

JOHN NICKELSON: Given the structure of Shreveport Police and the Caddo Sheriff’s Office, the numbers are not there for deputies to assume patrol duties in Shreveport. The sheriff cannot be a substitute for Shreveport Police being 150 officers short. I’ll support existing cooperative task forces on guns, drugs and crimes against children.

HENRY WHITEHORN: We dealt with a gang crisis in years’ past with cooperation, and we have a crisis today with youth and gangs. Working together we can be a force multiplier. I’ll put teams together to address issues. If we tell criminals we are looking, they will think twice.

Fourth of Six: Make Inmate Phone Calls Free?

QUESTION: Corrections experts say communication between inmates and their families reduces trouble in jail and discourages repeat offenders. Yet in Louisiana, the Public Service Commission found the price of calls from our state’s jails and prisons averaged 30 times higher than calls on the outside. Commissions paid to jails by phone companies are part of the reason inmate calls are expensive, and a recent audit of CCC revealed that the jail collects a million-dollar annual commission on its telephone contract. The Bossier company that runs telephones at Caddo is a major campaign donor to sheriffs across the state, including Steve Prator, who opposes lower inmate telephone rates. Would you, as sheriff, make inmate calls free or less expensive for inmate families?

HENRY WHITEHORN: I plan to look at those contracts. People are concerned. Inmates need contact with their families. I want to reduce those costs.

JOHN NICKELSON: Providing telecommunications services to inmates is costly and more complicated than on the outside. All phone calls have to be recorded and available to prosecutors. Some calls between inmates and people on the outside support criminal activity. Telephone vendors won’t supply the service for free. Technology should reduce those costs over time, and I’m not sure why inmate calls should be 30 times more expensive than calls on the outside.

Fifth of Six: Overcrowding at Caddo Correctional Center

QUESTION: Sheriff Prator told the Shreveport-Bossier Advocate in August that Caddo Correctional was holding 1,400 inmates in a facility designed to hold 1,000. Prator said he was short 60 deputies and tense conditions caused by overcrowding were making it hard to hire jailers. But advocates for inmates say the sheriff is partly to blame because he accepts State inmates at $27 a day per person, far more than the sheriff is paid to house local inmates. What will you do as sheriff to alleviate overcrowding in the correctional center?

JOHN NICKELSON: Overcrowding at CCC is a complicated problem, and it involves the entire criminal-justice system. The courts send people to jail and the sheriff holds them. The time from an arrest to when the case is resolved is in many cases extraordinarily long. Some inmates are at CCC for five years awaiting trial, and that’s not good for the sheriff, the public, and the inmate. We have to work together to improve the efficiency of the system.

HENRY WHITEHORN: The federal government pays $70 a day for CCC to house inmates, the State pays $26 and the Parish pays $3. If you were running the jail, which would you want? We can get rid of the State and Federal inmates and solve overcrowding. The jail is getting dangerous for sheriff’s employees.

Sixth of Six: Guns

QUESTION: Election mail is replete with references to guns: illegal guns, Second Amendment rights, Baton Rouge “taking away our guns,” “Pro-2A” (shorthand for Second Amendment). How can you, as sheriff, balance gun rights with reducing gun violence?

HENRY WHITEHORN: I support responsible gun ownership. I own several guns and am not giving them up. Guns stolen from cars are not the ones used in street crime. We are seeing high-powered weapons designed to kill people, not for personal protection.

JOHN NICKELSON: I’m committed to not interfering with peoples’ Second Amendment rights. The sheriff can enforce existing laws. Former Shreveport Police Chief Ben Raymond said 500 guns a year were stolen from cars and used in crimes. We can address that.

CANDIDATES AT BROADMOOR: Caddo Sheriff’s candidates, from left, Hersy Jones, Shayne Gibson, Pat Gilley, Henry Whitehorn and John Nickelson join BNA President Bonita Crawford (second from right) at the October 10th candidates’ forum.