A SYSTEM GONE AWRY-BEFORE AND AFTER THE STORM By: Mary Olive Pierson

For the past several days, Attorney Mary Olive Pierson has been interviewing prisoners at Angola in support of LACDL and LAPDA's efforts to locate evacuated inmates, connect them with their displaced lawyers and ensure their cases do not fall through the cracks. She sends this report on September 15, 2005.

As if it is not bad enough that the female inmates formerly located in the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) have been subjected to the horrors of the hurricane and a barbaric Sheriff–3 days under water, locked in the jail without food, water, lights or air before being evacuated–they continue to be subjected to the violation of their civil and human rights because, for the most part, they have no business being incarcerated at all. I am speaking from personal experience, so I know what I am talking about and I cannot believe what I have seen. I am speaking about women inmates who were at Angola on Tuesday, September 13, 2005 that I personally interviewed or saw and/or who were interviewed by 5 other attorneys with me on that date.

Let me hasten to say that the staff at Angola was extremely helpful, courteous and assisted us in our task. Thank God that Angola offered its facility so the women could be evacuated from the toxic situation in New Orleans. (As if locking the prisoners in the jail after the storm in 8 feet of water is not bad enough, we were told on good authority by personnel at Angola that the Warden of Angola or a member of his staff offered the Sheriff of Orleans to take the prisoners in on Saturday before the storm and the Orleans Sheriff refused. This should be investigated thoroughly because it solidifies his apparent callous disregard for the humans in his custody.) Actually, arriving at Camp F (the death house) at Angola was a welcome relief to the women!! Can you imagine being glad you are incarcerated at Camp F?? That ought to tell you how bad the situation was before they got there.

I fully expected to find a few lost souls, who got caught up in the system and who needed to be released. I also expected to find that the majority of the inmates would be women who simply needed to be identified and whose families needed to be notified of their whereabouts, but who could not be released because they were in jail for felonies or violent behavior. This is exactly the opposite of what I actually found. Only eight of the women I interviewed were actually doing time or were jailed for felonies and could not be bonded. The remaining majority, approximately 75%, were still in jail beyond their release date or were in jail for such heinous crimes (all misdemeanors) as Drinking in Public, Crime against Nature, Lewd Conduct, violating a civil injunction by coming within 96 feet of the former matrimonial domicile, fraudulent statement on an application to a health care facility (which I have never heard of), disturbing the peace and one woman was being held on a warrant from California for failing to pay a $111.00 fine for a jaywalking ticket! I also learned about the “Tuesday and Thursday sweeps” by certain members of NOPD. This is not about TV ratings.

The other disturbing fact is that most of these women have lost their homes and they do not know now where their families are. Furthermore, their families do not know whether they are alive or dead or where they are.

During the interviews, it became apparent to me that the New Orleans police are very familiar with Article 701 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. They know they can arrest anyone and, unless the person has money to make bond or hire a lawyer, the inmate is going to do 60 days before they can be released when the D. A. refuses the charges, which I bet happens all the time. So the police can give anyone they want 60 days with no trial or evidence. Just make the arrest, put the defendant in jail and if they are poor, they will do a minimum of 60 days. It is no wonder that the violent gang members were still free after the storm–the jail was full of non-violent poor women charged with misdemeanors. I imagine that it is simply easier and certainly safer for the NOPD to focus on lewd conduct, solicitation and drinking in public and leave the violent drug and gang members alone. I suppose that if I had a choice between seeking out and arresting a violent criminal who possibly has a gun or a poor woman drinking a beer on Decatur Street, for my own safety I might go after the poor woman with the beer. I guess that if the jails are full, the police jobs are justified, no matter what the character of the offenses are because it looks like the police are hard at work. Has anyone in New Orleans ever heard of a summons or a ticket? Can’t we save the jails for the worst offenders? There were plenty of those on the loose after the storm. Do rich people dressed in their finest who drink on Royal or Bourbon street get arrested and thrown in jail? I did not meet any at Angola on Tuesday. I thought I had seen lewd conduct actually advertised and promoted in the French Quarter in the past. Was I just seeing things? Or, is the “crime” of lewd conduct reserved only for the poor who live in New Orleans and who are not tourists?

Do no misunderstand. I know there are good cops everywhere but what I have seen and heard indicates that there is something drastically wrong with the system in New Orleans. If any good comes out of this storm, it will be in the revelation and uncovering of the apparent cancer in the New Orleans justice system. Now that it has come out in the open, shame on us if we do not address and change the way business has been done in the past.

Mary Olive Pierson
Attorney at Law