Officers Abandon Inmates Locked in Cells as Katrina Hit New Orleans

[BrklynLiberal]

Yet another horror revealed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells

As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city’s jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

<snip>

Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the conduct of the Orleans Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, and to establish the fate of the prisoners who had been locked in the jail. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which oversaw the evacuation, and the Orleans Sheriff’s Department should account for the 517 inmates who are missing from the list of people evacuated from the jail.

<snip>

Many of the men held at jail had been arrested for offenses like criminal trespass, public drunkenness or disorderly conduct. Many had not even been brought before a judge and charged, much less been convicted.

more....

http://www.humanrightswatch.org/english/docs/2005/09/22/usdom11773.htm

[ret5hd]

1. believe it or not...

there are those among us here at DU that believe this was all okee-dokee.

edit:for clarity, i am NOT one of those.

[zbdent]

2. So, where's the outcry in the media?

It's not like these were, say, nursing home patients . . .

:eyes:

I wonder if the MSM will pick up on the attempted execution of hundreds of prisoners by the "law and order" types . . .

I wonder if they will be counted in the "didn't bother to evacuate when they could have" counts by the Righties . . .

[peacetalksforall]

3. Who was it that was saying that the U.S. is superior to every other

country on the planet?

There is one way it WAS superior:

Tehnology.

Now, can we say the technology was wasted because of the Repbulican Party - by not allocating money for infrastructure.

34 - 517 - 4000

34 from a nursing home
517 prisoners
4000 children

Superiority: There were other aspects besides technology that allowed most people a superior opportunity at the basics of life, security, the window of opportunity to rise and express one self and succeed. Then we were superior to most countries because of our right to vote and kick out a regime we didn't want.

Every single thing that made us great is being destroyed - from our precious vote to our window of opportunity.

It's now a superior country if you're a destroyer or a hater or started out wealthy or are now making money off destruction of the people and their economy.

Wouldn't it make an interesting short story if a young kid got drunk and landed in that jail just before the hurricane and the wealthy born-again ceo parents of the kid thought that he had just gone off to stay with friends so they took off for their second home in AZ. But now they know.