WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

New Orleans Looks For Ways To Fund Jail Reform

The City of New Orleans is reviewing a consent decree designed to revamp operations at the parish jail. Federal officials are looking to the city to correct conditions they found unconstitutional.

U.S. Justice Department attorney Roy Austin outlined a list of changes to improve conditions for Orleans Parish Prison inmates. He says current staffing is too low, and inmates are subjected to sexual assaults and poor medical treatment. Austin says Louisiana law establishes a level of funding that the city must provide.

“The city has not been meeting this obligation and the prison has been dramatically underfunded for years,” Austin said. 

The consent decree comes after a lawsuit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Attorney Katie Schwartzmann says conditions forced the matter to federal court.

“The jail is a dangerous place. The men, women and kids who are incarcerated there have witnessed and survived terrible things.” 

But the city is under budget restraints, and has to pay for reforming its police department — also under the direction of the Justice Department. Ryan Berni, a spokesman for Mayor Mitch Landrieu, says there’s no proof that unconstitutional conditions exist because of a lack of funding. He says an audit  is being conducted to review how the jail funds are being spent.

Sheriff Marlin Gusman has requested $40 million to improve jail conditions — an amount the mayor’s office says would cripple city operations. Berni says the city is “not prepared to write a blank check.”

Eileen is a news reporter and producer for WWNO. She researches, reports and produces the local daily news items. Eileen relocated to New Orleans in 2008 after working as a writer and producer with the Associated Press in Washington, D.C. for seven years.

👋 Looks like you could use more news. Sign up for our newsletters.

* indicates required
New Orleans Public Radio News
New Orleans Public Radio Info