Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s temporary jail will cost over $11 million, The Lens has learned.
Tag: jail expansion
Some support temporary jail; others want work stopped
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s decision to move ahead with construction of 400 temporary jail beds before a working group meets to examine the jail expansion has divided the group and drawn criticism from City Council President Arnie Fielkow.
Sheriff building 400 jail beds before working group meets
The sheriff has started work on buildings for 400 new temporary jail beds even before the city’s Criminal Justice Working Group – established last week by the mayor to examine the jail expansion – holds its first official meeting.
Sheriff: I have never housed arrestees ‘to make money’
Sheriff Marlin Gusman has hit back at remarks made Thursday by a member of the mayor’s new advisory group on plans for Gusman’s new jail. Former Chief Judge of Criminal District Court Calvin Johnson told The Lens yesterday that jails have been used as “an economic development tool in Louisiana over the last 30 years,” […]
Landrieu relents, and opens jail-advisory meetings
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has decided to open previously secret meetings that could decide the fate of controversial jail expansion plans. Landrieu convened a stakeholders group in July, responding to concerns about Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s proposals to rebuild and expand the Orleans Parish Prison complex. But the meetings would be closed to the public, his […]
A ripple runs ahead of a wave
Matt Davis in his recent story on The Lens gave a shallow interpretation of the ongoing campaign by a diverse group of New Orleanians who understand that a bigger jail has not and will not make our city safer.
Major ad causes minor ripple
A full-page ad in today’s Times-Picayune urging the public to call elected city officials to protest jail-expansion plans had generated just 33 calls by 3 p.m. The ad, which cost $12,000, was paid for by a group of like-minded criminal justice reform advocates unhappy about a plan by Sheriff Marlin Gusman to expand the Orleans […]