Consent Decree Requires Orleans Parish Prison Clean-Up; City Balks at Funding

Implementation of a consent decree to correct the unconstitutional conditions at Louisiana’s Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) is being held up over financial considerations. Meanwhile, the thirty-ninth prisoner to die at OPP in the last seven years is being blamed upon the conditions that are to be corrected.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman reached a 49-page consent decree in early December 2012. It is a blueprint to correct prisoner access to mental health care, troubling policies on staff use of force, and unconstitutional levels of violence and inhumane treatment. OPP holds about 2,000 prisoners and many of its problems are due to understaffing.

“We understand there are entire floors of that facility that are completely unmanned,” said Katie Schwartzmann, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Louisiana office. “We have got to get started on this.”

Along with “unacceptable levels of violence,” Roy Austin, Jr., deputy assistant for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, says the consent decree addresses sanitation and fire safety concerns at OPP.

Particular staffing levels are not specified by the decree, but it does require Gusman to complete a staffing study and hire a “professional corrections administrator” to review OPP operations. The decree requires immediate changes in training and policies to change the culture among guards.

Retention and recruiting of guards has been troublesome due to their woefully low pay of, in some cases, less than $10 per hour. To beef up staffing, raise salaries, and meet other mandates of the decree, Gusman says he needs “interim funding” of almost $40 million. The City of New Orleans, however, has balked, providing Gusman only $22.1 million for 2013.

“There has been no proof that any alleged unconstitutional conditions at the jail are the result of a lack of funding,” said Ryan Berni, spokesman for Mayer Mitch Landrieu, who believes Gusman is wasting money. “We are not prepared to write a blank check. The additional funding being sought by the sheriff would have a crippling effect on the city’s operations, including services like police, fire, and recreation.”

Austin, however, says the city is “a necessary partner” to the decree, which is “not self-executing.” The city needs to fulfill its obligation and provide more funding.

“The city has not been meeting this obligation and the prison has been underfunded for years,” Austin said. “People will needlessly suffer each day if we are unable to fully implement this agreement.”

The federal district court overseeing the litigation will hold a trial to determine the funding for OPP. Meanwhile, Gusman will develop and implement policies and procedures on how and when guards will use force. Training on this matter must occur annually, and a reporting system on the use of force must be put in place.

Procedures and policies must also be developed for screening and assessing prisoners with mental illness. Prisoners entering OPP must be screened for suicide and other violent tendencies. Much of the decree focuses upon speed and specifics in reporting problems, ranging from maintenance issues to deputy violence.

In addition, medical care and translation services for non-English-speaking prisoners must be upgraded under the decree. A new jail could help resolve some issues.

“Hopefully, the new facility will be more streamlined and have better sightlines, but we don’t know that,” said Schwartzmann. “Our clients tell us they can’t find deputies when they need them. In the event of an emergency, if someone has a seizure or a stroke, guys have to bang on the doors forever. The new jail doesn’t come online until 2013. We have people being hurt in [OPP] right now, today.”

Then, on the morning of February 7, 2013, pre-trial detainee Ricky Russell, 26, did not report for breakfast. He was found unresponsive in his cell by guards, who were unsuccessful in reviving him. Russell was the thirty-ninth person to die at OPP since 2006.

Russell had a long history of mental illness. While there were no indications of violence or other indications of why Russell died, Schwartzmann blames his death on the lack of mental health care and staffing.

“This is exactly what we’ve been saying for years now: the jail is in crisis, the mental health system is in crisis, and there are not enough deputies to supervise the inmates,” she said. “It is tragic, but inevitable given the circumstances of the jail.”

“This death is a tragedy,” Schwartzmann said. “We should be asking serious questions about whether the jail can continue to house people living with mental illness. A large portion of people in the jail have mental illness and their lives are at risk every day that they were housed there.”

Gusman disagrees that OPP is being operated unconstitutionally. “I’m not agreeing to that. The claims of other people—let those people answer those claims,” he said. “I think the consent decree speaks for itself.”

With the Sheriff in denial and the city protecting the treasury, fixing the problems at OPP is sure to be a drawn-out affair that causes many to suffer.

Source: Times-Picayune