A report released Thursday describes Orleans Parish prisoners trapped in flooded cells, deprived of food and water for days, and calls the scene at the jail “some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina.”
The American Civil Liberties Union compiled the report through interviews with prisoners, Orleans Parish Prison deputies and staff, and through legal and public documents.
“Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan,” the ACLU report said. “Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.”
Other deputies abandoned prisoners in locked cells, where some were standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests, according to the report.
Tom Jawetz, litigation fellow for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said the sheriff’s office was “completely unprepared for the storm.”
“The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did more for its 263 stray pets than the sheriff did for the more than 6,500 men, women and children left in his care,” Jawetz said.
A spokeswoman for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman said the department had not seen the report and had no immediate comment.
Gusman has acknowledged that a loss of electricity and no working toilets created a foul atmosphere. He has denied, however, that prisoners were not fed. He said prisoners, his staff and their families had food from the prison, plus MREs supplied by the military.
There were no confirmed deaths at the prison, the report said, though it detailed stories of two inmates with health problems who died after being transferred out.
3 days to evacuate
It took three days to evacuate inmates after the storm hit on Aug. 29, prison authorities have said. The prison has reopened but now holds only about 1,800 inmates. Others are incarcerated at 38 state and local lockups around Louisiana.
The report said the crowded conditions had contributed to the chaos. New Orleans had the highest incarceration rate before Katrina of any large U.S. city.
The National Prison Project urged President Bush to direct the Department of Justice to evaluate the jail’s current evacuation plans to determine whether any meaningful improvements have been made over the past year.
The ACLU asked Congress to audit the jail’s emergency preparedness plans. The civil rights group also is calling for a federal investigation into possible abuses at Louisiana correctional facilities during and after the storm.