Behind The Lens episode 277: ‘Hotter, hotter and hotter’

Bernard Smith on New Orleans' notorious House of Detention and protections for Angola's Farm Line workers in summer heat. Marta Jewson on a student's suspension pending a mental health eval — a flagarent violation of special education law.
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This week on Behind The Lens, in the ongoing legal battle over conditions on the Farm Line at Angola, a district judge has just extended protections through mid-August for the incarcerated men working in the extreme heat of the Louisiana summer. 

And the New Orleans House of Detention, or H.O.D. is slated for demolition. Vacant since 2012 the structure was deemed architecturally significant and eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It has such a notorious legacy in the city’s criminal-justice system that its history should be carefully documented before it’s demolished according to criminal-justice advocates.

And late last year, Fannie C. Williams Charter School sent a student home and barred her from returning to class until the child was cleared by a doctor — a flagrant violation of federal special education law.

Our guests this week are Lens reporters Bernard Smith and Marta Jewson. 

Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music Fragile Do Not Drop by Podington Bear soundofpicture.com. 

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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.