Justice submerged

[Briar]

Justice submerged
When Katrina struck, New Orleans was storing in a basement legal evidence that could have freed some prisoners.
Clive Stafford Smith

...

Despite the mandatory evacuation order for everyone in the city, the sheriff decided to hold the prisoners <held in Orelans parish prison> there during the storm. They were locked for days in crowded cells of rising water, and were eventually rescued by guards armed with mace and beanbag bullets. A number of prisoners stated that they saw bodies floating as they left the facility, though the official line is that nobody drowned.

Some of the officials interviewed took the position that if you are in jail, you get what's coming to you - including a category-five hurricane. Marlin Gusman, the Orleans parish criminal sheriff responsible, called these people "crackheads, cowards and criminals", and dismissed their claims of abandonment and abuse.

However, a recent American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report identified 394 children in the prison system when the storm hit, some as young as 10, and found that 60% of OPP's population (3,900 people) were being held on municipal charges such as traffic or parking violations, public drunkenness or the failure to pay a fine. The maximum sentence, had they been convicted, would have been a fine or a few days, but instead they did up to six months of "Katrina time" while the system figured out who they were.

Katrina was a year ago, yet there are thousands of pre-trial detainees who remain locked up today simply because there are no lawyers to represent them.

...

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/clive_stafford_smith/2006/08/post_313.html

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. these people are "crackheads, cowards and criminals

Yes, criminal regimes usually go through a period where they purge the society of so called "undesirables."

Expect more to come.

[The Deacon]

2. Last Time I Checked

They were AMERICAN "crackheads, cowards and criminals" which was supposed to guarantee them certain rights.
Guess I was wrong.
btw - all local, state & Federal detention facilities are required, by law, to have an emergency evacuation plan detailing how authorities are to transport detainees, securely, to another secure facility - along with such forms as are necessary to determine their status (high security prisoner, due to be released, trustee, etc.)