New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail, Human Rights Watch said today. Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

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Human Rights Watch compared an official list of all inmates held at Orleans Parish Prison immediately prior to the hurricane with the most recent list of the evacuated inmates compiled by the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety (which was entitled, "All Offenders Evacuated"). However, the list did not include 517 inmates from the jail, including 130 from Templeman III.

Many of the men held at jail had been arrested for offenses like criminal trespass, public drunkenness or disorderly conduct. Many had not even been brought before a judge and charged, much less been convicted.

I will not even talk about the terrible tragedy involved. Regardless what one might think of hardenned criminals few people would argue that death by drowning is an appropriate punishment for somebody arrested on a public drunkenness charge and never convicted of a crime.

I would only like to make the following remark. For the last four years all manner of public officials from President Bush on down have been tirelessly talking about how concerned they are with national security. Well, what if some of the prisoners in that jail escaped? What if some are violent types - possibly terrorists - who should never again set foot outside of prison walls?

If some did escape we might never know. Bodies have a way of disappearing in a chaos of a flood. But I think it is time to ask ourselves - is this what billons of our tax dollars buys us? Is this the sort of security we are getting? Are people peddling it to us to be trusted - ever again?

tags: nola  prison  government  law  katrina