Abandoned and abused: prisoners in the wake of Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

During Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast in August 2005, thousands of men, women and children were abandoned in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), the New Orleans jail. As the floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, prisoners were trapped for days in locked cells without food, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests, while guards left their posts. Predominantly poor African-American pre-trial detainees, held on minor charges, such as failure to pay court fees, the prisoners were eventually evacuated to various receiving facilities around the state of Louisiana, only to face systematic racial abuse, assaults and further brutality. The experiences of the OPP prisoners lay bare the routine injustices that permeate a system of incarceration that is effectively run as a profitmaking concern.