Percy Taylor was kept in a Louisiana prison 525 days past his release date. When Percy was informed by the Louisiana Department of Corrections of his release date, he realized that their calculation was wrong, failing to give him credit for the time he spent in jail before conviction.
Prison officials were indifferent to his request to properly calculate his release date. The process to appeal their calculation dragged on long past the day Percy should have been a free man. Even after prevailing in court and hand-delivering the order to prison officials, he continued to be held for an additional month.
After he was finally released, Percy sued two officials from the prison he was in and James LeBlanc, the long-time head of the state’s prison system.
A federal district court refused to grant qualified immunity to all three. But LeBlanc appealed the ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Institute for Justice is now representing Percy and will argue on his behalf.
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Louisiana Overdetention
Percy Taylor was kept in a Louisiana prison 525 days past his release date. He is not alone in being held beyond his sentence in a Louisiana detention facility. In January 2023, the U.S. Department…