The troubling side of public surveillance
The NOPD recently proposed using drones as first responders. Across the nation, cameras seem to be popping up everywhere. But many agencies have few safeguards to prevent abuse by individual officers.
Category
Criminal Justice
Asking why and how, and what needs to be done.
A year ago, we killed Jessie Hoffman
Jessie represents everything that is wrong with Louisiana’s death-penalty system, which costs taxpayers roughly $15 million a year and has shockingly little reliability in its convictions, due to an 80% reversal rate.
The girlhood to prison pipeline: how Louisiana policy fails Black girls
The state of Louisiana is building a long-needed door for women leaving prison. But for girls leaving childhood detention, there is no threshold, much less a door.
NOPD floats ‘Drone as First Responder’ model, raising privacy concerns
On Monday, the French Quarter Management District’s security and enforcement committee took the first step toward drone response in New Orleans, as it voted to finance one $250,000 NOPD drone and docking station.
A whisper from Angola: the case of Solomon Birdsong
His hope is for a second chance not to live a life of leisure, but to live a life of purpose under the weight of his past, to test the rehabilitation he claims in the real world.
Two New Orleans men, Wee and ‛Miracle Man,’ feel young but see how prison accelerates aging
Because of decades of high-stress and deficient healthcare, a 59-year-old in prison has a ‘geriatric morbidity’ that's equivalent to a 75-year-old on the outside.
Carnival is a wary time of year for thousands on supervision in New Orleans
Curfews and court rules shape Carnival for thousands in New Orleans who are on probation or parole. Others find themselves self-isolating after the trauma of doing time.
My mom showed her support by bringing me a sweater.
At first, the writer’s mom wasn’t sure if she should support her daughter’s human-rights work. “She was very very cautious. It was really hard.”
Angola Farm Line trial testimony reveals traumas tied to field labor
After hard work in the sun on the Farm Line, he’d fall asleep, only to be visited by nightmares, Chadarius Morehead testified on Thursday, in the ongoing federal trial that will determine the constitutionality of forced field labor at Angola.
To lead us, you must listen to us
A message to all city leaders and adults from “The Seven That Make It Happen,” a youth council of Black teenagers ages 16 and 17, who are detained pre-trial in Orleans Parish’s juvenile jail
