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Prisoners, including juveniles, drowned in flooded jails
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As flood waters rose, prisoners were left to escape or drown
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, interviews Phyllis Mann, a defense attorney in Alexandria, LA.
Sept. 13, 2005
| | A makeshift prison has been set up in the Greyhound bus and train station in downtown New Orleans. The nearby prison, was flooded after hurricane Katrina.
What happened to the prisoners there and in other parish prisons in New Orleans? A writ of habeas corpus was recently filed for an accounting of the prisoners.
We speak with Louisiana defense attorney Phyllis Mann. | |
Q: One woman who has been working tirelessly since the hurricane and flood is Phyllis Mann. She is a defense attorney in Alexandria, Louisiana. She yesterday went to the Angola prison, where it's estimated something like 500 women were brought to this men's prison after the hurricane. We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Phyllis Mann. Can you talk about what happened in Angola?
A: I and two other female attorneys went to interview -- we interviewed 199 of the 499 women who are currently being housed at a male maximum security prison at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, everyone calls it Angola. And we spent the entire day in the dormitory where these women are being housed. There have never been women housed at Angola before.
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And as the water began rising, [prisoners] were moved from that floor up to a higher floor, and ultimately they were placed by the guards in the gymnasium area in the facility, where they were locked in.
Once the guards placed them there, they did not see any guards again.
Some of the men that were on the same floor where they were, were not in this open gymnasium area, they were in holding cells.
And as the water began rising, it got higher and higher.
They had been there about a day-and-a-half with no food or water, and they had not seen any guards.
And the water rose until it reached chest level.
The men in the gymnasium were able to break the windows out of the gymnasium, and they literally swam out of that room to escape from the prison, but the men that were in the holding cells could not get out.
And the men that I spoke to that were able to free themselves were very, very certain that the other men in those holding cells have drowned.
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These women were moved to Angola from women's facilities
in Orleans Parish due to the flooding there. And among the women being held there I met with a 49-year-old woman who was a citizen of Jamaica, who had been arrested on August 16 because she overstayed her visa, but before her deportation could occur, the hurricane came, and so now it has been almost a month, and she would happily return to Jamaica. In fact, what she expressed to me today was not only would she happily return, but she just doesn't have any future plans to ever come back to America again in light of her experiences, that she was housed in a building that they called Concetta, which houses women in Orleans Parish and is part of the Orleans Parish system and was there when the waters began to rise.
And she, along with all of these other women, initially were moved from the first floor up to higher floors, and then as those flooded, they had to be evacuated out, and they were taken by boat from the Orleans Parish prisons. But many of them walked for hours through chest-high water, and some were able to be boated out, and then they got to the Causeway Bridge where they were left waiting for buses. And then from there, they were brought to Angola. And these women are being housed in dormitories that hold 100 women.
They -- when they were in Orleans, they were several days without any food or water. Ultimately, they had to -- they put water in trashcans when the water stopped operating at the prison, and then they were subsequently told don't drink the water from the trashcans now; we're afraid it's contaminated. And these are women, by and large just like the woman from Jamaica, who have -- it could be you or I.
I met with another woman who had failed to pay a fine. She was also arrested on August 16, and because she failed to pay a fine, is sitting in a maximum security prison. We don't know when we're going to be able to get these women out of jail. There was another woman who was arrested for sleeping by the ferry. She has a $600 bond, and she’s been in jail since August 3. But because the records for people who are arrested in Orleans Parish are maintained by the Orleans Parish Sheriff, until those records can be reconstructed, we can’t get these women out of jail.
Q: Phyllis Mann, can you talk about the men and what happened in the Orleans jail?
A: Sure. Last week, I interviewed 200 men who had been moved to Rapides Parish to the Sheriff's jail here from Orleans Parish. And two of the men, in particular, told me a story that just was almost unbelievable to me. These men were federal detainees, meaning that they had been arrested on federal charges and were being held in the local jail. They had originally been housed in O.P.P., which actually stands for Old Parish Prison there in Orleans on the federal tier.
And as the water began rising, they were moved from that floor up to a higher floor, and ultimately they were placed by the guards in the gymnasium area in the facility, where they were locked in. Once the guards placed them there, they did not see any guards again. Some of the men that were on the same floor where they were, were not in this open gymnasium area, they were in holding cells. And as the water began rising, it got higher and higher. They had been there about a day-and-a-half with no food or water, and they had not seen any guards.
And the water rose until it reached chest level. The men in the gymnasium were able to break the windows out of the gymnasium, and they literally swam out of that room to escape from the prison, but the men that were in the holding cells could not get out. And the men that I spoke to that were able to free themselves were very, very certain that the other men in those holding cells have drowned.
These men that were able to free themselves literally swam out of the building and then found a guard to turn themselves in to. And they were then placed on buses and brought from Orleans to Hunt Correctional Center where they were given blankets, and they basically slept on the hillside for another day or into the following day, when they were placed on buses and brought here to Rapides Parish.
And again, one of the many problems that we're facing and I don't know we have a solution to is until we can reconstruct the records of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Department, we will not even know who was housed in the various Orleans Parish facilities. We're not going to know how many inmates did not make it out of those facilities.
Q: Phyllis Mann, what were these men charged with that you interviewed?
A: The two men -- these men that told me the story were both charged with federal offenses. They were federal drug offenses. But as they were being relocated to higher floors in Orleans Parish Prison, not everyone who was relocated there was charged with a serious crime. Many of these men, just like the women that I talked to today, were arrested on very minor charges. They may have been arrested for public drunk or possession of drug paraphernalia, which could be something as minor as a roach clip. Some of them were charged with trespass. Some of them were on probation and had missed a court date or had missed a drug court hearing and were in jail for seven days to sort of get their attention. Well, my lord, we have gotten their attention now.
Q: So, what's going to happen to them?
A: Ultimately, we'll get this all sorted out. There are lawyers all over the state, criminal defense lawyers, who are going to all of these facilities. There are 35 facilities that we are aware of all over the State of Louisiana, where over 8,500 people from Orleans jails were evacuated. And we're literally having to go in and meet with these people one by one to figure out when they got arrested, why they were in jail, whether they have been convicted or whether they were waiting for trial, whether it was a misdemeanor or a felony.
I understand that the computers from the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office were retrieved from Orleans on Friday, and their information technology people have been working to try to get as much information off of those computers as possible. And eventually what will happen is they're going to start matching the information they can recover from those computers to the information that we have been getting by going in and interviewing these people one by one, so that we can figure out where they're supposed to be. I would say a good half of them are not supposed to be in jail at all. They have served whatever sentence they had received and should be released. But until we can figure that out, they're sitting there.
Q: Some haven't even been sentenced at all?
A: Many of them not sentenced at all. Many of them not even convicted. They are people who, like all American citizens, when they're arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and they have not even had an opportunity to go to court.
Q: Phyllis Mann, how do the prisoners reach their families?
A: We have a hotline number that has been established through Hunt Correctional Center. Families can call in to these numbers. It's area code 225 and the two numbers are 342-5935 or 342-3998. If they had a loved one who was in jail in any of the affected parishes, St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson or Plackman, they can call into those numbers and leave a message about where they currently are, where their loved one can call to reach them, and they can also find out from Hunt Correctional Center where their loved one is now being housed. We do finally have a complete list of where everyone was evacuated to, so families can call in for that information.
Q: Phyllis Mann, thank you very much for being with us. Phyllis Mann, a defense attorney in Alexandria, Louisiana. A writ of habeas corpus has been filed to get accounting of the prisoners, it is believed something like 8,000 of them. Where are they? Have they been moved? Did they survive? What has happened?
As originally published
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At least two children drowned at forgotten juvenile jail
Shreveport [LA] Times
Sept. 18, 2005
A Louisiana corrections officer who spent several days trapped in a flooded New Orleans jail with 76 juvenile delinquents says she's alive because of her daughter, a White Plains,
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"It was horrible," she said.
"Two of our kids drowned, and there was nothing we could do to help them."
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N.Y., minister, the White Plains' Public Safety Department and God.
Deborah Williams and several other guards were assigned to care for the 10- to 17-year-old inmates during the storm.
"I really didn't think we were going to get out of there alive," said Williams, 52. "It really was a miracle from God."
The group was moved to an eight-story building without food and water from a less secure juvenile detention center before Hurricane Katrina hit because it was thought to be safer. By the time they were rescued, the building had flooded up to the fifth floor, a riot had broken out and been put down, and most other inmates had been evacuated.
Apparently, no one remembered that Williams and her charges, mostly girls, a few of them pregnant, had been sent to the top floor.
By the evening of the third day, guards and child-prisoners were huddled together, praying they would get out alive. One kid was lying on Williams' lap, toying with a cellular telephone she had found.
"I took it from her," Williams said. "And, when I hit the power button, praise God, it came on."
Williams called her daughter, Brondelyn McGee-Jellow of Pleasantville, N.Y., at 2 a.m. Aug. 31. Her daughter called her pastor, who also serves as chaplain for the police and fire departments in White Plains, N.Y. White Plains officials contacted the FBI and Red Cross and sent urgent teletype messages to the Coast Guard and law enforcement agencies in Louisiana.
When rescuers came, Williams and the others were given life jackets, tied together and pulled several blocks through New Orleans' flooded streets.
"It was horrible," she said. "Two of our kids drowned, and there was nothing we could do to help them." The rest made it to safety and another juvenile center in Baton Rouge.
As originally published
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Officials begin evacuation of Jefferson, Orleans prisoners
New Orleans Times-Picayune
Aug. 30, 2005 [Day 2]
Thousands of state prisoners need to be evacuated from the jails in Orleans and Jefferson parishes.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections is in the process of moving 1,000 inmates out of Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in suburban New Orleans, said Pam Laborde, spokeswoman for the agency. A team is currently evaluating how to move 4,000 prisoners out of Orleans Parish Prison, which is flooding, she said.
The prisoners being moved are state inmates who are finishing out their sentences in the local jails. Because of the water surrounding the Orleans prison, the team will need to figure out whether prisoners can be moved by boat to a staging area where buses can move them to state and local prisons around the state, Laborde said.
As originally published
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Inmates face dilemma as jails flood
The Advocate [Baton Rouge, LA]
Sept. 1, 2005 [Day 4]
Shackled Orleans Parish Jail inmates waded through waist-deep water to the Broad Street overpass, boarded school buses from Baton Rouge and were driven to a prison near Jackson on Wednesday.
Water began rising Tuesday and flooded the jail. So authorities began to move the inmates to Hunt Correctional Institute, north of Baton Rouge.
The state Department of Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder said Wednesday that his office began moving the inmates from the Orleans Parish jail, as well as those in Jefferson Parish, around 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Orleans Parish had 6,500 prisoners and has moved all but 3,000 as of press time, Stalder said.
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Commentary:
What an interesting turn of phrase.
Of course, a more accurate way to say "all but 3,000" prisoners had been moved would be to type, "barely half the prisoners had been moved."
=H&HH=
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Another 992 males and 120 females were moved from the Jefferson Parish jail during the early morning hours Wednesday.
The state had increased its prison capacity by 40 percent to handle the prisoners from parish jails, he said.
The 120 females from Jefferson Parish filled up the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel.
The 150 female inmates from Orleans Parish will be moved to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where officials at the all-male facility are busy emptying a trustee's dorm, an official said
As originally published
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Storm prompts massive transfer of inmates
The Advocate [Baton Rouge, LA]
Sept.
1, 2005 [Day 4]
NEW ORLEANS -- Corrections officials hope to complete the largest mass movement of prison inmates in Louisiana's history today when all of the Orleans Parish Prison facilities are emptied and the prisoners transferred to other prisons throughout the state.
State Corrections Department spokeswoman Pam Laborde said the prisoners in Jefferson and Orleans parishes will be housed in all of the state's correctional facilities except Washington Correctional Institute near Angie, which was damaged in Monday's storm.
Washington Correctional Institute also took in some Plaquemines Parish inmates evacuated before the storm, she said.
The state is using beds made available by the Concordia Parish Sheriff's Office and also opened the former juvenile facility at Jena to house 500 prisoners, staffing it with security officers drawn from other north Louisiana prisons.
Approximately 7,600 inmates, including some who are awaiting trial, are involved in the transfer.
In 1995, Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola housed 721 Orleans Parish prisoners displaced by a spring storm.
A number of Louisiana sheriffs, members of the faith-based organizations that assist Louisiana prisons and other agencies are contributing boats, buses and equipment to aid in the transfer, Laborde said.
Corrections personnel also have helped evacuate civilians, she said.
As originally published
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South Louisiana inmates bound for lockup in Bossier Parish
by Don Walker, Shreveport [LA] Times
Sept. 2, 2005 [Day 5]
An estimated 500 prisoners evacuated from Orleans Parish, and overflow inmates from the state Department of Corrections, are bound for Bossier Parish with anticipated arrival starting at noon today.
The minimum-security inmates will be housed at the parish's new $22.5 million maximum security jail that will hold up to 450 inmates. The jail on Old Plain Dealing Road was scheduled to open in October or November, but is operational and ready for inmates, said Ed Baswell, spokesman for the Bossier Parish sheriff's office.
"It is absolutely secure and safe to keep inmates,"
Baswell said Wednesday. "The thing we want to stress is these are nonviolent offenders, but they'll be held in a maximum-security facility. We want people to know there's no danger here."
Minimum security means most of the violators who will be housed are facing charges ranging from issuing worthless checks to minor drug offenses.
The parish is responding to a request made Wednesday by Richard Stalder, head of the state Department of Corrections. The inmates were awaiting trial but were evacuated from prison facilities flooded by Hurricane Katrina, and state inmates who were sentenced but not yet transferred to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
The maximum-security jail will be manned by Bossier Parish deputies, who will make up 25 percent of the security guard staff. The remaining guards will be those also displaced by flooding.
"We have the capability and the ability to secure this jail," Baswell said.
"This is being done as an act of mercy for the people of south Louisiana," Baswell said. "Everything is backed up down there."
As originally published
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Some prisoners were sent to other parishes
by Don Walker, Shreveport Times
Sept. 2, 2005 [Day 5]
Bossier and Caddo parishes opened their doors to Hurricane Katrina evacuees on Thursday, but these are prison doors that welcomed |
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Bossier Parish Sheriff's officers and contract corrections officers book inmates from south Louisiana into the Bossier Parish Corrections Center near Plain Dealing. Hundreds of inmates were moved north to Caddo and Bossier parishes after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast.
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more than 500 inmates from flooded jails in south Louisiana.
About 200 prisoners were brought to Caddo Correctional Center; 311 inmates to Bossier Parish's maximum-security jail, the newest lockup of the parish jail complex off Old Plain Dealing Road. The prisoners came by school buses and state Corrections Department buses and vans from Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, where they were transported earlier in the week from flooded facilities in the New Orleans area.
They filed off the bus two at a time, bound at their wrists with plastic ties, booked and given orange CCC jumpsuits or orange- and white-striped Bossier Parish prison garb.
The Caddo and Bossier sheriff's offices, along with other parish jails, are pitching in to help with displaced prisoners until they can be moved back to the south Louisiana facilities.
"It will be tight, but we all have to do what we can to help," said Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator.
Caddo sheriff's Sgt. Sam Hall, who is in south Louisiana, said about 3,000 inmates were evacuated Wednesday. Hall and Cpl. Richard Lopez were among officers and deputies who guarded the prisoners as they waited on a New Orleans street for buses to take them out of the area.
Inmates arrived more than four hours later than expected in Bossier Parish because of mechanical breakdowns along the way, said Bossier sheriff's spokesman Ed Baswell.
All of the prisoners are minimum- to medium-security inmates charged with minor offenses such as issuing worthless checks and drug possession, he said. Security staff members from south Louisiana jails also were brought in to help guard the inmates until they can be returned -- estimated at about 60 days. "We're doing everything we can to reach out for all the people in the state," said Bossier Sheriff Larry Deen.
Thursday morning, Prator swore in seven deputies who are undergoing instruction at the Caddo Sheriff's Regional Training Academy. Those deputies have completed corrections training but will return to the academy later to finish their POST training. In the interim, they'll assist with security at the jail.
As originally published
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Prisoners displaced by Katrina
Associated Press
Sept. 2, 2005 [Day 5]
BATON ROUGE, La. -- More than 7,600
prisoners had to be moved from jails in the New Orleans area because of flooding and unsanitary conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina -- prompting such widespread rumors of riots and jail breaks that Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder focused Wednesday on setting the story straight during a briefing with reporters.
"We cannot find any credible intelligence that the kinds of things that had been reported have happened," he said.
One of the reasons for the widespread reports of riots and jail breaks was the way 3,000 inmates were left handcuffed on a highway overpass. They had to be shuttled by boat to waiting vehicles, a process that was still underway Wednesday.
"It was stable," he said. "It was a safe evacuation."
About 3,000 inmates from Orleans Parish Prison were still in line to be moved as he spoke. And some female inmates were to be sent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, an all-male prison, though corrections officials stressed the men and women would be kept separate.
As originally published
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Australian tells of
New Orleans jail nightmare
by Adam Harvey, Agence France-Presse [Australia]
Sept. 11, 2005
Stranded in a lawless New Orleans prison for four days after Hurricane Katrina, Australian tourist Ashley McDonald was robbed of his shirt by an inmate armed with a screwdriver and forced to go without much food or shelter.
Mr McDonald, 30, spoke yesterday about his eventful stint in a Louisiana prison. The Melbourne man was jailed in New Orleans after refusing to leave a bar on Bourbon St.
"I just had a couple too many," a sheepish McDonald said yesterday. He had expected to be released early the next morning, but when Katrina came, the authorities left the inmates to their own devices for four days. Most of the guards fled the city.
"We had no food, no water, no power, no air-conditioning, no toilets," Mr McDonald said. "We had no shelter from the sun or rain and all we had to sleep on was just a white sheet. And we burnt during the day and froze during the night.
"The guards threw two peanut-butter sandwiches over the razor-wire fence once a day for us and we grabbed them as quickly as you could.
"A lot of people started breaking out and escaping and that's when attention was brought to the jail."
Mr McDonald decided to stay put. "I never thought twice about it," he said. "I just stayed in my cell and waited until someone came for us."
Mr McDonald said that murderers and rapists preyed upon people who had been imprisoned for minor offences like driving violations.
"We actually got mugged for our shirt," he said.
"A guy had a screwdriver and took our shirts and took our blankets at almost knife point, I suppose you could say.
"That was pretty scary.
"Quite a few times I feared for my life because there are a lot of hardcore criminals there who had a lot of weapons, a lot of home-made knives. And apparently one guy there had a little handgun in the yard.
"So you just had to be careful not to walk around and just pull up a bit of ground and stay there and not move. Just sort of make sure you didn't get on anyone's turf."
Mr McDonald says he's looking forward to a quiet night out with his parents, who had travelled to America fearing their son was dead. So far his family have been nice to him, but Mr McDonald says that may not last much longer.
"The cameras have been here so they've been really nice, but I'm expecting a clip behind the ears later," he said.
As originally published
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Some guards fled their posts
by Jeannie Shawl, Jurist Legal News & Research
Sept. 11, 2005
Guards at a New Orleans jail fled their posts after Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving prisoners behind in appalling conditions, according to an Australian tourist interviewed for the Sydney Sunday Telegraph.
Ashley Macdonald was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and was thrown in jail just before the hurricane hit New Orleans. He described a chaotic situation lasting for four days where inmates were able to obtain or make weapons and two inmates locked in underground cells drowned. According to Macdonald, authorities only came to the rescue of the prisoners who were without food, water, toilets or power after inmates began escaping from the jail once the roof had been ripped off.
The Orleans Parish Prison and other local jails were evacuated in the aftermath of the storm, and a temporary detention facility has been set up at the city's Greyhound bus station.
As originally published
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Sheriff wouldn't evacuate Orleans Parish Prison
by James Alan Fox, Boston Herald
Sept. 12, 2005
With Katrina aiming straight for New Orleans, the Department of Corrections welcomed to various inland facilities some 700 inmates from jails in parishes projected to face the brunt of the storm. The St. John and Plaquemines parish prisons, among others, were emptied to ensure the safety of those under correctional care.
Not so for the Orleans Parish Prison, a massive institution housing 6,500 inmates, making it the nation's ninth largest jail. Apparently, Sheriff Marlin Gusman deemed it unnecessary to transfer the inmates, despite strong encouragement from the governor and other officials for everyone to evacuate.
It is difficult for those of us outside the swath of Katrina's devastation to imagine the despair and
frustration of the survivors. Millions of Americans watched in dismay as the Superdome was transformed into a "prison," as it was characterized by one angry resident marooned for days without enough water, food or sanitation.
But the media were virtually silent about a different class of prisoners -- the actual ones locked in cells at the mercy of elected officials making an arbitrary decision about whether to evacuate.
Many observers have focused on those residents who were too poor, too old, too sick or maybe too stupid to evacuate in advance of Katrina. But what about the inmates -- those not permitted to leave?
Following the storm, as flood waters rose within the Orleans jail, inmates were more in the dark than almost anyone. They too lacked sufficient food and water, yet couldn't scavenge for sustenance like looters downtown.
They too were unable to call loved ones, yet couldn't go searching for them.
Days after Katrina, the Department of Corrections managed to bus thousands of Orleans Parish prisoners to dry facilities elsewhere. Not surprisingly, some people questioned why prisoners should be rescued before innocent civilians trapped in the Superdome, the Convention Center or their homes.
The inmates disrupted by the storm "are not all Boy Scouts," as one corrections official put it; nor, however, are they vicious murderers. Some are incarcerated for loitering, DUI or speeding. Many are women or juveniles. Some may even be innocent, unable to make bail.
They could be your brother or sister.
Prisoners stranded in area jails, regardless of their transgressions, deserve no less consideration than other victims of this catastrophe. And because their movement, unlike that of my friend's sister, is controlled by public officials, these inmates may deserve special attention. After all, they were at the mercy of two powerful forces -- one meteorological and the other political.
As originally published
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Were prisoners set free as floodwaters rose?In a word, no.
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Sept. 20, 2005
We've received several emails, asking us to confirm or deny persistent whispers that New Orleans jailers released prisoners as the flood hit the city.
The general vibe behind these rumors is that guards could see that jail cells would be flooded, and inmates would drown.
And so, faced with no other alternative and no plan for evacuating the prisoners, the guards unlocked the cells and let prisoners flee.
And that's why New Orleans was flooded not only with water, but with crime.
According to columnist Scott Sherry in the Clarion News, a Pennsylvania paper:Something that hasn’t been well reported is that the city had no plan for evacuating the prisoners in the city’s jails, so they simply released them.
According to this unsigned article in The Gilmer Mirror, a Texas paper:The problems of evacuating New Orleans, La. in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were complicated by law enforcement authorities there essentially turning dangerous criminals lose, and letting them blend in with crowds of evacuees at the Astrodome and Convention Center, from which it is estimated that hundreds of them made their way to shelters in Texas.
In a column in The Oregonian, S. Renee Mitchell quotes someone who was there in New Orleans:"They let the prisoners go," speculates Stacy LaBrosse. "That's what we were told. Everyone was afraid for their lives."
And deep inside an overview of the hurricane in Mother Jones, David Enders writes that a radio station had reported that a sheriff "abandoned all the prisoners in his jail." Enders doesn't say what exactly "abandoned" might mean, or where the jail was.
What all these accounts have in common is that they're all reports of reports -- rumors. Nobody cites anyone who knows that this happened, but everyone's heard that it happened. And nobody cites a genuine journalistic source, or cites anyone by name who would know, first hand. It's all whispers and hearsay -- an urban legend.
I'm not sure what you'd want guards to do in such a situation. I'd want them to unlock the cells, even if it means letting criminals have a second chance at life. None of them were sentenced to death.
But prisoners were not set free. I'll alter my opinion if a reliable source steps forward, but it's three weeks after the facts of the matter. Based on the tell-tale lack of any reliable journalistic source, I'd say it's horse manure. There's just no credible evidence that any prisoners were released.
The evidence says the opposite. In most cases, prisoners were bused to other jails. And in some cases, prisoners were left to drown.
There was a statewide plan to evacuate prisoners, but the sheriff of Orleans Parish wasn't interested.
He refused to evacuate prisoners.
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Aug. 29, 2005:
As Katrina strikes, FEMA urges first-responders not to respond
Sept. 2, 2005:
Who is this incompetent doofus running FEMA?
by Rachel R., Unknown News
Sept. 2, 2005:
Emergency crews turned back by FEMA:
They lacked "the required paperwork"
Sept. 2, 2005:
FEMA won't allow airboats to rescue Katrina victims
Sept. 2, 2005:
Troops sent to New Orleans for "combat operation"
with comments by Rebecca and Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 3, 2005:
FEMA chief had to be 'asked to resign' from previous job with horse club
Sept. 3, 2005:
FEMA turned back 500-boat rescue flotilla
Sept. 3, 2005:
Bush declares "zero tolerance" for New Orleans
survivors seeking food and water
Sept. 3, 2005:
Thousands of New Orleans refugees held at gunpoint,
not allowed to leave growing hell of Superdome
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 3, 2005:
Homeland Security stops Red Cross from bringing food for New Orleans
with comments by Sir J and Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 3, 2005:
Police official says Nat'l Guardsmen 'played cards' amid New Orleans chaos
Sept. 4, 2005:
Red tape keeps hundreds of doctors from helping hurricane survivors
Sept. 4, 2005:
Homeland Security Chief says New Orleans disaster couldn't have been predicted
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 4, 2005:
College sophomores used fake press passes to circumvent FEMA's rescue roadblocks
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 4, 2005:
Navy hospital & water purification ship anchored on nearby coast, underused
Sept. 4, 2005:
FEMA turns down water, fuel for New Orleans, cuts area's emergency communication line
Sept. 5, 2005:
FEMA "dragging its feet" as businesses try to help hurricane, flood victims
Sept. 5, 2005:
Firefighters waited five days for FEMA's OK to enter New Orleans, then gave up, returned to Houston
Sept. 6, 2005:
Now is the time for pointing fingers
by John M., Unknown News
Sept. 6, 2005:
No food drops planned for New Orleans
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 6, 2005:
U.S. military smuggled white vacationers out of New Orleans Superdome squalor
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 6, 2005:
As New Orleans waits, FEMA sends firefighters to seminar, assigns them to hand out fliers
Sept. 6, 2005:
New Orleans during the disaster:
Police lied to survivors, blocked escape from city
by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, EMS NetworkFrom inside New Orleans as the crisis worsened, these survivors found that the authorities were never any help, and often an ugly enemy. =H&HH= | LINK
Sept. 6, 2005:
FEMA head specifically ordered lackadaisical response to "near catastrophic" Hurricane Katrina
Sept. 7, 2005:
International offers of help came immediately, but U.S. approval was delayed by days
Sept. 7, 2005:
FEMA's top-level management stacked with Bush's cronies
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 8, 2005:
FEMA contractors arrested for looting
with comments by Underground Panther in the Sky
Sept. 8, 2005:
Katrina survivors "evacuated" at the point of a gun
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 8, 2005:
Canadian search-and-rescue team first to reach New Orleans suburb
Sept. 9, 2005:
"Mission accomplished" in New Orleans
by Harry Highwater, Unknown News
Sept. 9, 2005:
Homeowners' guns confiscated in New Orleans, police threaten evacuation by force
with comments by Sir J and Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 10, 2005:
FEMA sent back German plane carrying fifteen tons of food for hurricane victims
Sept. 11, 2005:
"Area's power restoration was set back days"
In devastated Mississippi town, Cheney made restoring oil pipeline's pumping power "a presidential directive"
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 11, 2005:
Experts question how much looting and mayhem really took place in New Orleans
with comments by The Coyote and Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 11, 2005:
New Orleans doctors had to kill their patients
Sept. 11, 2005:
Sheriff threatens to arrest FEMA officials
Countermands FEMA order that stores remain closed
Sept. 11, 2005:
Bush signs executive order lowering wages across Katrina-devastated areas
with comments by Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 12, 2005:
Racist police blocked bridge and forced evacuees back at gunpoint
with comments by Chris M. and Helen & Harry Highwater
Sept. 13, 2005:
Chertoff delayed federal response to Katrina disaster, memo shows
Sept. 13, 2005:
As bodies are recovered, reporters are threatened: 'No photos, no stories'
Sept. 14, 2005:
Feds delayed Nat'l Guard's hurricane response for days
Sept. 16, 2005:
Doctor says FEMA ordered him to stop treating hurricane victims
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Say it with a bumper sticker
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Louisiana had and followed prison-evacuation plan
Some inmates help with emergency response
by Gary Fields, Wall Street Journal
Sept. 14, 2005
BOGALUSA, La. -- James Cox plunged his scarred, rough hands into the ice bucket to fish out two bottles of Gatorade and handed them to Tammey Duncan. A resident of devastated Washington Parish, she was waiting in line at the emergency-aid station in an industrial park here.
Mr. Cox, a prisoner for nearly 30 years, is serving time for armed robbery at the Washington Correctional Institute. In the past two weeks, though, he has also been a first responder, one of dozens of inmates in orange jumpsuits who have been driving forklifts, clearing debris and handing out food and water to people living here near the Mississippi line.
As Louisiana digs out from Hurricane Katrina, convicts have been opening roads with axes and chainsaws and doing other useful work. At Angola State Penitentiary, near Baton Rouge, inmates produced mattresses for shelters. Some prisoners have even donated money from what little they are paid so evacuees can buy postage stamps.
"I've been a thug since 1966, and this feels good," said Mr. Cox, a brawny, tattooed 53-year-old. "When people come up and you look into their faces and see all the sadness, and then they thank you like you are the one giving this stuff to them, it makes you tear up."
Opened in 1983 to house 500 inmates, the Washington Correctional Institute now holds 1,200 men, most here on drug charges, and it employs 418 people, making it one of the largest employers in the parish. Since Katrina struck, this medium-security prison 70 miles north of New Orleans has sent scores of inmates every day with corrections officers to work in the parish. The jobs don't pay well -- 20 cents an hour, at best. But unlike the vast majority of the 43,900 people of this parish, the prisoners go back at day's end to hot showers, warm meals and electric lighting.
All of the prisoners who have been helping are "trustees," men who are given special privileges -- like getting to leave the prison grounds under supervision -- because of their exemplary disciplinary records.
The hurricane has resulted in neither riots nor escapes. Because the prison is surrounded by dense, forbidding woods, running away isn't much of an option. Indeed, since Katrina hit, the Louisiana state prison system has been relatively peaceful despite moving 8,000 inmates from prisons damaged by the hurricane to 13 different facilities.
In large part, that's because some of the prison authorities, such as Warden James Miller here at the Washington Correctional Institute, were a lot better prepared for the hurricane than state and federal authorities were.
On Aug. 29, the morning Katrina's eye passed about 30 miles east of here, prisoners huddled in the dorms watching the horizontal rain, listening as the gravel on the roof whipped off and shattered windshields a half-mile away. Heating units were torn off the buildings. About that time, two 10-foot-high fences topped with razor wire were breached by the storm.
While most inmates were locked in their cells, one crew of officers and trustees rushed to turn off a leaking main gas line. Fifty others, standing in the rain and wind, raised and welded the downed fence that confines them. As the storm began to subside, Warden Miller, who lives on the prison grounds, sent six crews of inmates and corrections officers out. Their instructions were to clear one lane on all the main roads in the parish.
As the men made their way out among downed power lines and roads littered with fallen trees, a radio call came in asking for help clearing the road to the emergency management center in Bogalusa. Another team from the prison headed that way with their axes, hatchets and saws to cut and move the downed trees from the roadway.
Mr. Miller, 50 years old, had his own personal emergency management plan in place. He had backup generators with a stockpile of fuel. The prison was already equipped with one of the largest food-storage facilities in the parish. It was so well stocked there was no chance food would run out and the prison was able to help out the school system, which had food in danger of spoiling.
The warden's biggest concern was gasoline to power the generators. As soon as the storm passed, Mr. Miller pulled out the satellite phone he had reserved for such emergencies and called Richard Stalder, the state's corrections chief, to arrange for additional fuel supplies. Mr. Miller has been able to give each of his workers 10 gallons of gas every two days so they can drive to work. Others, including a few officers, stayed over at a makeshift shelter on the prison grounds. "This isn't the kind of place where you can just let everybody take off work -- I've got to have them here," Mr. Miller said.
It has been hard for many inmates to grasp what has been happening outside the prison. About 85 percent of the inmates here are from the New Orleans area, and they had no access to news reports until the warden videotaped a newscast and played it on the prison's television system.
The TV rooms were silent as inmates crowded in. Darrell Johnson, 49, who has been here nine months for a parole violation, was watching the screen when he saw his neighborhood, then recognized his street and family home, all underwater. "I'm just hoping everybody got out safe," he said of his two brothers and two sisters. "You can't call because of the phone situation here, and there's no sense in writing a letter. The mail ain't got nowhere to go. I have no idea what shelter they went to or even what city they might be in."
Pausing while he moved pallets of baby formula, Keshawn Patterson, 27, said, "We can't help our families. ... At least doing this, helping, it takes your mind off it for a while."
A challenge for the prison is finding the families of prisoners who are soon to be released. The institute has already located the families of 180 prisoners and will continue to make calls and to use the Red Cross and other means to try to find them. The state still needs to figure out how to keep track of inmates on parole or probation should they leave Louisiana -- and to coordinate with other states.
Meanwhile, to keep operations here normal, Mr. Miller hasn't canceled regular visiting days. And letters will go into the files of inmates who have helped out in the hurricane relief effort, intended to help the men when they come up for parole.
As originally published
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