Author: Bernard Smith
- About Bernard Smith
- Bernard E. Smith is a criminal justice reporter for The Lens, covering courts, corrections, policing, and justice reform across New Orleans and Louisiana. With a background in justice-focused education and more than two decades of lived experience within the system, Smith brings a uniquely informed perspective to issues of incarceration, legal access, and systemic accountability. He holds associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in Christian Ministry, both earned during his time directly engaging with the justice system.
Hearing at Loyola gives a rare look ‘behind the curtain,’ at an often-invisible part of Louisiana’s justice system
An on-campus hearing showed decisions about freedom decided in real time, for men who have prepared for decades for a chance at parole.
Louisiana Senate rejects amendment to let newly elected clerk Calvin Duncan serve his term
In ‘deeply troubling’ move, senators pass three bills, cutting Duncan’s Orleans clerk position along with 11 New Orleans judges.
Despite scant plans and heated criticism, Louisiana Senate committee passes bills to overhaul New Orleans courts
Drastic legislative cuts would eliminate 11 judgeships and would defund the position of recently elected clerk Calvin Duncan.
Two New Orleans men, Wee and ‛Miracle Man,’ feel young but see how prison accelerates aging
Because of decades of high-stress and deficient healthcare, a 59-year-old in prison has a ‘geriatric morbidity’ that's equivalent to a 75-year-old on the outside.
Carnival is a wary time of year for thousands on supervision in New Orleans
Curfews and court rules shape Carnival for thousands in New Orleans who are on probation or parole. Others find themselves self-isolating after the trauma of doing time.
Angola Farm Line trial testimony reveals traumas tied to field labor
After hard work in the sun on the Farm Line, he’d fall asleep, only to be visited by nightmares, Chadarius Morehead testified on Thursday, in the ongoing federal trial that will determine the constitutionality of forced field labor at Angola.
Angola Farm Line lawsuit, now class action, proceeds to five-day trial
The court will determine whether forced prison field labor is unconstitutional and in violation of federal disability law
Footprint of solitary confinement in Louisiana expands because of ICE use of isolation
Recent declines had come because of human-rights activists like Kiana Calloway, who was kept in solitary on and off for nine years, to the point where his hearing and sight changed.
Ten years to justice
How a $40 accusation and inadequate representation cost a man 10 years of his life — and how he made it to freedom, with the help of lawyers from Innocence & Justice Louisiana.
