Brooks left Angola Prison after serving 42 years of a life sentence for murder. It should have been a joyous moment. Lawyers discovered fingerprint evidence previously concealed by prosecutors that pointed to a wrongful conviction. But Brooks didn’t walk out of Angola an innocent man. To secure his freedom, he had to “make a deal with the devil.”
It seemed like a turning point, one that positioned New Orleans to join a larger, national movement to eliminate or severely curtail money bail. Such sweeping reforms, however, have yet to materialize as Judge Harry Cantrell continues to defy federal court orders.
Between 2011 and 2017, the number of children in foster care in New Orleans fell by 89 percent compared with an 8 percent increase nationally. The children who do enter the system don’t stay long. Seventy percent are discharged within a month; nationally, it’s only 5 percent. Gray has effectively all but eliminated foster care except in extreme situations.
