BATON ROUGE — A lawsuit filed on Friday accuses the Louisiana prison system of delaying inmates' release following a state audit that found prison officials lacked an adequate way to determine inmates' release dates. 

The plaintiffs in the case, Lisa Andres and Jaren Brignac, claim that Louisiana violated their constitutional rights by overdetaining them. 

Andres was in custody between December 30, 2024 and October 16, 2025 despite being eligible for immediate release on July 7, 2025, claiming to be overdetained for at least 101 days.

Similarly, Brignac, who was in custody between July 29, 2024 and June 27, 2025 even though he was eligible for release on June 18, 2025 when the Orleans Parish court sentenced him to concurrent terms with credit for time served, ordered his release and closed his case. Brignac claimed to have been overdetained for at least nine days. 

According to the lawsuit, the pair claimed that by the time an individual is sentenced by a judge, that person has likely spent time in a parish jail from the time of the initial arrest to sentencing, which could amount to years of incarceration.

They also claimed that the state failed to make policy changes that require officials to release inmates in a timely manner. 

The lawsuit alleges that the central time-computation office waits to receive sentencing or revocation paperwork from courts, sheriffs and its own parole board before allegedly waiting again to review paperwork and decide whether the department has any authority to continue holding the person.

During that time, the lawsuit claims a person who is legally entitled to a release will remain detained without any way to know when the department will process the necessary paperwork and order a release. 

The lawsuit also alleges that the overdetention issue was a known issue before Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott took office. 

In 2012, the department conducted a review of its time-computation process and found that it was overdetaining over 2,000 people each year by an average of about 71 days. The study also found that it took about 79 days for the department to calculate a release date even after sentencing had taken place. 

While the department claimed that updated technology would fix the overdetention issue, there is no evidence that either the rate or the average duration of overdetention has decreased, according to the lawsuit.

In February, state auditors found that Louisiana prison officials did not have an adequate way to review calculations made when determining an inmate's release date for five consecutive reports.

On Friday, Attorney General Liz Murrill released the following statement regarding the lawsuit:

“My office has worked with the Louisiana Department of Corrections tirelessly for several years to build and implement a new system, train staff, train sheriffs, and train court and clerk staff across our state. These lawsuits are nothing more than an attempt at a money grab. The activists behind these suits do not want progress and actively obstruct it. That’s a shame because LDOC continually works at improving its systems. Calculating time is a complex task due to the plainly evident fact that detainees do not come into state custody legally or physically until after they are sentenced.”