More than 6,000 decks have been sold to state prisons for purchase by inmates, said Pam Laborde, Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections communications director. The number of decks bought by inmates was not available, but Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said the department typically sells about 10,000 decks of cards a year to the prison population.

“With the Louisiana Cold Case Card deck, we’ve accomplished 60 percent of annual sales in just under six months,” he said. “I’m very happy with those numbers because I think it shows that our population is interested in the cases.”

Another 10,000 decks have been handed out to the public across the state at events such as National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, said Sid Newman, executive director of Baton Rouge’s Crime Stoppers.

“Hopefully, that deck will get into the right hands, and hopefully that person will pick up the phone and share what they know,” Newman said.

Whether that happens, however, will be difficult to track.

“Because of the anonymity of the Crime Stoppers program, we will never know if tips are coming from the offender population or the general public and, ultimately, it doesn’t matter,” LeBlanc said.

“What does matter is getting information and pictures out there to both populations so we can generate tips for local law enforcement agencies that are working hard for the families of homicide victims and missing persons,” he said.

So far, arrests have been made in four of the homicide and missing person cases featured on the cards.  Click here to view full article