Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiCriminal Justice Meltdown in New Orleans?
"We are faced with the daily reality of an imminent collapse of our criminal justice institutions."- New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley
Some say crime causes a city to be under siege; others say crime is the symptom of a city under siege. Either way, New Orleans is in serious trouble. Our criminal justice system is in unprecedented crisis.
Thursday there were four murders in 24 hours in New Orleans. Over the weekend three more people died from gunshots. So far this year, 170 people have been murdered in New Orleans - a rate seven times the national average.
The District Attorney of New Orleans just resigned at the insistence of the Mayor, the Attorney General and several legislators. His office owes a group of discharged employees a federal civil rights judgment of over $3 million - and neither the City nor State was willing to pay unless he resigned. There is high turnover in the office and thousands of people arrested have been released because the office could not timely decide whether to charge them with crimes or not. His resignation will not make New Orleans any safer.
Katrina severely damaged an already dysfunctional criminal justice in New Orleans. In fact, what has occurred and is happening now in New Orleans is really neither "justice" nor a "system."
Before Katrina, New Orleans averaged 1000 violent crimes each quarter. In the second quarter of 2007, New Orleans reported over 1300 violent crimes - despite the fact that not many more than half the people of New Orleans are back.
Black on black crime continues to dominate. Of the 161 homicide victims in 2006, 131 were black men, along with most of the suspects. Many victims and the suspects were teenagers. About two-thirds of the deaths of 2006 have gone unsolved.
Police work out of trailers, including the brass. During the summer, officers filled out paperwork in their cars because there was no working air conditioning in their temporary trailer offices. Not until spring 2007 was there a working crime lab.
New Orleans has a post-Katrina police force over 80% as large as before the storm - nearly half are new officers. At the end of 2006, seven police officers were indicted on murder charges - and then hailed as "heroes" by many fellow officers as they reported to court. The police force is supplemented by hundreds of National Guard members patrolling the city in camouflaged humvees, and, on special occasions, members of the state police as well.
The public defender system is starting to improve but remains unable to represent all those facing charges. Recently, Orleans Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter mailed over 450 letters to attorneys in New Orleans ordering them to report to his courtroom to start defending poor defendants. Most declined.
Jail is not the answer to our crime problems because Louisiana already leads all 50 states in the percentage of our people in jail, and New Orleans leads Louisiana. A report on those in the New Orleans jail show that the majority are awaiting trial and many of those in jail could easily be released. A third are in on bonds of $5000 or less - the only reason they remain in jail is because of their poverty. Over half are only facing minor charges and nearly three-quarters have no other outstanding warrants for their arrest.
Addressing crime takes a functioning criminal justice system - and New Orleans is working on that by increasing communication between the various agencies and enacting some new programs. But, like the resignation of the District Attorney, this is not likely to dramatically reduce crime.
Three recent reports help show the way for New Orleans to improve the criminal system. They stress earlier and better communication between the police and prosecutors; a wider range of pre-trial release options; and greater use of alternatives to prison.
The August 2007 report of the Urban Institute, "Washed Away? Justice in New Orleans," documents past and present challenges for criminal justice.
The VERA Institute of Justice report, "Proposals for New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: Best Practices to Advance Public Safety and Justice" gives four concrete ways that the system can be improved in the short run. Their report is here.
The community-based Safe Streets Strong Communities organization has put out several recommendations about how New Orleans can fight crime without criminalizing or alienating the people in the neighborhoods.
But even if all these changes are started, most leaders acknowledge what Criminal Judge Calvin Johnson, who has presided in criminal court for nearly 20 years, says over and over "We cannot arrest our way out of this problem."
Crime is not an isolated action. It is impossible to fix the crime problem if the rest of the institutions that people rely on remain deeply broken.
The head of the local FBI suggested to the Christian Science Monitor that criminals in New Orleans "are products of an educational system that didn't educate, a state judicial system that failed to mete out consequences for criminal activity, and an economic landscape devoid of meaningful jobs."
Katrina and its aftermath place enormous daily stresses on all people, particularly those already disadvantaged by race, gender and class systems. Treatment facilities report much more substance abuse, suicide and domestic violence. Yet, the mental and physical health systems are only a shell of what they were before the storm. Affordable housing is scarce and families are separated. Public education is not working for the poorest children. There is only so much the criminal justice system can do.
The number of doctors and social workers and nurses who treat mental health is down dramatically. Beds are down nearly 80%. Hospitals turn troubled people away every day. Doctors report people who cannot be turned away are chemically restrained on gurneys in the hall or kept in dimmed emergency waiting rooms until they can be released. The system is backed up around the state.
Even regular medical treatment is a challenge for uninsured and insured both as many hospitals remain closed. Drug and substance abuse treatment are scarce.
The extreme lack of affordable rental housing means many older family members have not returned to New Orleans. Many teenagers have returned on their own - living alone or with other relatives and friends.
Public education for those not in charter schools continues to be quite an uphill battle for the children - often in highly policed public schools that illustrate the school to prison pipeline.
Before Katrina, New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation a couple of times. The police arrested few people for violent crimes and prosecutors and judges and juries convicted less. Police, prosecutors and public defenders were overworked and underpaid - often losing their most experienced people to the suburbs and other cities where the work was calmer and the pay better.
After Katrina it is all worse. There is much more stress on the streets. There is much less counseling and treatment available. There are fewer extended families to provide a supportive environment. The police are less experienced. The police do not communicate well with the prosecutors, who do not work well with the victims and witnesses, while the judges feud with the public defenders, and on and on.
After Katrina, there is even less of a system and certainly less justice for everyone - the public, victims, the accused, law enforcement and people working in the institutions. Only when the criminal justice system is supported by a good public education available to all children, sufficient affordable housing for families, accessible healthcare (especially mental healthcare), and jobs that pay living wages, can the community expect the crime rate to go down.
The District Attorney has resigned. But New Orleans and the Gulf Coast remain in serious trouble on all fronts. Our criminal justice system is but one illustration of our institutions melting down. For us, crime is not the cause of our community being under siege; crime is the scream of our community under siege.
Bill is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley@loyno.edu
16 Comments so far
Show All"those already disadvantaged by race, gender and class systems". You are only disadvantaged if you believe you are. The question to ask is why are people committing crimes? How about blaming criminals instead of something or someone else. The breakdown of the family, no accountability in schools or at home, easy wrong choices instead of good hard work, respecting other people and property, are all contributing factors in the mess that is N.O.
And BTW money does not solve these problems. Wanting more out of life, working hard, strong moral values and getting an education will assist in solving these problems.
I'm minded to think that the America which was born of revolution in 1776 has reached the final stage of revolution. It has itself become the ançièn regime.
To DaveEriqat and whenscott. I wish I could have the focus at the moment to capture what the two of you have in words. You have stated the facts - plain and simple, at least the facts that affect the poor.
I have been in prison and jail and the one most outstanding fact is the lack of an education to prepare the youth of today for the future.
But, unfortunately, an educated public is what those who run this country don't want. They want people to suspend critical thought or the courage to stand up for what is just. This isn't a modern day phenomenom. Human nature has remained unchanged while the advances in science have not.
Whatever happened to the Thoreus, Paines, Priestlys, and on and on from the truly enlightened age? We still have those same movers and shakers. Unfortunately, it is becoming easier and easier to control the masses. As a person remarked recently on one of the many talking head shows, he said the American people are stupid. And he won't be invited to air his views again.
Collectively, we are a very superficial, far too individualistic society. And while we go about satisfying our personal wants, those that make the decisions continue to underming the cornerstones of our constitution; which I believe to be a living document able to adapt to changes unforseen in the founding father's constitution.
No system is perfect but I admire their erudition and goals. They did there best to avoid an administration such as the Bush/Cheney one.
And that is why they where so concerned with corporations. If the original obligations of a corporation we adhered to in the mid 1800's, we would be living in a very different world today.
Power can corrupt but money corrupts absolutely. It's far past the time for a new amendment - the seperation of corporation and state.
"...narrow mindedness, the bigotry, the racism, the demagoguery of the religious fundamentalist and politician, the anti-intellectualism, the xenophobia, the boorish common manners, the silly sentimental country music and lastly that insidious bastard stepchild of Exxon…. NASCAR...."
Could have said it better myself, particalarly the part about the petrol sniffing 'Nascar' booffheads....
Lets face it the Nascar ideology or lack of it; is what's keeping middle America in denial about the environmental catastrophe coming our way....make no mistake about it!!!
I'm just going to plop my comment form Ray McGovern's article right here because it's just as relevant:
Countries are just pawns in the global corporate sweepstakes. Remember in the 80's when corporate raiders used to find under valued companies, leverage a buyout, and then cannibalize the carcass for profit. Well this is what's happening to whole countries now with the U. S. being one of the best examples.
We had this great middle class with average people buying Waterford crystal at Costco. Well this was just to much for the real power brokers. The pie was being shared to equitably. What the hell was the since of being rich if a Ford factory worker could drive a Mercedes. There had to be a shift and it would be quick. Government and it's regulations had to be humiliated and attacked. People had to be dumbed down through failed education; made unhealthy through trash food and needless and even harmful medications; and throughly opiated with mindless amusements.
The worst of the southern mentality has been exported from coast to coast, from borer to border. The narrow mindedness, the bigotry, the racism, the demagoguery of the religious fundamentalist and politician, the anti-intellectualism, the zenophobia, the boorish common manners, the silly sentimental country music and lastly that insidious bastard stepchild of Exxon…. NASCAR.
After this carnage is it any wonder the country could elect Alfred E Newman as it's president… twice?
This trend will continue as each new country gets a foothold on middleclassness, the rug will be pulled out from under them, the corporate labor barge towed to a new poorer and more desperate port, until near the end there will be one final hand (probably televised) of the five richest oligarchs in the world sitting on top of all the scum, pollution and depravity one can imagine. The winner will be hailed as the new sun king, a deified being who is all talent, smarts, strength, holiness, charisma and gravitas …. and we will all wait humbly in line to kiss his boots.
"...New Orlean's slide down to or even to below 3rd world status is exactly what awaits the rest of the country unless things radically change..."
You are right Tremaine; make no mistake about it!!!
Leaving Iraq NOW would save 9 Billion dollars a month just for starters...
I don't know how much it has to do with what's happened in New Orleans, but in addition to the infrastructure breakdown, health care, education, police, etc., there's ALSO the criminality and ineptitude in the realm of domestic governing at the top of the pyramid, in Washington. I can't help but think this has a terrible filter-down effect. The young learn from those at the top.
"Why shouldn't I lie?"
"Why shouldn't I steal?"
"Why shouldn't I murder?"
"The government does it."
Yes, you are so right whenscott. And you too DaveEriqat. You two pretty much made all of the salient points that I would make. New Orleans had a way of functioning that made the failures of the extreme, raw capitalistic Republican system seem more tolerable. Most of the crime pre-Katrina was relatively petty, and the criminals were housed in jail more because of their poverty than because of their crimes. Now the crime has been ratcheted up to the kind of severe crime patterns that you see in third world countries.
And the central core of the culture of New Orleans has had a partial meltdown, so the effects of the failures of the system are no longer being mitigated anywhere near as much as they used to be.
And yes, New Orlean's slide down to or even to below 3rd world status is exactly what awaits the rest of the country unless things radically change.
We have a very accurate article followed by accurate comments (above mine), folks.
People tend to become more violent when they have been shown time and time again that their lives don't matter. Everyone knew that what happened in New Orleans was bound to happen - it was a disaster waiting to happen.
People without washrooms or dignity being left to die and shot at by Blackwater like they were dogs if they even tried to keep from starving (or, if Iraq is any indication, as shooting practice). I saw it all unfold on TV. I still remember what Celine Dion said about it. I know it looks a bit humourous, but her point is that during a disaster of that magnitude looting is the last thing you should be concerned with.
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1092994903&fr=yfp-t-471
How much coverage do you guys get concerning Canadaville?
I volunteered for 6 months at Common Ground Health Clinic http://cghc.org in 2005/2006. I'm a mental health counselor. I saw the crash of the mental health system and amnot surprised by the results. I am very sad to see that so little efforts have come out of the broader mental health community to provide care for the people of New Orleans. I wrote an article about that which can be viewed at http://www.healingmagic.org/walterzeichner/DisasterMentalHealthCall.pdf
I believe New Orleans is a microcosm of the United States' future:
"The head of the local FBI suggested to the Christian Science Monitor that criminals in New Orleans 'are products of an educational system that didn't educate, a state judicial system that failed to mete out consequences for criminal activity, and an economic landscape devoid of meaningful jobs.'"
All these factors increasingly apply the United States at large. In a few decades, if not years, will the entire country look like New Orleans?
New Orleans was ravaged by a meteorological hurricane. The United States is facing the prospect of several economic hurricanes – baby boomer entitlement costs, the costs of multiple wars, the housing bust, a dollar plummeting in value. In addition we have to cope with a growing population, declining food stocks, and peak oil.
Dave Eriqat
Well said, whenscot.
Please. The historic appeal of New Orleans - that it was structurally and functionally distinctly different from the rest of the country - is now it's curse, after Katrina's destruction. Prior to the hurricane, it DID function, albeit quite in its own way. One who didn't live there before, and hasn't been there after, simply has no idea. Readers, unless a comment includes a claim of vast personal experience, ignore it.
A few well distributed billions now going weekly to Iraq, could bail New Orleans out. DO NOT rebuild in flood zones!
"What our country has allowed to happen?" . . . .
Give me a break . . . . The country didn't allow anything to happen anywhere it is happening all by itself. If you feel you can make a difference than go down to New Orleans and apply yourself. We as a country need to stop blaming someone else for what is happening some where else. Either change yourself and make a difference or continue to sit back and blame the other guy for what is happening. You can't change other people . . . . You can only change yourself.
It is horrible what our country has allowed to happen to the people of New Orleans without hardly a note of protest.