Civic groups file suit against Orleans Parish sheriff

By Meghan Holmes
Contributing Writer

On March 14, the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Committee (OPPRC) and other local groups filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Marlin Gusman, Darnley R. Hodge, Jared E. Munster, and the city of New Orleans, alleging the illegal operation of the Temporary Detention Center (TDC) capable of housing up to 800 additional inmates adjacent to Orleans Parish Prison.

A city council ordinance (no. 24,282) passed in 2011 mandated the demolition or decommissioning of the TDC, a temporary jail building constructed after Hurricane Katrina, no later than 18 months after the construction of a new jail. The new Orleans Parish Prison facility became operational in October 2015, but when the ordinance’s 18 month deadline passed in April 2017, the TDC never closed. According to OPPRC’s lawsuit, New Orleans’ director of Safety and Permits issued a Temporary Occupancy Certificate to the Sheriff’s Office for the TDC, and the sheriff continued housing inmates in the facility.

“They didn’t go through the proper zoning process; there was no meeting with the city council,” says Sade Dumas, executive director of the OPPLRC. “So, we see this as an illegal jail expansion, that currently holds more than 200 inmates.”

Mid-city Neighborhood Association, Voice of the Experienced, Women with a Vision, Yvette Thierry and Don Everard joined OPPRC in filing the suit, representing a coalition of advocacy and neighborhood groups as well as formerly and currently incarcerated persons and their friends and family. These groups, along with nearly 30 other local organizations, presented a letter to the city in November with two stipulations – close the TDC, and implement an incremental release program for nonviolent offenders that caps the number of individuals incarcerated at any given time.

“We gave them 90 days to meet our demands, because this is an urgent issue,” says Dumas. “Eighty-nine percent of the people being held in this facility are pre-trial. Why are they being kept in these conditions? We feel that elected officials need to move much more quickly to address this problem.”

The OPPRC’s lawsuit also emphasizes the organization’s goal of enforcing the cap established in Ordinance 24,282, which limits the number of incarcerated persons at OPP to 1,438, a number based on a working group’s recommendation to the city council.

“The current capacity, with the TDC, is between 1,834 and 2,284, which is well over what the ordinance mandates,” says Dumas. “That’s a direct contradiction of the city’s stated goal of reducing our jail population.

Serious issues within OPP also impacted OPPRC’s decision to file suit, including the death of Evan Sullivan, a 27-year-old Navy veteran who passed away inside the TDC last November. OPSO initially said Sullivan died of natural causes. An autopsy later revealed that Sullivan died of multiple causes including heroin intoxication, months after his admission to the facility.

“Someone died in a building that shouldn’t even be open,” says Dumas. “But the problem isn’t just the building, it’s the management. Employee turnover at OPP is incredibly high, more than forty percent. During a recent status hearing in federal court clear neglect was reported. Guards leaving floors unmanned, inmates leaving cells and doing all sorts of things, women without clean underwear or toilet paper… why are nonviolent offenders and people who haven’t been convicted being subjected to that?”

In response to a request for comment, Phillip Stelly, public information officer for Sheriff Gusman, said that the OPSO’s policy is not to comment on pending litigation.

This article originally published in the March 19, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.