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.
Lauren Anderson, a public defender and attorney supervisor for Municipal Court, is furious as she looks over a list of their names. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she says. “We’re not making the city any safer. We’re only hurting these people, and we just keep doing it over and over. It’s infuriating.”
Louisiana will soon join most states in the nation in helping pay for legal assistance for some of its most vulnerable residents
“It’s human decency, that after someone has served their time – if it was you, me or anyone else – we would want to be released,” Jackson said.
A 55-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia was illegally imprisoned 95 days past his official release date.
“We know that there is an issue here and we want to solve it,” said department spokesman Ken Pastorick.
“That would make homelessness one of the greatest threats to your life, more than anything else,” Miller said. “It would make it the most deadly social condition in the city of New Orleans.”
Forty-six states provide funding to help their most vulnerable citizens secure free legal assistance in civil matters. Louisiana provides nothing.
The end result is a decades-old problem that damages lives and costs taxpayers millions of dollars.
For people who can’t afford to pay for a bed at a private hospital, long-term mental health care is virtually non-existent
Rashaad Piper was one of 4 young men who attacked a pair of tourists in the French Quarter last year
Ten days before the assault, Dejuan Paul was sent to the hospital after hearing voices in his head that told him to kill
Eight hours after Donna Nathan bought the first and only gun she ever owned, police found her body next to an oak tree in Audubon Park
From prison to the classroom: a former Panther’s tale of trauma and redemption
Rates of PTSD soar among Central City children, yet state budget cuts prevent access to mental healthcare
How exposure to violence can be toxic to the brain and body
A football coach haunted by the deaths of 28 former players fights to save the next generation
'He was showing the same symptoms as somebody that was in the middle of a war'
In New York, homeless deaths jumped 30 percent in 2017 compared to 2016
It had been two days since Cara Nurmi was reported missing and there was still no sign of her. BB St. Roman feared the worst
Two weeks into his newfound freedom, Ladd seemed in a daze as he sat next to his daughter, trying to make sense of his five-year odyssey
Hickman, who friends say was in his early 50s, was struck and killed the afternoon of June 13 by a Burlington Northern Sante Fe train at St. Louis Street and the Mississippi River.
At Friday's hearing, Judge Herman told the courtroom she needed to take into account the state's recent criminal justice reforms
