Louisiana moves juveniles from adult penitentiary but continues to fight court order to do so

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Juvenile detainees who were being held at a former death row building at Louisiana’s adult penitentiary were transferred to a new facility in north Louisiana, state juvenile justice officials said Friday.

Friday was the deadline a federal judge had set for moving the youths from the prison at Angola in rural West Feliciana Parish. The state had won a temporary delay from a federal appeals court that was preparing to consider the case. The state said it would continue with its appeal, even while going ahead with the transfer.

The announcement from the Office of Juvenile Justice said the state found that a Jackson Parish juvenile facility that opened in July could accept the youths being held at Angola. They are to be housed there until work is completed on a new state facility in Monroe.