Jails + Prisons
People incarcerated by non-unanimous juries won’t get life line
The House voted 48-38 to kill a bill Thursday that would have created an avenue of hope for prisoners who were convicted by non-unanimous juries before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the practice. House Bill 588 would have created a special committee for providing parole for up to roughly 1,500 people who had been convicted […]
Death penalty, despite high cost and few executions, stays put in Louisiana
A legislative effort to eliminate the death penalty as a form of criminal punishment in Louisiana failed Wednesday, despite the state not having executed anyone involuntarily in over 20 years. Advocates for ending capital punishment stressed that 11 death row inmates have been exonerated or had their convictions reversed, compared with 28 executed, since Louisiana […]
Police mugshots could soon be made public again
The Louisiana Senate is on track to reverse a bill it passed unanimously just a year ago that limited the release of mugshots of people accused of non-violent offenses prior to conviction. House Bill 265, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, would effectively repeal most of a law Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, sponsored last […]
Lawsuit: NM prison guard tells Black man, ‘Let me guess, you can’t breathe?’
This story contains graphic descriptions of violence, sexual abuse, and a racist threat. During a shakedown in the spring of 2021, a New Mexico prison guard, with his foot on the back of a Black man who lay on the floor of his cell surrounded by other guards, taunted him by saying, “Let me guess, […]
Family left with questions after man dies in custody of rural sheriff’s office
State investigators are reviewing the death of a man shortly after his arrest on April 3 by Charles Mix County sheriff’s deputies. Friends of 35-year-old Robert Dennis “Berta” Enoch have a host of questions about how someone who’d expressed a desire to get well and had secured a place at a treatment center just days […]
A miscarriage of justice, a life in prison
This story mentions sexual assault. It was April 2022, and come summer 66-year-old Bobby Norfleet would begin another year behind bars. He bore the marks of 44 years in North Carolina prisons. He had a lump in his left leg. He didn’t have any teeth. His dentures had broken, so talking was difficult. Bobby’s younger […]
As critics note problems of mass incarceration, local jails add more beds
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s standing as one of the world’s most incarcerated places is often blamed on prison and jail admissions from major population centers like New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport. But an explosion in new beds and pretrial detention rates in local jails across the state’s rural parishes has played an even greater […]
Louisiana spent $7.7 million on death penalty defense. It hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years.
Louisiana spent $7.7 million providing legal defense to people facing the death penalty in 2022, according to the Louisiana Public Defender’s Office, even though the state hasn’t executed anyone in 13 years. The most recently Louisiana has put someone to death was Gerald Bordelon in January 2010, after he waived his right to legal appeals […]
New state utility regulator wants to reduce rates, introduce renewable mandates
After defying the odds to become the first openly LGBTQ person elected to a statewide office, Davante Lewis intends to use the momentum to take on utility giants such as Entergy and move the state toward more renewable energy in his first six-year term on Louisiana’s Public Service Commission. Many see Lewis’ victory as a […]
DOC ‘deliberately indifferent’ about releasing incarcerated people on time, Justice Dept. finds
There is reason to believe Louisiana routinely holds incarcerated people beyond their release dates in violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution, according to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that covered the first four months of 2022. Findings of the probe, which involved information the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections provided […]
Louisiana juvenile center repair costs up 75% to prevent escapes
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana lawmakers may end up spending 75% more than they intended on repairs to an incarcerated youth facility in order to fortify the building against escapes. Lawmakers initially allocated $440,217 in May 2021 to fix damage at Acadiana Center for Youth in Bunkie. Less than two years later, the project […]
Youth held at Angola allege violence from guards, extended lockdown in lawsuit
An incarcerated youth said guards at a controversial juvenile justice facility recently opened on the grounds of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola have hit young people and used mace multiple times to restrain them. The building has also gone into lockdown for days at a time, where young people are only let out of their […]