Deadly lockdown in New Orleans - washing dishes restaurant jobs

"I have never been paid," DeWitt Solomon told me . ".
Nine months after Hurricane Katrina, he was at least
At Messina's, a popular tourist restaurant in New Orleans, the job is to brush tables and wash dishes.
But instead of paying him directly, Messina handed over Solomon's pay cheque to the Criminal Sheriff's Office of the Orleans Parish.
Solomon who served his sentence at New Orleans Parish Prison-the eighth-
The largest penal institution in the country and the largest correctional institution in the state of Luis Anna-
Took part in the sheriff's job-Release procedure.
The prison should pay him, minus $500 a month, the day Solomon regained his freedom.
The sheriff still owes him $1,500, says Solomon.
Solomon and I sat at the table at his house in the West Bank of New Orleans, feeding bottles to his twin sons.
The babies weigh less than 2 pounds at birth.
Now, in 13 months, they are surprisingly small, but they are constantly pursuing formulas like in a catch-up game.
Solomon said it took him months to try to recover the lost income, but never received a call from the sheriff's office.
The flood washed away his only proof that he gave up after the pay stub he saved from the restaurant.
Solomon sounds more obedient than suffering.
"It's not that I still can't use the money," he said . ".
"I'm happy to get in and out before things get worse.
He described his brother. in-
When law went to check for damage to the storm at his father's house, he was arrested for trespassing charges.
A few weeks ago, his cousin was also arrested for non-violent crimes, and no one in the family was able to contact him or even determine where he was being held.
The New Orleans prison rate is the highest among major American prisons. S. city --
Twice that of the country.
The state of Luis Anna also puts more people in local prisons, in part because of the state's laws, which are unheard of in other parts of the country, paralyzing due process.
District lawyers have 60 days from the date of arrest to decide whether or not to file an allegation, usually using a full statutory time limit.
From there, it will take an average of three months for the detainees to get the date of the session.
The trial may take three years.
According to a recent study by the Vera Institute of Justice, 40% of those entering the New Orleans Parish Prison will be eligible for release on their own guarantee.
On the contrary, if people cannot bail, the city will choose to lock them up, which is true among the three --
People detained in prison
Although the situation was bad before the storm, Bill Quigley, a professor at Loyola Law School, said: "Now the system is just to find someone . ".
"It's a vacuum to suck the poor in and let them stay inside.
Arrest now amounts to being sent to prison.
"A year after Hurricane Katrina, the city's backlog of cases reached 6,000.
Judge Arthur Hunt of the New Orleans Criminal District Court announced that "the criminal justice system found this to be a sad and shameful state" and said he would mark it --
The first anniversary of the storm began to release the poor accused.
But just as Hunter declared a constitutional emergency last summer, New Orleans suffered a devastating wave of crime.
Due to half of the former population, the crime rate in the city has returned to its previous level. Katrina levels.
When the city prepares for the second city
The national media announced that New Orleans was the murder capital of the United States.
The New York Times reported on February, under the title "dysfunction exacerbated the killing cycle in New Orleans", the "unique poisoning environment" that fueled violence, including the destruction of the city's only criminal laboratory, friction between the police and prosecutors, distrust and fear of the police in the community, non-cooperation or disappearance of witnesses and cruel childhood.
Most of the victims and suspects are young Africans. American men --
Many of them are teenagers. -
Caught up in the drug trade, the drug trade reenergized, restructured and became even more deadly in the post-Katrina turf war.
The crime crisis is part of a broader social crisis.
Two years after the storm, only once.
The third child care center in the parish of New Orleans and 45% of public schools have been reopened.
Mental health services were not provided to residents with depression, drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The city's housing authority has determined that thousands of public housing units will be demolished, most of which have not been damaged by the storm.
On behalf of hundreds of families, Quigley asked the housing authority for housing and property.
"One of the reasons why they said they didn't want to reopen public housing is because they didn't want the crime back to the city," Quigley explained . ".
But the crime has come back.
In fact, there are a lot of young people without family.
There is no housing for these families.
So the children came back alone without their aunts, mothers and grandparents.
The community is collapsing because we don't have a family.
We don't have many churches.
We used to have no infrastructure in poor communities.
"Some in our city believe that it is a bigger crime to have thousands of families leave their apartments than to sell drugs," he noted . ".
"But that's not what law enforcement thinks.
"In fact, the response of city officials to the wave of crime is to increase the number of troops.
The city's police department is equipped with almost backup personnel.
The scale and budget of Hurricane Katrina are backed up all the way.
60 state police officers and 300 National Guards in Hummers and military uniforms joined local law enforcement ---
They named themselves "mission crocodile"-
It cost $35 million.
Police have made a record number of arrests, with an average of 1,400 arrests per week.
But they don't seem to get the bad guys as the crime problem continues.
According to a recent exit interview conducted by the local criminal justice reform organization "Safe Streets/Strong Communities" with detainees leaving parish prisons, 80% of prisoners were held for non-violent crimes, mainly at low levels
Drug and alcohol charges.
According to a recent report from the Vera Institute, "while the city is plagued by violent crime, residents who will never be charged with the crime will stay in prison for a few weeks, "" some serious criminals have been released without any charges.
"The security street outreach and investigation coordinator, Ursula Price, described the case of a woman in prison and she called 911 to ask a family member
Violence
Price said: "Instead of trying to help her, the police checked her name and eventually arrested her for serious traffic violations.
"The safe streets provide the first response to the city's imprisonment.
The group listed huge phone bills to receive collection calls from New Orleans parish prisons and correctional facilities scattered there after the storm.
Some of the people who called just wanted to know why they were there. -
A police officer, whom a criminal defense lawyer calls "functional illiteracy", may take a few days to complete a report.
Others want to know how long they might stay, if they have a court appointment, how they can get legal support, and how they can contact their family or boss.
Callers from Orleans Parish Prison also reported a situation similar to dungeon: 20-
Five people are locked in a cell built for 10 people, so a lot of people sleep in one place, you can't even see the floor, there is no fresh or air conditioning, the toilet is overflowing, and the power and plumbing are inconsistent.
The prison has not yet returned to its qualifications lost after Hurricane Katrina, when thousands of prisoners were abandoned in foul-smelling floods, local writer and criminal defense lawyer Billy Thorn described it as "the biggest prison crisis since Attica ".
Glen Thomas, 29, this summeryear-
The old son of Rosetta James, a member of the Safe Street/powerful community, died at the New Orleans Parish Prison.
She said that James did not learn of her son's death from the sheriff's office, but learned through word of mouth: "One of the prisoners called his mother and told her that Glen was dead and she came to me.
No one said anything to me, I said.
I'm going to jail.
"When she arrived there on the morning of July 4, James was told that her son died at 11 in the evening and that he had no known medical problems. m.
"Natural cause", she can call the official report after a month.
Thomas waited for his day in court.
On May 19, 2004, he was arrested for illegal drug possession.
About a year later, on August, he will appear in court.
31,2005, when the city is not suitable for living.
Nevertheless, he was arrested for failing to appear in court and an arrest warrant was issued.
On October 2006, Thomas was arrested and detained at the Orleans Parish Prison.
His new opening date, the date he did not live to see, was set on August 2007.
Renee Lapeyrolerie, public information officer for Criminal Sheriff Marin Gusman, said they were unable to provide details of Thomas's death, but he said, "Well, in his criminal history, he
These are all related to health issues.
"This is the third death there this year," said the security Street coalition.
Director Norris Henderson
"It's all the same story.
The prison says they don't know why these people died.
"Any mistakes that occurred in his facility, the sheriff blamed the prisoner or did not have enough money," Henderson said . ".
"But you can't really blame him for Glenn's death, and you can't blame him for money, because he already understands.
"According to 35-year-
The old consent decree was intended to remedy the conditions of abuse in the prison, and the city paid the office of the Criminal Sheriff of the Orleans Parish for each local prisoner per day, plus $3.
2 million of medical services are provided each year.
In his 2007 budget request to the city council, Gusman's request for an additional $5 million for medical services was approved.
When asked what it takes to get public officials to focus on the crisis, Henderson is solemn.
"I don't want people to burn the city because we don't have many cities to burn.
But what do we need to do, sit down
Come down, strike or something.
We need something dramatic.
Dana Kaplan of the Center for Constitutional Rights summed up the basic problems facing the reformists.
"Now, the money for Gusman is related to the number of people in the prison.
How will we raise money for schools, services and employment programs because there is so much money in the prison. "Gusman's recent budget requirements make it clear that he is full of confidence in crime.
The sheriff wrote to the city council and he was 2007 "The budget request for these payments is based on the population of urban prisoners we expected . ".
"The number of prisoners is mainly driven by the number of people arrested by the police station.
Arrest rates have been rising since the storm to prevent crime from rising.
In his 2006 requests, Gusman explained that a reduced population in prison after Hurricane Katrina meant a 90% reduction in income, but our fixed costs were still high.
"Gusman has never said publicly that his goal is to build a New Orleans Parish Prison that can now accommodate 2,500 inmates, the same level as the 8,000 inmates before Hurricane Katrina.
But in a written testimony to the United StatesS.
In April 2007, he listed "repairing our four largest prison facilities" as one of the key needs.
Gusman wrote, "This will increase our ability to accommodate the most violent and repeat offenders in New Orleans [sic] (another 4,100 beds ).
"In other words, build them and fill them up and we know who will fill them up," Henderson said . ".
"Henderson and other local advocates formed a safe street/strong community after Hurricane Katrina, in the words of their founding statement," asking elected officials to address the root cause of our decades
A long public security crisis, stop blaming victims, and stop investing time and money in strategies that never worked. . . .
Many of our children have nothing to touch but guns, and they have little to have and be proud of except for their corner.
"Although the Safe Streets have won some recent victories ---
For example, to help win the appointment of the new poverty defense committee and to fund the establishment of an independent monitoring office to oversee police policies and practices-
The real challenge for activists is to redistribute public resources from law and order to community recovery.
But these are the same for Sergeant Gusman;
He has made sure that the road to recovery in the city will be laid by his prisoners. -literally.
Since Hurricane Katrina, Gusman has used his community service program and community response team to provide cheap labor for reconstruction projects.
The website of his office shows photos of prisoners dressed in orange jumpers and jerseys, which are printed next to the Signpost with the Gusman sheriff's community service program, which announces the "cleaning program"Up.
Prisoners at work
"Local news reports reveal how he used these workers for political sponsorship, cleaned up areas of politicians he supported, and rented out workers in exchange for political gain.
It's not far from what happened more than a century ago.
The pre-war city record refers to the current New Orleans Parish Prison as a workhouse.
In addition to those arrested for crimes, the prison houses slaves whose owners chose to rent them to the workhouse.
The same archives reveal Africa.
Americans are committed to the poor house for "claiming freedom": where the owner's name is usually recorded, these prisoners are called "so-called free.
"After the 1863 declaration of liberation, Africa-
Americans arrested for Black in New Orleans
Illegal crimes such as wandering and unemployment were brought to the parish poverty House.
During the Reconstruction period, the imprisoned former slaves provided a great deal of forced labor for railway companies, agriculture and industry.
After the first session
Katrina, the state legislature, has revised a law governing the labor of parish prisons in order to grant prison authorities immunity from injuries or damage caused or suffered by prisoners involved in any work plan during the imprisonment of parish prison facilities.
"When I asked a legislative staff member,
"I think this is due to a shortage of labor," she said. " Lt.
Chief of Police, Eric Donnelly-
Dewitt Solomon's pre-storm engagement release plan tells a local business newspaper that it plays a vital role in restarting the city's economic engine.
"As soon as the hurricane ended, we got a new phone that called from the employer saying they needed prisoners," Donnelly said . ".
"So once we bring them back, we have [the employer] pick them up in person.
That's how dependent they are on the project.
But, as Solomon said, "you should not go to jail for a job.