Behind The Lens episode 121: ‘But that’s not a quota’

A traffic enforcement grant program may violate state law. Plea deals for people convicted by non-unanimous juries. And NOLA Public Schools stops tracking attendance data.

This week on Behind the Lens, attendance is slightly up at New Orleans Public Schools and the district has announced it will again no longer track the data for charter schools.

A grant given to local law enforcement to boost enforcement of traffic violations may be in violation of a state law prohibiting quotas. 

And more than a dozen prisoners convicted by non-unanimous jury decisions were given plea deals at a trial earlier this week in the Undoing Jim Crow Juries Civil Rights Initiative undertaken by DA Jason Williams’s office.

Our guests this week are education reporter Marta Jewson, criminal justice reporter Nick Chrastil, and The Lens editor Charles Maldonado.

Behind The Lens is available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Play and Stitcher. And we broadcast the show on community radio stations 102.3 FM WHIV LP in Mid-City and 90.3 FM WAMF-LP in the Marigny.

Carolyne Heldman

Carolyne Heldman has been in media for 35 years, most recently as Executive Director at an NPR member station in Colorado where she was responsible for new multi-platform content initiatives, strategic planning, research, branding, and non-traditional revenue generation. During her tenure she also created and launched four weekly news, public affairs and cultural affairs programs and monthly live Town Hall broadcasts. Heldman moved to New Orleans last summer with her husband and canine companion and they live happily in The Marigny.