-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Two Years Post-Katrina
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:55:39 -0500
From: Shannon Gibney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Two Years Post-Katrina:
Racism and Criminal Justice in New Orleans
By Jordan Flaherty
August 29, 2007
Two years after the devastation of New Orleans highlighted racism and
inequality in the US, the disaster continues. New Orleans' health care
and education systems are still in crisis. Thousands of units of public
housing sit empty. Nearly half the city's population remains
displaced. A report released this week by the Institute for Southern
Studies reveals that, out of $116 billion in federal Katrina funds
allocated, less than 30% has gone towards long-term rebuilding--and half
of that 30% remains unspent.
The city's criminal justice system, already rated among the worst in the
nation by human rights organizations pre-Katrina, continues to be in
crisis. After the storm, thousands of prisoners were abandoned in
Orleans Parish Prison as the water was rising. In the days after
Katrina, mainstream media depicted the people of New Orleans as looters
and criminals, and a makeshift jail in a bus station was the first city
function to re-open, just days after the storm.
For Robert Goodman, an activist for criminal justice reform who was born
and raised in the schools and prisons of Louisiana, this demonizing and
criminalization of the survivors was no surprise. He tells me that the
primary crisis of New Orleans is a discriminatory and corrupt criminal
justice system, adding that, "every time a black child is born in
Louisiana, there's already a bed waiting for him at Angola State Prison.".
On May 9, 2006, Robert Goodman's brother was killed in an encounter with
the New Orleans police. This was another death in a long list of
civilian deaths at police hands, a list that also includes three deaths
in Orleans Parish Prison this year. Advocates say these deaths have not
received proper investigation, and point to larger, systemic problems.
A Broken System
For poor Black kids growing up in New Orleans, the education system
functions as a school to prison pipeline. In New Orleans, 95% of the
detained youth in 1999 were Black. In 2004, Louisiana spent $96,713 to
incarcerate each child in detention, and $4,724 to educate a child in
the public schools. "When I went to prison, I was illiterate," Goodman
tells me. "I didn't even know anything about slavery, about our history."
New Orleans' public defense system is in such poor shape that Orleans
Parish Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter recently complained
that, "indigent defense in New Orleans is unbelievable,
unconstitutional, totally lacking the basic professional standards of
legal representation, and a mockery of what a criminal justice system
should be in a Western civilized nation."
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the US - if
Louisiana were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate
in the world. Orleans Parish Prison, the city jail, was - pre-Katrina -
the eighth largest jail in the US. Advocates complain that there is no
forum for oversight over the jail or Marlin Gusman, the criminal Sheriff
who oversees it. "We've suffered under a policy where the city builds a
huge jail that is then required to be filled with human beings, or else
it's a waste of money," states civil rights attorney Mary Howell.
Robert Goodman is fighting to change the system that took away his
brother, as part of a grassroots organization called Safe Streets Strong
Communities. Safe Streets is struggling not just to reform the entire
system, from policing and public defense to prison, but also to reframe
the debate around these issues.
Safe Streets began as a coalition of grassroots activists and organizers
from a number of organizations who came together post-Katrina to respond
to the immediate crisis. "Our first priority was to help those
individuals who had been in Orleans Parish Prison prior to Katrina, many
of whom were being held illegally for minor, non-violent offenses,"
explains co-director Norris Henderson. "In the early days, right after
the storm, Safe Streets was basically performing triage for a broken
system."
In the transition from the crisis of Katrina to the long-term
catastrophe that the city is still in, Safe Streets focused their energy
on building their base, ensuring that people in communities most
affected were shaping the priorities and making the decisions of the
organization.
The organization has been a vital leader in the struggle for a just
recovery for New Orleans. Shortly after Safe Streets began pressuring
on the issue, the city's indigent defense board was completely
reconstituted and now includes people that actually care about poor
people receiving a fair trial. After they turned their focus to issues
around policing, the city approved and funded an office of the
independent monitor to oversee the police. In addition, the city
council has begun looking at downsizing Orleans Parish Prison, as well
as reducing the sheriff's budget, and tying it to reform and greater
accountability - also a part of Safe Street's strategy.
More importantly, they affected the debate around criminal justice in
the city. Within a few months after the storm, instead of talk of more
prisons, journalists and politicians were looking at the system, and the
roots of the problems. Evidence of widespread police misconduct and
people locked up for months without charges began to be reported.
For those that have been victimized by law enforcement violence,
organizing and talking about what they have faced has already been
transformative. "I can't imagine where my family would be if it weren't
for Safe Streets," Goodman tells me. "We would have been pushed to the
side. This organizing inspired my mother to live another day."
-------------------------------------------
Jordan Flaherty is an editor of Left Turn Magazine, a journal of
grassroots resistance. His previous articles from New Orleans are
online at http://www.leftturn.org <http://www.leftturn.org/>. To contact
Jordan, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
On myspace: http://www.myspace.com/secondlines
<http://www.myspace.com/secondlines>.
A version of this story originally appeared in the July/August issue of
ColorLines Magazine. See a special online collection of Katrina-related
reporting at http://www.colorlines.com/.
-----------------------------------------
For more information on some of the organizations and resources
mentioned in this article:
Safe Streets Strong Communities: http://www.safestreetsnola.org/
Institute For Southern Studies Report:
http://www.southernstudies.org/facingsouth/
<http://www.southernstudies.org/facingsouth/>
Other Resources for information and action:
People's Institute for Survival and Beyond - http://www.pisab.org
<http://www.pisab.org/>
INCITE Women of Color Against Violence - http://www.incite-national.org
<http://www.incite-national.org/>
A Fighting Chance - http://www.a-fighting-chance.org
<http://www.a-fighting-chance.org/>
People's Organizing Committee: http://www.peoplesorganizing.org
<http://www.peoplesorganizing.org/>
Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund - http://www.peopleshurricane.org
<http://www.peopleshurricane.org/>
Justice for New Orleans - http://www.justiceforneworleans.org
<http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/>
Common Ground - http://www.commongroundrelief.org
<http://www.commongroundrelief.org/>
Black Commentator - http://www.blackcommentator.com
<http://www.blackcommentator.com/>
Letter From New Orleans Grassroots:
http://leftturn.mayfirst.org/?q=node/573
Please support independent media! Subscribe to Left Turn Magazine.
www.leftturn.org <http://www.leftturn.org/>.
This is a low-volume email list for Jordan Flaherty's articles and
updates from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. To subscribe, email
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--
Shannon Gibney
www.shannongibney.net <http://www.shannongibney.net>
612-210-8049 (cell)
"The apprehension of wholeness...of the pregnant inclusiveness of
negative space, is the aesthetic experience."
--Kathleen Dowling Singh
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