In New Orleans, where incarceration touches nearly every block, jail population counts are much more than numbers – they represent families fractured, futures derailed, and communities under pressure.
Some of the loudest voices talking about problems that led to the jailbreak are the same ones who’ve supported underfunding and cuts to social services, education, and mental-health programs—drivers of crime and incarceration in the first place.
For the second consecutive year, a federal judge tells the DOC to provide Farm Line workers with protections from the sweltering Louisiana heat.
Nearly 1,000 Louisiana prisoners, including a Jefferson Parish man convicted by an 11-1 jury verdict, hope for relief in a non-unanimous jury bill that could hit the Senate floor on Wednesday.
Last week, the state Senate Judiciary committee passed SB 74, a bill that would automatically funnel all arrested 15- and 16-year-olds into the adult court system. Yet, as Sarah Omojola notes, every single senator on that committee comes from a district that recently voted down Amendment 3.
Disciplinary incidents dropped sharply within the Orleans Justice Center with the advent of electronic tablets, which stay on for 17 hours a day, bringing those in the jail new options -- movies, music, videogames, and e-messages -- all of which are tied to new charges -- 50 cents for an e-message and about a penny a minute for streaming content.
While prison officials and Farm Line workers disagree about whether the incarcerated workers have all the shade and water they need, Farm Line workers are asking the judge to reverse DOC’s recent policy changes, which make field work even more dangerous in Louisiana’s summer heat, they contend.
Since prisoners challenged conditions on the Farm Line, state officials have implemented policies making them even worse, lawyers contend.
Prisoners come to terms with the return of capital punishment in Louisiana.
People still say, ‘That’s not the Jessie I knew.’ But most didn’t know what he endured at home – and that’s likely what drove him on that day, psychiatrists say.
