New Orleans often spends more money to imprison people for unpaid fines than is ultimately recouped from the fines themselves, according to two reports released by criminal justice reform advocates today. The reports, published by the American Civil Liberties Union in New York and the Brennan Center for Justice, a project of the New York […]
Author Archives: Matt Davis
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Sheriff headed to court without budget increase
Sheriff Marlin Gusman is threatening to take the city to court unless it pays him 28 percent more money than last year to house New Orleans inmates.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Land Use
Temporary jail cells costing more than $11 million to build
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s temporary jail will cost over $11 million, The Lens has learned.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Land Use
Some support temporary jail; others want work stopped
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s decision to move ahead with construction of 400 temporary jail beds before a working group meets to examine the jail expansion has divided the group and drawn criticism from City Council President Arnie Fielkow.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Land Use
Sheriff building 400 jail beds before working group meets
The sheriff has started work on buildings for 400 new temporary jail beds even before the city’s Criminal Justice Working Group – established last week by the mayor to examine the jail expansion – holds its first official meeting.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sheriff: I have never housed arrestees ‘to make money’
Sheriff Marlin Gusman has hit back at remarks made Thursday by a member of the mayor’s new advisory group on plans for Gusman’s new jail. Former Chief Judge of Criminal District Court Calvin Johnson told The Lens yesterday that jails have been used as “an economic development tool in Louisiana over the last 30 years,” […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Mayor announces new group to offer recommendation on jail
Mayor Mitch Landrieu today announced the membership and goals of a new jail advisory group, which will deliver a recommendation to his office on the “optimal” size of a planned new jail complex. The mayor signed an executive order convening the group yesterday, and charged it with giving him a written recommendation and report by […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Public not invited to city meeting on key jail issue
The City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee met this morning to discuss inmate-release issues that could have an effect on the size of the city’s planned new jail, but it’s unclear whether adequate public notice was given about the meeting under the state’s open meetings law.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics, Investigations
City hasn't touched $10 million for courthouse repairs approved in 2000
City officials haven’t fully answered why they continue to sit on a $10 million pile of taxpayer money approved by voters a decade ago for courthouse repairs.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Landrieu relents, and opens jail-advisory meetings
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has decided to open previously secret meetings that could decide the fate of controversial jail expansion plans. Landrieu convened a stakeholders group in July, responding to concerns about Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s proposals to rebuild and expand the Orleans Parish Prison complex. But the meetings would be closed to the public, his […]