Mayor, sheriff sparring over OPP, again
16th May 2016 · 0 Comments
After criticizing Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman in the past for his management of the newly constructed Orleans Parish Prison and asking the federal government to seize control of the troubled facility, the City of New Orleans last week joined the U.S. Department of Justice and advocates of constitutional jailing in calling for a federal judge to appoint someone to take over operations of OPP.
FOX 8 News reported that Tuesday’s federal court filing comes two weeks after DOJ officials and attorneys representing OPP inmates’ interests asked U.S. District Judge Lance Africk to appoint a “receiver” to operate the jail, which would effectively strip Sheriff Marlin Gusman of one of his chief duties.
Officials with the City of New Orleans, which funds the jail, have been at odds for years with Gusman, who operates it. Gusman has complained that Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration and the City Council have severely underfunded the facility in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for him to hire and train the personnel needed to comply with court-ordered reforms.
Plaintiffs filed court papers last week that read in part, “A receiver may not be able to operate Orleans Parish Jail at a cheaper daily cost than OPSO. But an independent entity — untethered from local politics and with the authority and goal of operating a constitutional jail without further unnecessary delay and foot-dragging — will conserve resources in the long run.”
“This dispute is motivated by a desire to usurp the will of the Orleans Parish voters by replacing the elected Sheriff,” OPSO attorneys wrote in a 22-page response. “…The plaintiffs want to select the Sheriff for Orleans Parish instead of the voters in Orleans Parish.”
Over the past few years, during which Orleans Parish Prison has been operating under a federally mandated consent decree aimed at bringing the facility up to federal standards for constitutional jailing, the mayor and sheriff have spent a great deal of time and energy pointing fingers at one another for lingering problems and issues at Orleans Parish Prison. In the midst of legal jousting in federal court and a war of words at dueling press conferences, a number of scandals and incidents have prompted many to question the safety and environment in which inmates are housed at OPP.
Even after a video during which OPP inmates are shown shooting dice, drinking beer, using drugs and roaming the streets of the French Quarter was released to the public and shown in federal court, Gusman and Landrieu have failed to comply with a federal judge’s orders that they resolve their differences for the betterment of Orleans Parish Prison.
“The Mayor of New Orleans and his supporters on the City Council have not spent five minutes inside the jail to view what is happening for themselves,” Sheriff Gusman said in a statement released Tuesday. “How can they make any judgment on the best way for the jail to operate? They refuse to come and personally see the progress we are making.
“The Sheriff’s Office has been forced to make some very tough decisions. At each point, the Sheriff’s Office faced unrelenting criticism,” Gusman continued.
“The notion of the city doubling the OPSO’s budget is a lie. The budget submitted by the Mayor’s Office and approved by the City Council allocates revenue to the OPSO for programs and activities that do not exist. For example, the City tried to allocate more than $3 million in interest payments for the Law Enforcement District funding as operational funds for the OPSO. That cannot be done. The City also projected that the OPSO would receive $400,000 in revenue from the electronic monitoring program in 2016. The OPSO has not operated the electronic monitoring program since 2015.
“It is ironic that the city withholds funding, withholds building permits, withholds cooperation, and then criticizes the OPSO for the pace of our progress. Mayor Landrieu issued a stop work order on construction of the new jail, less than one month before we were scheduled to move in. We had to go to court to fight them. The mayor then refused to issue an occupancy permit once construction was complete. We had to go to court again to fight them. Now we’ve had to go to court to try and resolve the constant funding shortfalls by the City in their obligation to pay for a constitutional jail.
“It is unreasonable for the plaintiffs and U.S. Department of Justice to expect complete perfection in only two years when we are overhauling a system that was broken for 30 years before I became sheriff. These situations do not even account for the state of the City’s current consent decrees with the New Orleans Police Department and the Sewerage and Water Board. Both of these consent decrees have gone on longer without any talk of a federal takeover.
“While I believe that we will be able to come into compliance quicker than those other places, we must have the cooperation of the city on funding and salaries to accelerate the pace of reform.”
A May 18 hearing has been scheduled in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, who could potentially issue a ruling regarding control of Orleans Parish Prison after hearing from both sides in the dispute.
This article originally published in the May 16, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
