The Civil Sheriff was responsible for transporting to the State Insane Asylum at Jackson persons judged by the Civil District Court to be insane. He recorded the names of those transported in three volumes covering the years 1882-1920. In these volumes the Sheriff recorded the number of the suit record ordering the patient to be sent to Jackson, the date that he took the patient into custody, the patient's name, age, sex, color, address, nativity, occupation, marital status, disease, duration and cause of insanity, and remarks. Remarks usually are limited to certifications of delivery of a patient or group of patients to the asylum at Jackson, including the date of delivery.

Starting in about 1906 the Sheriff began to enter names of victims of leprosy in addition to insane persons. Those individuals were received by the Sheriff on court order for eventual delivery to the newly opened camp for lepers at Indian Village in Iberville Parish which has since evolved into the Gillis Long Hansens Disease Center at Carville, La.