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| Orleans prison in bad shape, feds say |
| By Bruce Nolan |
| Published: 04/20/2009 |
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Orleans Parish Prison faces a huge burden of financial, staffing, security and other problems -- the worst of them that the city, state and federal governments are not paying the full cost of housing their prisoners, according to federal consultants who visited the prison last year. "Nearly three years (after Hurricane Katrina) it is difficult to adequately describe the scope and depth of the problems still confronting the sheriff's office as they attempt to rebuild the Orleans Parish jail system," reported two consultants from the National Institute of Corrections. The agency is an arm of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that provides technical assistance to wardens across the country. " 'Daunting' does not begin to convey the enormity of the situation," they wrote. Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman released a version of the report Friday, with some redactions of information he said dealt "specifically with security issues." He said he invited the federal consultants in June to visit the prison for a week and offer recommendations for improvement. He said he was releasing their report in the interests of transparency, while acknowledging that he received it in October. Once a vast complex of permanent and temporary buildings holding about 5,500 persons, the prison complex was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Several major buildings have been demolished or sit vacant and ruined. The prison population now is about 2,840, Gusman said. Consultants Rod Miller of Gettysburg, Pa., and Jeffrey Schwartz of Campbell, Calif., said they found a prison that performed well by some measures: only one recent suicide; no homicides; few escapes; few assaults on prisoners or staff; no gang control. They also described a deeply troubled system full of systemic flaws. Gusman released the report without an accompanying response from his office. He said he agreed with some of its findings and disagreed with others. He addressed some of the report briefly in an interview later. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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