The myriad criminal-justice agencies in New Orleans have benefitted from efforts by a local foundation to increase the efficiency and cooperation of sharing information. But even the federal supporters of the program have raised questions about who’s in charge — and who will have to pay to maintain this new system.
Author Archives: Tom Gogola
Tom Gogola covered criminal justice for The Lens from February 2012 to May 2013. He is a veteran journalist and editor who has written on a range of subjects for many publications, including Newsday, New York, The Nation, and Maxim. Gogola was a 2011 winner of the Hillman Foundation Sidney Award, for his groundbreaking report in New York magazine detailing regulatory waste in the commercial fishing industry.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Former Sheriff’s Office purchasing chief, friend of Gusman, resigns from jail
John Sens resigned from his late Friday as a federal grand jury investigates contracting at the jail complex.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Investigations
Company with family, political ties does big business with OPSO
Metro Business Supplies has done $1.7 million in business with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office since Hurricane Katrina. The man who landed the job, Richard Schlaudecker, is married to the daughter of Chief Deputy Gerald Ursin.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Pretrial program gets at least a temporary stay of execution
Rumors that the city’s pretrial assessment program met its demise Friday at the hands of Criminal Court judges turn out to be exaggerated.
In fact, the program, run by the New York-based Vera Institute of Justice, is up and running at the Orleans Parish jail at least through the end of the month and perhaps well beyond that.
Posted inCriminal Justice
City of New Orleans wants out of NOPD consent decree
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan signed off Friday morning on a long-anticipated federal consent decree aimed at reforming the New Orleans Police Department and, in a surprise move, the city of New Orleans immediately said it wants out from under it. “The Parties’ proposed Consent Decree filed on July 24, 2012, is approved as amended,” […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DEA agent to retire after bidding to monitor NOPD consent decree
Jimmy S. Fox III, special agent in charge of the New Orleans division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, will retire from the agency Friday, according to a Jan. 4 email obtained by The Lens. Fox has been under fire for possible federal ethics-law violations since a recent Times-Picayune report called the 26-year DEA veteran to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Would-be NOPD monitor still working for federal drug agency
Did a company bidding to monitor the New Orleans Police Department’s federal consent decree misrepresent the employment status of a local narc now under fire for possible ethics-law violations? The company says it didn’t. But in its bid, currently being reviewed by the city and U.S. Department of Justice, KeyPoint Government Solutions indicated a half-dozen […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Investigations
Despite PSC vote, phone rates to remain high at Orleans jail, state prisons
Officials inked new phone contracts for the state prisons and Orleans jail before rules cutting phone commissions went into effect, so families will continue to pay high fees to speak with inmates. Sheriff Gusman stands to collect $1.5 million in phone call commissions this year.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Investigations
Agreement reached on consent decree to reform Orleans jail
The U.S. Department of Justice today released a much-anticipated, proposed consent decree to settle a lawsuit with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office over unconstitutional jail conditions identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Department of Justice. The civil rights group sued Sheriff Marlin Gusman in April over practices and conditions at the jail. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Impasse on jail decree: judge orders two trials, months away
Faced with a so far intractable, $14 million divide between Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration and Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman, U.S. Judge Lance Africk today ordered that two trials be held to determine, first, whether conditions at Orleans Parish jail are unconstitutional – and, if so, then who should pay to bring them into compliance. […]