Two-thirds of juveniles who are not freed on bail before trial in adult court are held in jails, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice, which is dedicated to getting youth out of adult criminal justice systems. New Orleans is not alone in placing juveniles in adult jails as they await trial for serious crimes. They’re often beaten by fellow inmates and are sometimes even raped. Despite reforms being implemented under the oversight of a federal judge, there is usually only one guard on duty for every dozen juveniles, said New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry.Īs a result, these teenagers are confined to cells for up to 23 hours a day, said Theodore Shaw, a youth advocate for the Southern Poverty Law Center who has interviewed teens about the conditions at Orleans Parish Prison. The complex is notorious for inmate violence, sexual assault, escapes, inadequate health care and even inmate deaths. “If every single one of these had been interviewed,” she said, “I bet you’d find they’d been victimized in prison either through a fight, beating or otherwise.”Īs of late April, said Glenn Holt, director of the Youth Study Center, a dozen boys 15 to 17 were awaiting trial in Orleans Parish Prison, the local jail that is undergoing court-ordered reforms. And so when they’re standing in front of a judge in criminal court, I’m concerned about their welfare, in prison,” Orleans Criminal District Judge Laurie White recently told the city council. Since December, these public officials have been trying to figure out whether all juveniles charged with serious crimes can be moved from Orleans Parish Prison and how much it would cost. … If every single one of these had been interviewed, I bet you’d find they’d been victimized in prison either through a fight, beating or otherwise.”-Orleans Criminal District Judge Laurie White Some members of a working group convened by Mayor Mitch Landrieu want to ensure young defendants are sent someplace safer - a place designed for them, not adults. But until recently, most New Orleans judges had continued to send them to Orleans Parish Prison. Now it’s up to judges to decide, usually based on defense attorneys’ requests. Until a few years ago, Louisiana law required youth to be jailed as adults if they were awaiting trial in adult court. “It’s a lot easier to look away,” he said at a New Orleans City Council committee meeting in April.īarbery, who works for Orleans Public Defenders, was one of about a dozen juvenile advocates who spoke about a local campaign to keep criminal suspects as young as 14 out of one of the most dangerous jails in the country. His nose was disfigured and his bottom lip had been ripped open and sewn back together - injuries from a jail fight that lasted for 10 minutes before a guard noticed. The boy’s face was swollen like a balloon. Marcos Barbery sat across from the teenager in a visitor’s booth at Orleans Parish Prison.
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