By ordinance #351, approved on November 5, 1852, the Common Council provided for the annual election of a principal warden and a deputy warden for the city workhouse and prison. The principal warden was instructed to keep the inmates in secure custody; to superintend their labor; to keep a list of all tools and other property used by the inmates; and to keep a bound register of the names of the prisoners committed to the workhouse. He was also required to make regular reports of the expenses, sales, and other financial aspects of the workhouse operation. The ordinance also provided for the acceptance by the New Orleans workhouse of vagrants from Jefferson Parish, at a charge of twenty-five cents per day. Rules and regulations for the officers of the workhouse, and rules "as to the time which shall be devoted to labor by the prisoners" were to be furnished by the committees on prisons and courthouses of the Common Council.

In 1854 ordinance #1608 added new reporting requirements for the warden, calling for regular accounting for provisions, supplies, etc., used by the workhouse. Other ordinances subsequently changed the make-up of the facilities work force.

The report of the Orleans Parish Grand Jury, dated July 7, 1856, includes the following description of the Workhouse:

"In the City Work House are one hundred and forty prisoners, most of whom were engaged in various kinds of work, and though by no means working hard; yet, from their movements, it appeared hard for them to work, and the Jury could only come to the conclusion, that when they are out of the work house, they are citizens of leisure. The yards, shops, rooms, &c., clean; no complaints as to food, and the general appearance of the place creditable to the Wardens."

Ordinance #2824 (July 7, 1855) put the operation of the Workhouse out to lease beginning on August 1, 1856. The municipal authorities did, however, retain supervisory rights over the activities and business of the lessee. The original lessee abandoned his lease to the city early in 1857 and operation of the workhouse returned to the municipal authorities until a new lease went into effect on September 1 of that year.