Orleans Parish Prison


Orleans Parish Prison is the city jail for New Orleans, Louisiana. Opened in 1989, it is operated by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. Most of the prisoners—1,300 of the 1,500 or so as of June 2016—are awaiting trial.
In May 2013, Orleans Parish Prison ranked as one of the ten worst prisons in the United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine.

Abandonment during Hurricane Katrina

On August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina–an extremely destructive and deadly category 5 hurricane–struck the Gulf Coast, the staff of Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office abandoned the jail leaving roughly 650 prisoners in their cells with no access to food, water, or ventilation for days. Deputies returned to the Orleans Parish Prison days later and began evacuating inmates to surrounding areas which included the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, the I-10 overpass, and the Broad Street overpass.
In over 400 testimonials conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union, prisoners described their experiences during the abandonment which included exposure to floodwater and other elements, hunger, beatings by jail staff and other inmates, and other racially charged abuse by jail staff. While there is no official death count for prisoners that were left behind, 517 prisoners were later registered as "unaccounted for" by Humans Rights Watch.

Refurbishment

The Federal Emergency Management Agency dedicated $223 million to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office for restoration of its facilities following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Sheriff's Office has outlined three phases of construction that would utilize these funds.

Phase I

The Phase I facility is a three-story, building consisting of a kitchen and warehouse.

Phase II

Opened in 2015, Phase II contains 1,438 beds and cost $145 million to construct.

Phase III

The Sheriff’s office plans to build an additional 750-bed facility. The Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition opposes the plan, calling on Mayor Mitch Landrieu's office to "oppose any options involving the expansion of the jail," and instead support "retrofitting of the current jail to better care for incarcerated special populations."

Inmate deaths since Katrina

Between April 2006 and April 2014, The Times-Picayune reports 44 inmate deaths, including seven "uncounted" deaths, referring to inmates released shortly before their deaths. Since the report, there have been five additional fatalities, bringing the total to 49 since April 2006.

Notable inmates

The 10 to 12 adult women onboard the Golden Venture vessel from China that washed ashore in the Rockaways in New York City in June 1993 were kept at Orleans Parish Prison for a few years.
On November 29, 2015, state Senator Troy E. Brown of Ascension Parish was booked in the Orleans Parish Prison for domestic abuse battery, a misdemeanor stemming from an incident with his alleged long-term paramour, a woman from Labadieville, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.