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Recently unearthed report raises concerns about suicide prevention at Louisiana immigration center
A recently unearthed internal report by a federal civil rights office found serious deficiences in suicide prevention practices at a privately managed immigration detention center in Louisiana, including poor staff training and mental health screening procedures that “probably resulted in the under-reporting and under-identification of detainees who are at risk for suicide.” The 2017 report, […]
Appeals court stays order to remove youth from Angola
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Wednesday halted a federal judge’s order that the state of Louisiana shut down a controversial temporary youth detention center on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The order will pause a deadline for the state Office of Juvenile Justice […]
Almost all sheriffs in Louisiana are white men. Fall election candidates seek to change that.
Elected sheriffs, among the most powerful figures in local law enforcement, are overwhelmingly white men in Louisiana. In a state with a Black population of more than 30%, only four out of 64 sheriffs are Black, and only one — Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson — is a woman. But this fall, voters will have […]
Louisiana backpedals on deal to pause youth transfers to adult penitentiary
The state of Louisiana on Wednesday withdrew from an agreement to temporarily stop transferring incarcerated youth to a former death row unit on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. The reversal came at the end of the final day of a hearing in Baton Rouge federal court on an emergency motion — […]
Alleged ‘harmful conditions’ for youth at Angola may violate Constitution, feds say
The state of Louisiana may have violated the civil rights of dozens of juveniles it has sent to a temporary detention facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola over the past nine months, by allegedly subjecting the youths to “harmful conditions,” including solitary confinement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. On Friday (July […]
Immigrant who died in Louisiana ICE detention center had filed at least 29 grievances
In the months leading to his death in June, a 42-year-old man held in a privately run Louisiana immigration detention center submitted dozens of grievances alleging that he was refused medical care, denied access to his personal detention records and was subject to mistreatment and negligence by guards, records obtained by Verite show. In one […]