a month and a half later, the katrina aftermath is still incredibly ugly

[sophiaserpentia]

Human Rights Watch has posted a horrific, nightmarish account of 600 prisoners in the Orleans Parish Prison who were abandoned for four days as floodwaters rose to chest level on the first floor. 517 are still unaccounted for. (Thanks to purejuice, poor_planning for the link)

“The water started rising, it was getting to here,” said Earrand Kelly, an inmate from Templeman III, as he pointed at his neck. “We was calling down to the guys in the cells under us, talking to them every couple of minutes. They were crying, they were scared. The one that I was cool with, he was saying ‘I'm scared. I feel like I'm about to drown.' He was crying.”

Some inmates from Templeman III have said they saw bodies floating in the floodwaters as they were evacuated from the prison. A number of inmates told Human Rights Watch that they were not able to get everyone out from their cells.

... “It was complete chaos,” said a corrections officer with more than 30 years of service at Orleans Parish Prison. When asked what he thought happened to the inmates in Templeman III, he shook his head and said: “Ain't no tellin’ what happened to those people.”

Since Hurricane Katrina, over 1000 prisoners have been kept at "Camp Amtrak," a makeshift jail in and around the Greyhound/Amtrak station, sleeping in open-air pens and eating cold MRE rations. Reports of police abuse and forced labor are starting to emerge from Camp Amtrak. (Thanks to _raven_ for the link)

When they entered the room, public defender Clyde Merritt briefly explained the options while the defendants strained to hear him. In most cases, he told them, they could plead guilty and they would be sentenced to about 40 hours of "community service." If they wished the maintain their innocence, he said, they would be sent to Hunts Correctional Facility where they could wait as long as 21 days to be processed, no matter how minor or unsupported their charges.

... In the end, given the choice between unpaid work and continued incarceration, nearly all chose to plead guilty.

...[Don Antenen, a prisoner support activist from Cincinnati, Ohio, said,] "The police are basically arresting people for curfew violations and public intoxication and just using it as a way to get free labor to clean up the prisons and court houses and the police stations. They’re just using it as a way to get people to do their dirty work for free."

There's so much more post-Katrina ugliness still going on, raw and evil, i don't even know where to start. There are some reports for example that people have returned to their apartments to find new people living in their apartments at much higher rent, their stuff out on the curb, despite a supposed ban on evictions in Louisiana until Oct. 25. There's no legal recourse, because the courts are still closed. It's unclear what provisions if any are going to be made to help the displaced poor people of New Orleans return, since so many homes are completely unsalvageable. Most likely FEMA will put them up in desolate trailer parks for 18 months and then kick them out.

Comments

[qilora.livejournal.com]

"who were abandoned for four days as floodwaters rose to chest level on the first floor. 517 are still unaccounted for"

sounds cruel and unusual to me.

so who the hell is going to be held accountable?

i am so disgusted.


"There are some reports for example that people have returned to their apartments to find new people living in their apartments at much higher rent,"

i am honestly speechless.


Ulla & Co.

COMPLETELY off topic...

[stacymckenna.livejournal.com]

My husband is currently reading Healthy Pleasures for his Lifestyle Redesign(tm) class at USC. Every time I see it I think of you, and your discussions about the criminalization of pleasure in our society.

Just thought I'd link it in case you hadn't seen it and would be interested. (I might actually get around to reading it one of these days when he's done with it...)