By ordinance passed on October 8, 1817, the Conseil de Ville provided for the annual appointment of a jailor for the Police Jail. That officer was to provide all furniture, supplies, and provisions for the upkeep of the jail and the support of the prisoners in return for a salary of $500 per year. He was to keep a correct account of fees for the entry and discharge of inmates and was to present that account to the Mayor for approval prior to remitting those fees to the Treasurer.

The jailor also was required to keep a register with the names of the enslaved people admitted to the jail along with the names of their enslaver. Each day he was to deliver a list of the new admissions to the Mayor, which officer alone had the authority to order the discharge of individuals enslaved.

Enslaved individuals not claimed by their enslaver within three days of entry into the jail, as well as all enslaved persons imprisoned for any offense against the police laws, were to be put into chains and employed in the public works of the city (the use of the imprisoned enslaved for public works laborers dated back at least to a resolution of the Conseil de Ville passed on May 22, 1805). The municipal government would pay the cost of their meals while in the work gang, but enslavers would still be liable for entry and discharge fees. Enslavers were allowed to place enslaved individuals in the jail specifically for the purpose of joining the municipal work force; the city paid a daily rate to the enslavers taking advantage of this opportunity. Enslaved people were also sent to the police jail to be disciplined, but the ordinance specified a limit on the number of lashes to be given and on the frequency of their administration.

Enslaved women were to be kept in separate quarters from the men. They were to be employed in "cleaning the gutters of the footways and the crossing bridges of the street."

The 1836 city charter provided for the continued use of the prison by the three municipalities provided they each pay their proportional share of the cost of upkeep of the facility. The records indicate, however, that the Third Municipality had its own jail for at least a portion of that period. An ordinance of the Second Municipality Council, passed on June 7, 1842, likewise provided for the removal of that municipality's jailed enslaved into a section of the newly erected Second Municipality Workhouse.