‘No Phase III’ still a battlecry
Even as construction begins, the fight continues. Within the jail, monitors find, conditions are worse, due to the same old chronic issues: short staffing, violence, and shoddy mental-healthcare.
Category
Criminal Justice
Sheriff Hutson moves several pre-trial detainees from New Orleans jail to Angola
While the move was largely made to bring down the jail’s population, placing pre-trial defendants in a state prison is “really problematic on a human-being level,” said public defender Alexis Chernow. The move also worries victims, who fear cases could stall if defendants not prepped for court and transported.
Calvin Cains’ mother withdraws one lawsuit, but will keep fighting for body-cam
She now plans to file a “civil-rights and wrongful death lawsuit” against JPSO; body-camera footage would likely be turned over in the course of those proceedings.
We cannot reduce crime and be safe without remaking Tulane and Broad
As the jail population climbs toward its maximum capacity – 1,250 – as set by the City Council, it’s clear that we must take a close look at what happens inside the Criminal District Courthouse.
Mother of young man killed by JPSO deputies sues for body-camera video
Mallory Cains believes that the footage will show that deputies wrongfully shot her son, Calvin Cains, without giving him a chance to surrender.
With numbers on the rise, New Orleans jail nears legal population cap
It’s unclear what — if anything — will happen if the cap is reached, but officials say they are looking for ways to reduce the number of people locked up in the troubled facility.
‘The car never started.’
Calvin Cains III was killed in early June by a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies who said they used lethal force to prevent Cains from running them over. But two key witnesses dispute that account, saying that Cains had just gotten into the car and may had not have even turned the key.
Federal judge rules that officers violated no civil rights even if they drew guns on Black youth looking for lost chihuahua
The two officers worked for one of the city’s security districts, which are not subject to the NOPD’s federal consent decree and its enforcement of constitutional standards for its officers.
Options to avoid Phase III construction narrow further, as Judge Africk denies Sheriff Hutson’s legal challenge to the jail addition
Also, advocacy group VOTE sues the city for quietly shuffling city funds totaling $32 million to the Phase III “special needs” jail.
Discussion, not litigation, brings solutions.
As Phase III proponents push to break ground on a new “mental health jail,” litigation is supplanting discussion, leaving critical design and staffing issues unresolved and costs ballooning.
