New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux issued a report today blasting a cozy wife-hire arrangement between Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman and family friend Administrative Judge Paul Sens. The hires, first reported earlier this year by The Lens and our reporting partners at WVUE-Fox 8, reeked of “impropriety” but were not criminal, the report concluded. I.G. […]
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, Government & Politics
Budgetary shell game: Case of the missing $200G for juvy monitors
How much money did the City of New Orleans appropriate for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s Electronic Monitoring Program this year? a) $200,000 b) $504,000 c) $600,000 d) $704,000 e) $904,000 f) all of the above g) none of the above (Warning: It’s a trick question.) If your guiding document is the adopted New Orleans […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Criminal-justice advocates frustrated by talks of new jail
New Orleans criminal-justice reform advocates are lambasting a plan that would add up to 650 beds to the upgraded Orleans Parish Prison complex under construction along Perdido Street. The new jail would represent a departure from city officials’ pledges to keep the total number of inmates to 1,438. That pledge was made April 24 by […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Council's Criminal Justice leaders mum on possible new jail
The co-chairwomen of the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee on Monday declined to comment on a new jail under consideration by the Landrieu administration and Sheriff Marlin Gusman that would add up to 650 beds to the Orleans Parish Prison complex. The Lens asked councilwomen Susan Guidry and Jackie Clarkson about their stance on the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Sheriff, city discussing new jail building that would add capacity for 600 additional inmates
This image showing a proposed new jail facility was available through the portion of the city’s website that chronicles the operations of a mayoral panel created to study operations of the Orleans Parish Prison complex. More specific drawings show plans for a more modest three-story building, as opposed to the scale represented here. Sheriff Marlin […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
City still awaiting expert report on criminal-justice financing
Update: Gusman takes responsibility for at least some of the delay. Additions to the original story marked below. A financial expert hired by the city to report on the controversial method the city uses to pay the sheriff’s office appears to have missed its early June deadline. Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin wrote a May […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sheriff's Office wants to hire outside manager for paid details
Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman confirmed Friday that he is working to outsource the management of the lucrative off-duty private security details available to his deputies. In a written statement, Gusman said that “the Sheriff’s Office is reviewing a plan that involves a third party to assist with the handling of detail assignments,” but nothing […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City looking to spend federal money more efficiently, quickly
It seemed like a simple enough question: How much of a $25 million annual federal allocation did Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration spend last year to help struggling residents and address blight? The precise figure is a hard to cipher, city officials said. On the one hand, the city spent more than $25 million because of […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Bill could end TP’s longtime hold on lucrative legal-notice ads
A bill passed by both houses of the Louisiana Legislature and now on its way to the governor’s desk could end The Times-Picayune’s decades-long monopoly on publishing the lucrative mandatory legal notices from public agencies. Clarification: The bill and this story refers only to state-required judicial notices issued by various agencies, a substantial subset of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Gusman slashes deputies' hours under new OPP work schedule
In an effort to trim costs, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman instituted a new scheduling plan for deputies and staff at Orleans Parish Prison earlier this month. The schedule, which was reflected in prison employees’ paychecks for this first time last week, means fewer overtime hours for deputies, whose starting pay for working in the […]