New Orleans was left in shambles following the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina. We all know that the disaster preparedness plan was nearly non-existent. We know that the government failed New Orleans and the region in the days, weeks and months following the hurricane. The problems still continue.
I visited New Orleans in October and saw a city in shambles. Sure there was some activity in the Vieux Carre, the Garden district and downtown, but besides that the city has a long way to go. The Crescent City lost half of its population after Katrina, yet for the half that still resides down there there is no justice system.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of residents that scattered across the country, most of those that worked in all facets of the justice system were part of that exodus. Many of the public defenders and court employees are gone, only a few fighters remain to provide legal services for a battered system that predominantly hurts the poorest of the community.
One example of this is Iben O'Neal:
Iben O'Neal, 32, languished in a New Orleans jail for a year and a half after his arrest in 2005, without seeing a lawyer, judge or the inside of a courtroom.
"I actually felt like I wasn't going to get out," he told ABC News' Steve Osunsami. "I was lost."
O'Neal was arrested May 19, 2005, on a charge related to simple drug possession. He remained in jail three months later when Hurricane Katrina flooded the courts and the rest of the city. He finally walked out of jail in November 2006, after a group of young lawyers discovered his records and convinced a judge to release him.
"There are a lot of people been in there a couple of years, man, and never been to court," O'Neal said.
The Justice Department concluded in a recent study that many people are stuck in the system. Defendents have extreme difficulty obtaining a trial, even if to plead guilty. There are many cases like Mr. O'Neal and many people that are active in getting justice for those frozen by the lack of services say there isn't much being done.
A USDOJ press release tried to refute the situation on the ground on January 25 of this year. The fact sheet details $61 million in funding to get the justice system up and running. Nevertheless, where is the proof that this money is working?
What makes matters worse is where the trickle of federal money is going. Not surprisingly, a sizeable chunk of those dollars are funding the reconstruction of the prisons first. One parish has already spent $5 million on a temporary facility with a pending request of $57 million to rebuild the jail to its original size.
Pamela Metzger is trying to make a difference in this sordid situation. She recently started Project Gideon, which is trying to get every criminal defendent sufficient counsel for their cases. She has already helped nearly 1,000 people to get out of their legal jams while fighting the lack of a justice system. In the ABC News article linked above, she had this to say about New Orleans justice:
"Think about trying to call the court and write the court to say, 'When do I see a judge' and there's no answer because no phone picks up," Metzger said. "There were no phones."
When asked if that's still the case now, she said yes.
Of course, this contradicts the rosy picture the federal government tries to portray in their program to re-build the region. They have a litany of examples that show they care and things are getting done. Of course with many things associated with the Bush Adminstration, what is said on paper usually contradicts reality.
|