| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
07 Oct 2005 09:41:28 PM |
| Object: |
New Orleans criminal justice system facing severe money woe |
New Orleans criminal justice system facing severe money woe
10/7/2005, 5:34 p.m. CT
By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
ST. GABRIEL, La. (AP) — Struggling to restart New Orleans' crippled
criminal justice system, the parish district attorney and chief
criminal judge said money problems from Hurricane Katrina have forced
layoffs and threaten to stymie court proceedings.
The cash shortage compounds problems for a system that already was
troubled with prosecutors trying to track down witnesses who scattered
as evacuees, a clerk of court's office assessing whether flooding and
mold damaged evidence and a criminal court temporarily holding limited
proceedings at a jail miles away from New Orleans.
Judges still are scouring through cases a month after Katrina to
determine if there are people in jails who should already have been
released, Chief Judge Calvin Johnson, of the Orleans Parish Criminal
District Court, said Friday.
Meanwhile, the city has no tax base, no income and no traffic tickets
or court fines to generate cash. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said
earlier this week that he was laying off as many as 3,000 employees
because of the city's financial problems, and the city pays a third of
the district attorney's budget and most of the clerk of criminal
court's staff.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he's been told that
the city won't be providing any more money to his office so he likely
will have to lay off prosecutors. He's already laid off nearly 40
workers and said the financial woes are so bad he could be forced to
shut down the DA's office within a month.
"Obviously, there cannot be any safety in the city of New Orleans
without a fully functioning criminal justice system," Jordan said at
briefing held at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center.
The clerk of criminal court, Kimberly Butler, said she's laid off 45
people, or half of her office. Johnson said judges have laid off
staffers and reduced salaries.
The public defender's office for the very poor city operates with the
dollars from traffic tickets and court fines that aren't being
collected, so it can't operate, Johnson said. Without a working public
defender's office, he said many of the cases can't be heard.
Johnson said an emergency loan package approved by Congress on Friday
for local governments harmed by the hurricane might help, but he said
there were questions about the legality of local government agencies
borrowing the money.
Some limited criminal justice operations are running. A temporary jail
facility at a train and bus station in New Orleans has taken in and
processed nearly 700 people arrested for crimes, according to Parish
Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman.
Jordan said his office is doing bond hearings daily at the temporary
jail. The clerk's office is processing criminal bonds.
Gusman said he hopes to have two prison facilities — which have been
decontaminated after the flooding — inspected and ready to house more
than 1,200 prisoners by the middle of the month. More than 6,000
Orleans Parish inmates are scattered in other jails currently.
The criminal court, which early on retrieved its computers and servers
by boat, started a limited review of dockets and cases, but mainly to
determine if certain people jailed for misdemeanors, probationary
violations and other minor crimes should be released, Johnson said.
Otherwise, the court is still closed.
"A critical thing for us is to be sure that no one is in jail that
shouldn't be there," Johnson said.
The state corrections department is in the middle of releasing 750
prisoners from Orleans Parish, people who were in jail when Katrina
hit for misdemeanor crimes like traffic violations and public
drunkenness, according to Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the
department. She said those releases should be finished by next week.
The resumption of a regular load of court proceedings and the
completed repairs of all of the city's jails aren't expected to come
anytime soon, officials acknowledged. The clerk's office, the district
attorney's office and the court building all had water damage, though
court officials said they were working with FEMA to get two courtrooms
operating within a few days.
--
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
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| User: "john fernbach" |
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| Title: Re: New Orleans criminal justice system facing severe money woe |
07 Oct 2005 09:47:10 PM |
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"America is a vast conspiracy to make John Updike happy."
-- John Fernbach
"October 10. Columbus Day. Undoubtedly, it was a great thing to
discover America, but it might have been an even greater thing to have
missed it."
-- Mark Twain,
Puddenhead Wilson's Diary
.
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