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Read. Follow. Verify.Louisiana requires Department of Public Safety and Corrections to publish monthly offender census and annual dashboard datasets online in Excel format
Last action · April 28, 2026: Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Judiciary B.Sponsor: Barbara Carpenter
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What This Bill Proposed
House Bill 525 requires the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to publish monthly downloadable offender census reports and annual underlying datasets for its online informational dashboards in Microsoft Excel format starting October 1, 2026. The measure mandates that these datasets include comparable data across state and parish facilities, breakdowns of individuals housed for other agencies like ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service, and supporting s while protecting .
The measure establishes legally binding transparency rules for Louisiana's prison system by forcing the state corrections department to release raw, datasets and compliance reports, impacting researchers, policymakers, and the public who track correctional demographics and spending.
- The Department of Public Safety and Corrections oversees Louisiana's state prison system, adult and juvenile probation and parole, and state correctional facilities. context
- The legislature previously adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 32 during the 2024 Regular Session, urging the corrections department to publish correctional census data in a downloadable format. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Department of Public Safety and Corrections
The department is required to compile, format, update, and publish monthly offender census reports, annual dashboard datasets, codebooks, and a dataset index, and submit a compliance report by March 31, 2027.
Researchers and Policymakers
Obtain standardized, machine-readable Microsoft Excel datasets and codebooks covering state and parish correctional census, demographic, admission, release, and mortality information.
House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice and Senate Committee on Judiciary B
Must receive a written report from the department certifying compliance with the new data publication requirements no later than March 31, 2027.
Key Facts
- The Department of Public Safety and Corrections must publish downloadable, machine-readable offender census reports on its website no later than thirty days after the end of each calendar month.
- Monthly census reports must be provided in Microsoft Excel format and include comparable data elements for parish and state facilities, as well as breakdowns for individuals housed on behalf of agencies like ICE, the U.S. Marshals Service, parish prisons, and pre-trial detainees.
- The department must publish all underlying datasets used for interactive demographic, admission, release, and death dashboards in Microsoft Excel format and update them annually.
- Each published dataset must be accompanied by a current codebook containing variable definitions, data type specifications, coding values, compilation methodology, and known limitations.
Show all 8 facts
- The department must maintain a publicly accessible index of all its correctional datasets listing dataset names, descriptions, date ranges, update frequencies, download availability, and public records contact information.
- The legislation explicitly protects personally identifiable information under state and federal law, permitting redactions while requiring aggregate and anonymized data to be published to the maximum extent permitted.
- The department must submit a written compliance certification report to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice and the Senate Committee on Judiciary B no later than March 31, 2027.
- The department must fully implement the data publication and maintenance provisions no later than October 1, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What specific data format must the Department of Public Safety and Corrections use for publishing reports?
How frequently must the department update its demographic, admission, release, and death dashboard datasets?
What deadline does the bill set for full implementation of these transparency requirements?
Are personal privacy rights protected under this data publication mandate?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · passed the House · in Senate committee.
Procedural history
14 actions- Apr 28, 2026SenateCommitteeRead second time by title and referred to the Committee on Judiciary B.
- Apr 27, 2026HouseCalled from the calendar.
- Apr 27, 2026HouseFloorRead third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 59, nays 32. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.
- Apr 27, 2026SenateReceived in the Senate. Rules suspended. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.
- Apr 23, 2026HouseNotice given.
- Apr 23, 2026HouseScheduled for floor debate on 04/27/2026.
Show 8 earlier actions
- Apr 22, 2026HouseIntroducedRead by title, returned to the calendar.
- Apr 21, 2026HouseScheduled for floor debate on 04/22/2026.
- Apr 16, 2026HouseFloorRead by title, amended, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.
- Apr 15, 2026HouseReported with amendments (11-0).
- Mar 9, 2026HouseIntroducedRead by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.
- Feb 27, 2026HouseFirst appeared in the Interim Calendar on 2/27/2026.
- Feb 26, 2026HousePrefiled.
- Feb 26, 2026HouseCommitteeUnder the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Codification of Prior Resolution
The bill transitions previous voluntary transparency requests from Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 32 of 2024 into mandatory statutory law.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.legis.la.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 55)
- Controversy10Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
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