What happened to you at Bridge City, or at LTI-Bridge City, was not okay.

River Road, on the west bank, across the water from New Orleans. The Louisiana Training Institute at Bridge City was the name when most people who were held there went in, and it was still the name in the federal court file when the U.S. Justice Department toured it in June, July and December of 1996. What the Justice Department told the Governor on August 6, 1997 was that it had found evidence of sexual abuse and assault at each of Louisiana's four secure juvenile facilities, and about Bridge City in particular it repeated what several children had said: that while an officer slept through a class, one boy was forced to perform oral sex on another. A federal court in Baton Rouge then held the state under orders about those places until 2006. Bridge City never closed. It's the state's secure facility for the New Orleans side of Louisiana today, and in October 2024 one of its instructors was arrested. If you were a kid locked up there, in any year, and a person who worked there crossed a line with you, this page is about you.

WatchingWatching: Louisiana's revival window for claims that had already run out closes June 14, 2027, and a 2024 arrest of a staff member that has not, on the public record, become a filed charge.

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This applies to you no matter what

You were a kid there in the '80s or the '90s and you gave up on it a long time ago, because the clock had run out. It had. Not anymore. Louisiana reopened those claims, in 2021 and then 2022, and the court fight over whether it could is finished; the deadline section further down walks through it, and the state Supreme Court's June 12, 2024 ruling is the end of it. What came out the other side is one date, June 14, 2027, and honestly that date is the reason this page exists.
Bridge City never closed, so maybe your years were later, 2012 or 2019 or 2024, and whatever the 1997 file says it isn't the only record on that campus. The deadline works differently for those years, mostly in your favour, and the deadline section below says how.
It was another boy, not staff, and the staff weren't watching. The Justice Department's 1997 letter wrote down exactly that about Bridge City. It counts.
If you were already 18, 19 or 20 when it happened, you may figure that rules you out. It doesn't. OJJ keeps young people in secure care past their eighteenth birthday, and Louisiana counts an adult's claim under a different article of the Civil Code. Different clock, not a closed door.
You live in Texas or Mississippi now, or Houston since the storm. A suit against the State of Louisiana has to be brought in a Louisiana state court, the statute says so, and you don't need to be there for it to start.

What the public record says about Bridge City, and when: the 1996 investigation, the 1997 case and letter, the orders that ran to 2006, and an arrest in 2024

None of what follows is ours. The investigation was the Justice Department's, the case was filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, the findings were written to the Governor of Louisiana, the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse keeps the docket, and the 2024 arrest was reported by the Louisiana Illuminator from a statement by OJJ. Every line links to where it came from. Where a complaint is the source it's an allegation and we say so; where the Justice Department is the source it's the finding of an investigation, not a court's verdict; where the source is an arrest it is only that, and nobody is named.

April 25, 1996

A letter to the state from the Justice Department: it was opening an investigation into Louisiana's secure juvenile facilities, under a federal law called the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. Its investigators came to Bridge City three separate times in 1996, June 3 and 4, then July 29 through 31, then once more on December 16. Jetson, Swanson and Tallulah got the same treatment. Those dates are from the letter that followed. U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

January 2, 1997

In re Juvenile Justice Facilities, docket 3:97-cv-00001, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. A civil rights case over the conditions inside the state's secure juvenile facilities, with Louisiana Training Institute - Bridge City listed as a defendant facility. The issues logged on the docket include sexual abuse by other residents, sex with staff and sexual harassment by staff, alongside physical and chemical restraints, assaults by staff, medical care and mental health care. A complaint alleges; it doesn't decide. Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse.

July 16, 1997

Judge Frank J. Polozola set up a master juvenile docket and a separate file for each of four facilities: Tallulah, Jetson, Swanson and LTI-Bridge City. One judge, four files, the same state on the other side of every one. Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse.

August 6, 1997

The findings letter, written to Governor Mike Foster by the Civil Rights Division and public today on the Justice Department's own site. Its words about all four facilities: "We also found evidence of sexual abuse and assault at each of the four facilities." And: "at all facilities, little attention has been paid to sexual activity between juveniles and between officers and juveniles." About Bridge City by name, one sentence: "Several children at Bridge City reported that while an officer slept in one CSO class, a juvenile was forced to perform oral sex on another juvenile." The letter's conclusion was that conditions in the state's juvenile facilities violated the First, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Findings of an investigation, not a judgment. U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

1998 to 2006

The federal government's own suit, United States v. Louisiana, 98-00947, became the lead case in 1998 and was consolidated with the rest. Louisiana settled rather than try it, and by the Clearinghouse's dating the court's orders under that settlement ran from 1998 to 2006. Eight years of a federal judge looking over the state's shoulder at Bridge City. A settlement admits nothing, and the state admitted nothing. Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse.

October 2024

A staff member, an instructor at Bridge City, was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on booking charges of sexual battery, sexual conduct prohibited with a person in custody, and malfeasance in office, and OJJ said it had fired him. That is an arrest, and only an arrest. We have looked for a filed charge in Jefferson Parish, a bill of information or an indictment, and have not found one on the public record, so no name appears here and nothing about it is proven. If a charge is filed, this page changes. Louisiana Illuminator.

We checked this on September 22, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from October 2024. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Bridge City Center for Youth lawsuit

One defendant, and it isn't the guard. Bridge City is a state facility, run by Louisiana's Office of Juvenile Justice, and the Office is an arm of the State of Louisiana. A man who abused a kid in a locked dorm answers for himself, if he can be found and if he has anything, which mostly he doesn't. The state hired him, put him on a unit with children, was told in writing by the Justice Department on August 6, 1997 what its investigators had found at Bridge City, including the class where the officer slept, and it's the one with a treasury. A suit over Bridge City is a suit against the State of Louisiana through OJJ. That's who pays.

Suing the state changes three things, and a lawyer walks you through each. Louisiana caps what the state pays any one person for general damages, the pain and the years, at $500,000, under R.S. 13:5106; medical care and lost earnings sit outside that cap. The case has to be filed in a Louisiana state court, not a federal one and not the court where you live now; the same statute says so. And for anyone 21 or older the law asks for paperwork before the state is even named in the petition, a certificate from a lawyer and one from a licensed mental health professional, which is the firm's job to gather and not yours to worry about tonight.

One more thing, because it's on this page and you may have read about it. A staff member was arrested in 2024, and an arrest is neither a civil case nor a conviction. It's a booking sheet. Should a prosecutor ever file a charge, there would be a public record, a court and a date on it, and a lawyer can put that to use. Until then it's a fact about the facility, not a fact about your claim, and we don't pretend otherwise.

Your deadline: the Louisiana statute of limitations for sexual abuse at Bridge City or LTI-Bridge City

If you were under 18 and it happened at LTI-Bridge City or Bridge City in the 1980s, the 1990s or the early 2000s, the date is June 14, 2027. That's not our number. It's the Legislature's, from Act 481 of 2024, which says a person whose claim was barred "shall be permitted to file an action under R.S. 9:2800.9 on or before June 14, 2027." Here's how it got there, because it took four years and a fight. Louisiana's old rule ran out on most people by their late twenties. Then the Legislature moved, twice. First it said a claim for sexual abuse of a minor doesn't prescribe at all (that's the 2021 rewrite of R.S. 9:2800.9, Act 322), and the year after, 2022, it went back for the claims the old rule had already killed and revived them. The Diocese of Lafayette didn't accept that. It took the revival up to the Louisiana Supreme Court and, on March 22, 2024, won; the court struck the revival down.

It didn't hold. On rehearing, in Bienvenu v. Defendant 1, the same court reversed itself, June 12, 2024, and the Legislature hadn't waited on the court for Act 481 anyway. So: the historic cohort, one date, and it's a hard one.

Abused there as a minor more recently, the 2010s, or 2024? Different arithmetic. If your claim hadn't already run out by June 2021, the 2021 law says it doesn't run out at all, and the June 2027 date isn't yours. Whether it had run out turns on your birth year and the year it happened, and that's a calculation a lawyer does with your dates in front of her, not something you settle by reading a web page. And if you'd already turned 18, or 19, or 20, and were still in OJJ custody when it happened? Then a different article governs, Civil Code article 3496.2. Three years. Counted from the injury, or from the day law enforcement tells you who the offender was, whichever comes later. That second clause matters if the police ever came to you.

So nobody gets told they're out here. The 1990s kid has until June 14, 2027 and shouldn't spend that time deciding. The 2019 kid may have no deadline at all. The one who was 19 has a shorter clock that may or may not have started. A lawyer reads your dates.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told anyone. Not your mother, not the counselor, not the judge at Juvenile Court who sent you across the river.
You told an officer and it got worse. The Justice Department wrote in 1997 that little attention was paid at any of the four facilities to what went on between officers and juveniles; a lawyer will not be surprised.
It was another boy, and the officer was asleep, or looking at his phone, or out of the room. The 1997 letter says that happened at Bridge City in a classroom; 'sexual abuse by residents' sits on the docket next to 'sex with staff.'
You've been locked up since, as an adult. Not a reason to be turned away anywhere, and it isn't one here.
You were there in 2022 or 2023, when some Bridge City youth were moved to the temporary unit on the state penitentiary grounds in West Feliciana. Same facility on paper, same defendant.
You'd rather nobody dug up your juvenile record. Say so on the call; that's a conversation, not a bar.

Bridge City, LTI-Bridge City and the West Feliciana unit

You know which one it was; the questions just need it said. Bridge City Center for Youth is at 3225 River Road in Bridge City, Jefferson Parish, and it was the Louisiana Training Institute at Bridge City before that. For a while OJJ also ran a temporary unit, on the grounds of the state penitentiary at Angola, and called it Bridge City Center for Youth at West Feliciana. If that's where you were, pick Bridge City anyway and say so on the call. The three other facilities from the 1997 case each have their own page. Tallulah is at /tallulah-correctional-center-survivors, Jetson in Baker at /jetson-center-survivors, and Swanson in Monroe at /swanson-center-survivors. Somewhere else in Louisiana? Second option in the first question, and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue Bridge City Center for Youth for sexual abuse?

You'd sue the State of Louisiana, which runs it through the Office of Juvenile Justice. Bridge City, under its old name, was a defendant facility in a federal civil rights case filed January 2, 1997, and the Justice Department's letter of August 6, 1997 said it found evidence of sexual abuse and assault at each of the state's four secure juvenile facilities, with a specific report from Bridge City. Whether you can depends mostly on your birth year, how old you were and when it happened, which is what the questions above sort out.

Is there a deadline to file a claim for abuse at a Louisiana juvenile facility?

Depends which group you're in. If you were a minor and your claim had already run out under Louisiana's old rule, the revival window under Act 481 of 2024 closes June 14, 2027. If it hadn't run out by June 2021, the 2021 law says it doesn't run out at all. If you were 18 or older, Civil Code article 3496.2 gives three years from the injury or from the day police tell you who it was, whichever is later. A lawyer confirms which one is yours. That's the call.

Is it true someone who worked at Bridge City was arrested in 2024?

Yes. In October 2024 the Louisiana Illuminator reported it: an instructor, arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. The booking charges were sexual battery, sexual conduct with a person in custody and malfeasance in office. OJJ said it had fired him. We've looked for a filed charge on the public record and haven't found one. So no name here, and nothing treated as proven. If you were the person in custody, or you know who was, that's a conversation for the call, not this page.

How much can I get from the State of Louisiana?

Nobody can tell you from a web page, and we won't try. What the law says is this: R.S. 13:5106 caps what the state pays one person for general damages at $500,000, with medical care and lost earnings outside the cap. What any one case is worth inside that is a conversation with a lawyer who has your facts.

What does it cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing, and you owe no costs or expenses either.

I was there when it was still LTI-Bridge City. Does the name change matter?

No. The federal court file lists it as Louisiana Training Institute - Bridge City, OJJ runs the same River Road campus as Bridge City Center for Youth today, and the State of Louisiana is the defendant under either name. The first question above lists both so you can pick the one you knew.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed Louisiana attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.