FEMA begins closing Katrina trailer parks while affordable housing fight drags on

There are reports of confusion and anger at FEMA trailer parks today over the agency's unclear policy on the parks' future.

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that a number of the parks would be closing today as part of the effort to move residents into permanent housing. But now the agency is saying that the parks will stay open as long as there are residents who have not found apartments or houses to rent, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate. That has upset some trailer residents like Celeste Jackson, who packed up her belongings yesterday despite not having anywhere to go.

FEMA officials said the agency passed out fliers two months ago notifying residents of the pending closing and encouraging them to contact their FEMA case workers. However, only some residents responded, according to a FEMA spokesperson.

The agency has said that it wants all the Katrina parks closed by the end of next May. But concerns remain about where the more than 6,000 households still living in those parks will go, given the dearth of affordable housing in New Orleans, where fair-market rents have risen 45 percent since the storm.

Meanwhile, the state's political leaders remain at an impasse over legislation that would boost the number of affordable housing units available for displaced people who want to return to New Orleans and other Gulf communities.

As we've reported here previously, the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) had the support of the entire state's delegation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development -- until September, when HUD and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) suddenly withdrew their backing. Vitter has incorrectly accused the bill of attempting to re-create New Orleans' troubled public housing complexes exactly as they were before Hurricane Katrina, when in fact it allows those complexes to be torn down and replaced by either subsidized public housing, partially subsidized units, or vouchers to offset rent in privately owned housing.

There's been much speculation over Vitter's sudden about-face on the measure, especially since he's been reluctant to disclose his objections in much detail. A story about the controversy in the latest Congressional Quarterly Weekly offers partisan politics as one explanation for his actions:

...[P]olitical experts say the senatorial flap is not unexpected, given Louisiana's rough-and-tumble politics and Vitter and Landrieu's chilly relationship. Landrieu is up for re-election next year and has emerged as the GOP's top target among incumbent senators, in part because of the state's rightward shift in recent elections.

"The fact that Mary Landrieu is widely identified as the most vulnerable Democrat coming into the next election cycle, you certainly don't want to give her big victories in helping the state," said Kirby Goidel, a professor of political science at Louisiana State University. "He probably feels safe enough to hold it up as long as it's not too obviously political and he has some policy-related cover. He's a pretty hardball political player."

The story notes that political insiders have pretty much given up on any chance of Vitter's support, and the bill probably can't move without his approval. If the only victims of the senator's obstinacy were his low-income constituents, we could almost understand his cold political calculus. But what makes Vitter's position particularly puzzling is that he's also bucking business groups like the Chamber for Southwest Louisiana and Greater New Orleans Inc., who recognize that the region's reconstruction is imperiled by workers' inability to find affordable housing.

Miss. lawyer behind State Farm settlement indicted for bribery

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the Mississippi attorney who became rich and famous by taking on the asbestos and tobacco industries, has been indicted on federal charges of bribing a judge in a lawsuit over Hurricane Katrina insurance claims, the Clarion-Ledger reports.

Scruggs and four associates -- his son Zach, attorneys Sidney Backstrom and Timothy Balducci, and former State Auditor Steve Patterson, who works for Balducci's firm -- allegedly paid Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey $40,000 in cash to resolve a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees in favor of Scruggs' firm, according to the paper. Lackey reported the proffered bribe -- which was to eventually total $50,000 -- to federal authorities and cooperated with the FBI in the ensuing investigation.

TPMMuckraker has posted the indictment from the U.S. attorney for Mississippi's Northern District to its Web site here. Among the damning allegations the indictment contains is this account of a conversation between the judge and Balducci, an attorney who Scruggs allegedly hired for $10,000 to carry out the actual dirty work:

"On or about May 9, 2007, TIMOTHY R. BALDUCCI had a conversation with Judge Henry Lackey wherein BALDUCCI stated that 'my relationship with Dick [Scruggs] is such that he and I can talk very private [sic] about these kinds of matters and I have the fullest confidence that if the court, you know, is inclined to rule ... in favor ... everything will be good ...' 'The only person in the world outside of me and you that has discussed this is me and Dick [Scruggs].' '... We, uh, like I say, it ain't but three people in the world that know anything about this ... and two of them are sitting here and the other one ... the other one, uh, being Scruggs ... he and I, um, how shall I say, for over the last five or six years there, there are bodies buried that, that you know, that he and I know where ... where are, and, and, my, my trust in his, mine in him and his in mine, in me, I am sure are the same.'"

The case has raised new questions about the resignation of Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) -- Scruggs' brother-in-law -- who made his announcement the day before the indictment was handed down. The feds said at a news conference earlier today that Lott wasn't involved in the affair. But as the New York Times points out, Scruggs represented Lott and U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) in settlements with State Farm after the company refused to pay claims on their homes, which were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Lott and Taylor then championed legislation to investigate how State Farm and other insurers handled claims following the storm.

The insurer denies wrongdoing and has sued the Mississippi attorney general to block a criminal investigation into its post-Katrina operations. But just one day before the surprise indictment against Scruggs was handed down, his firm filed paperwork with the court charging that engineering firms involved in claims work for State Farm were financially beholden to the insurer and thus had motivation to minimize the company's losses, the Sun-Herald reports:

The amended complaint proposed by the Scruggs team says State Farm essentially acted as a "mob boss," with the vendors serving as "hit men" in a scheme to make money. It alleges destruction of documents, perjury, obstruction of justice and fraud.

Gulf Watch: NOLA levee investigator charges engineer group, Army Corps with unethical behavior

Raymond Seed, a civil engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has sent a 42-page letter [PDF] to the head of the American Society of Civil Engineers alleging that the organization colluded with the Army Corps of Engineers to undermine his and other independent investigations into the failure of New Orleans' levees after Hurricane Katrina:

I would never have imagined that I would live to see select elements of two of the world's pre-eminent civil engineering organizations, two organizations with tremendous public trust and responsibility, be caught behaving so badly. These past two years, both the USACE and ASCE have been dishonored by the unacceptable, and even unfathomable, actions of a few. These are two of the most important civil engineering organizations in the world. If that cannot be reversed and repaired, and if recurrence cannot be prevented, then the ethics and the very soul of the Profession are in peril.

Among Seed's allegations are that the Corps' investigation was flawed and attempted to let the agency off the hook for its role in the levee failures, which in turn led to mistakes in the rebuilding of those levees and other protective structures. He also criticizes the close relationship between the Corps and ASCE, calling the Corps' $2 million funding of the ASCE investigation a conflict of interest.

In addition, Seed documents a number of attempts by the groups to prevent independent investigators from gathering evidence at the site of levee failures and from speaking publicly about their findings. He describes a meeting his investigative team had during their first week in Louisiana with ASCE Deputy Director Larry Roth and Corps Senior Scientist Paul Mlakar, alleging they tried to prevent them from speaking at a news conference the next day. During the four-hour argument that ensued, one of Seed's team members passed a note around the table:

It was handwritten by one of the two foreign representatives, and contained a single word: Coverup!!

An editorial in today's New Orleans Times-Picayune calls the charges "deeply troubling" and says they "deserve serious attention." We would agree.

Press examines the divide in Mississippi recovery

The Washington Post published an excellent report in yesterday's paper on the deep divide in the post-Katrina recovery along the Mississippi coast, where beyond the bright lights of the newly built casinos working-class neighborhoods remain in darkness and more than 10,000 displaced families are still stuck in FEMA trailers. The story also examined the controversy we've reported on here over the state's plans to divert $600 million in federal housing aid to pay for improvements at the Port of Gulfport.

The Post story was just the latest in a series of recent reports and other media coverage on Mississippi's recovery and the the state's plan to divert housing funds to the port. On Nov. 16, Bill Moyers' Journal profiled the Steps Coalition, an alliance of South Mississippi community leaders and social justice advocates that's heading up the People Before Ports campaign. Also that same day, the New York Times ran an article examining how the poor are lagging in recovery aid in Mississippi, the only state where the Bush administration waived the rule that 50 percent of Community Development Block Grants be spent on low-income programs. And on Nov. 20, the NPR talk program "Tell Me More" aired a segment on how recovery funds are being spent in Mississippi.

For more details on the problems facing Mississippi's rebuilding, read the Step's Coalition's recent report titled "5 Barriers to Recovery" (PDF).

NOLA public housing demolition OK'd while HUD corruption probe continues

More than 40 human rights organizations sent a letter last week to federal officials protesting the planned demolition of some 3,000 public housing units in New Orleans. The letter -- which went to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson -- came less than a week after a federal judge refused to stop the Housing Authority of New Orleans from razing the city's four largest public housing developments. The tear-downs are set to begin as soon as next month.

The protesters charge that demolishing the complexes without replacement affordable housing stock violates international human rights standards protecting people displaced by disasters. They report that contractors have already begun emptying apartments and discarding residents' personal property -- including photographs, letters and Social Security cards -- without their knowledge or consent. Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor and attorney for some former public housing residents, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he plans to appeal the judge's ruling.

The advocates' letter is part of a national campaign to press for passage of the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, sponsored by Rep. Waters and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). Though Vitter and HUD officials were initially supportive of the legislation, which passed the House earlier this year by a vote of 302 to 125, they have since come out against the bill over a provision that requires the replacement of any affordable units that are torn down.

Also as part of that campaign, leaders of more than two dozen political action, faith-based and human rights organizations marched to Vitter's office in Metairie, La. last week to deliver more than 130,000 petition signatures calling on him to drop his objections to the housing bill, which has also been endorsed by the New Orleans City Council, Mayor Ray Nagin and more than 100 business groups, non-profits and religious organizations.

Further complicating the politics surrounding affordable housing in New Orleans is the ongoing FBI probe of HUD chief Jackson over revelations that Jackson's friend and golfing partner -- South Carolina-based construction contractor William Hairston -- got $485,000 worth of no-bid work at the Housing Authority of New Orleans in 2006 with Jackson's help. HANO is currently under HUD receivership. The probe is reportedly focusing on whether Jackson lied when he told a Senate panel in May that he never intervened in awarding department contracts.

Hairston and his wife, Starletta, together have donated at least $3,500 to Republican politicians and party committees exclusively since 2005, after previously supporting Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That's about the same time the Hairstons' annual income plunged from $500,000 to $70,000 after the undocumented immigrants William Hairston previously hired for his stucco business started their own companies and began undercutting their former boss with lower bids, the Wall Street Journal reported last December:

To stay afloat, the Hairstons remortgaged their house twice and sold a condominium and a plot of land. Mr. Hairston now hustles for jobs in Charlotte, N.C., and beyond, looking for better opportunities. Meanwhile, Starletta Hairston, 53, won election to the Beaufort County Council, where she has joined a wave of local officials around the country trying to pass new laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.

The FBI's probe of Jackson comes on the heels of an April 2006 incident in which the HUD secretary was speaking before a group of minority real estate executives and discussed quashing a contract award because the contractor had spoken unfavorably of President Bush. A subsequent investigation by the HUD inspector general found that while Jackson ordered aides to consider the partisan political views of contractors in awarding department business, there was no evidence they complied. Awarding contracts on the basis of party affiliation violates federal law.

In another development that raises questions about HUD's and HANO's commitment to helping New Orleans' low-income residents with affordable housing, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center recently filed a motion to enforce a consent degree and for contempt sanctions against the housing authority. The motion comes in response to HANO's failure to provide updated contact information for former residents of the St. Thomas Public Housing Development, which was shuttered in 2001 and later torn down. St. Thomas residents were supposed to be given preference for units at the replacement River Garden mixed-income development. HANO initially updated the mailing information for only 378 names out of a total of 1,132 -- even though HANO has access to HUD and FEMA databases of displaced people receiving housing assistance. Said GNOFHAC Executive Director James Perry:

"HANO's duty and purpose is to provide housing for indigent New Orleanians. The failure by HANO to provide updated contact information for these residents is a clear abdication of that duty, as well as its obligations under the Consent Decree. HANO's failure is of grave concern because it calls into question HANO's claim that it has open units at other developments and that it is unable to fill these units with HANO clients. The failure also frustrates New Orleans' attempt to conduct an equitable and open rebuilding process inclusive of all New Orleanians.

(Photo by Craig Morse courtesy of Survivors' Village Web site.)

FEMA under fire for double standards on trailer safety

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still allowing more than 52,000 households displaced by Hurricane Katrina to live in travel trailers despite documented high levels of formaldehyde -- but yet it has cautioned its own employees about entering stored trailers over concerns about their exposure to the chemical, a known respiratory irritant and carcinogen.

CBS reporter Armen Keteyian broke the story on Wednesday with an Evening News report that featured internal FEMA e-mails he obtained in which agency brass forbid employees to enter those trailers even briefly. His report also included comments from Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Government and Oversight Committee. Said Waxman:

What an incredible double standard. They're telling their employees it's too dangerous for them to go in the trailers yet we're letting people continue to live in these trailers.

In July, Waxman's committee held hearings at which FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison promised that his agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would soon begin testing the trailers' air quality. But as Keteyian reported, the agencies have not begun carrying out these promised tests because they have not yet identified "action levels" for responding to the results.

Paulison told the Washington Post that there is in fact no double standard for Katrina survivors and FEMA employees. The difference, he said, is between trailers that have been aired out by occupants and those closed up in storage. A new FEMA memo reportedly states that the stored trailers must be ventilated by forced-air pump for 30 minutes before workers can enter.

(Photo by Marvin Nauman/FEMA)

Water bill veto override good news for La.

The first congressional veto override in President Bush's seven-year term is especially welcome news in Louisiana, which is set to receive almost 30 percent of the $23 billion allotted by the Water Resources Development Act.

According to an analysis published in today's New Orleans Times-Picayune, the legislation gives the state $6.9 billion -- including $1.9 billion for Louisiana coastal restoration projects and $986 million for hurricane protection work. The measure also includes money for closing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and for creating a Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Protection and Restoration Task Force, among other things.

In more good news for Louisiana, the House yesterday overwhelmingly approved a compromise agreement on a non-war defense spending bill that provides $3 billion for the state's cash-strapped Road Home program. The Senate is expected to take up the measure soon.

Louisiana AG files suit against insurers -- as well as their software providers and advisors

Louisiana's outgoing Attorney General has borrowed a page from the playbook of his Mississippi counterpart and filed suit against insurance companies for their treatment of policyholders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

AG Charles C. Foti Jr. yesterday announced that his office has filed a petition against Allstate, State Farm, Farmers, Standard Fire (better known as Travelers), USAA and Lafayette, a division of United Fire Group. But Foti's suit goes beyond that filed in Mississippi by also naming Xactware Solutions and Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, which manufacture claims-processing software used by the insurers, and Xactware's parent company, insurance data collector Insurance Service Office. The petition also targets McKinsey & Co., a business consulting firm that has advised many major insurers.

According to a statement from Foti's office:

The petition, filed in New Orleans Civil District Court, alleges the above companies have participated in an on-going scheme to rig the value of property damage claims paid by insurance companies to their insureds. They allegedly used damage-estimating software programs to engage in horizontal price-fixing as well. The combination allegedly artificially held down property damage claim payouts with the intended goal of increasing the profits of each company involved. When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck Louisiana in 2005, virtually all of the property damage insurers were setting premiums and adjusting claims under this alleged scheme.

"This alleged scheme gave insurers an unjust advantage over policy holders, which they used before, during and after one of the greatest disasters this country has ever suffered, by reaping huge profits from the misfortunes of persons whom they pledged to protect from the risk of loss. I believe this unjust advantage resulted in the unjust enrichment of themselves to the detriment of the state, policy holders, and commerce in Louisiana," stated Attorney General Foti. "But to be clear, these abuses were not new to the recent hurricanes," General Foti added.

Foti's suit was filed in conjunction with a number of other attorneys: Joseph McKernan of Baton Rouge, Mark Glago of New Orleans, and the New Orleans law firms of Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar and Capitelli & Wicker, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The firms are working with Louisiana's assistant attorney general for antitrust issues without any promises of legal fees.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed suit against insurance companies soon after Katrina. He dropped his criminal probe earlier this year when State Farm agreed to reconsider thousands of claims. Last week, however, State Farm sued Hood, accusing him of violating the terms of the deal and harassing the company. This week a federal judge extended a restraining order preventing Hood from continuing a criminal investigation into State Farm.

Foti's suit draws on the ideas of New Mexico attorney David Berardinelli, who wrote a book titled From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves about McKinsey's work for Allstate. The book's title was inspired by a McKinsey document Berardinelli obtained advising Allstate to don boxing gloves for any policyholder who doesn't accept a settlement offer for pennies on the dollar.

Defense bill comes to Road Home's rescue

House and Senate members negotiating a Defense Department spending bill yesterday agreed to tuck an extra $3 billion into the legislation for Louisiana's Road Home post-Katrina rebuilding program, which is facing an estimated $3 billion to $4.5 billion shortfall.

Pushing for the funds was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who found a sympathetic ear in Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), according to a statement from Landrieu's office:

"A fundamental key to the recovery of the Gulf Coast is ensuring Louisiana's homeowners the availability of resources they need to rebuild their homes and communities," Chairman Byrd said. "The Road Home program is an example of the many steps Congress is taking to help the region through its long-term recovery. The people of Louisiana have a strong champion in Senator Landrieu, and I remain committed to working with her to restore the Gulf Coast."

While Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) is supporting the measure, there are questions about whether his Senate Republican colleagues will do the same, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:

Democrats want to wait until early next year to consider more money for the war in a separate bill. But Republicans are pushing for "bridge funding" in the Pentagon spending bill to ensure resources for the troops are not interrupted while a deeply divided Congress figures out how much it wants to spend on an increasingly unpopular conflict.

Among those raising concerns about the bill's lack of Iraq war money is Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the Appropriation Committee's ranking Republican. A Cochran aide told the newspaper that the Senator would wait to see how the Iraq funding issue is settled before announcing his stance on the legislation.

According to the latest official statistics, the Road Home program has received 185,908 applications for assistance to date and held 67,781 closings, with an average award of $66,291.

New Orleans City Council endorses Landrieu housing bill

The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act (S. 1668) got a boost last week with the unanimous endorsement of the New Orleans City Council. Similar legislation (H.R. 1227) overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, but the Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) ran into unexpected opposition recently from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who incorrectly accused it of attempting to re-create New Orleans' troubled public housing complexes exactly as they were before Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, Landrieu's proposal requires that any public housing apartment torn down be replaced with another form of low-income housing -- either subsidized public housing, partially subsidized "affordable" units or vouchers that offset a portion of rents -- and allows local government officials and the Housing Authority of New Orleans to decide the appropriate mix. In September, Institute for Southern Studies Director Chris Kromm -- author of a number of reports documenting the region's serious housing crisis -- briefed Congress on the importance of the legislation. As the endorsement notes, the region's lack of affordable housing remains one of the most serious problems facing low-, moderate- and middle-income families, and a lack of housing affordable to workers is slowing the recovery.

Here's the full text of the council's endorsing resolution:

RESOLUTION
NO. R-07-528
CITY HALL: November 1, 2007
BY: COUNCILMEMBERS FIELKOW, DARNELL, MIDURA, HEAD,
CARTER, HEDGE-MORRELL AND WILLARD-LEWIS

WHEREAS, the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (S. 1668) is currently being considered by the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs;

WHEREAS, the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007 (H.R. 1227), the House companion to S. 1668, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 302-125 on March 21, 2007, with the entire Louisiana House delegation supporting the bill;

WHEREAS, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged nearly 204,700 homes, 82,000 rental properties, and 70 percent of the entire rental stock in the City of New Orleans;

WHEREAS, the Road Home Program is facing a funding shortfall that could be between $3 to 4 billion;

WHEREAS, the lack of affordable housing in the area remains one of the biggest challenges for low, moderate and middle-income families;

WHEREAS, the lack of sufficient affordable workforce housing is hampering the recovery of the hospitality, healthcare, and construction industries which are vital to economy of the New Orleans area;

WHEREAS, there should be a consideration of an increase of the Area Median Income;

WHEREAS, there should be consideration for a fair and equitable distribution of affordable housing within all neighborhoods with appropriate consideration for areas with adequate infrastructure, schools, health care, and transportation;

WHEREAS, there should be an effort to reduce density and eliminate the concentration of poverty, and to foster choice in housing by subsidy recipients;

WHEREAS, immediate reforms in local management of HANO and HUD are required in addition to better enforcement of all HANO standards including enforcement of a workforce requirement;

WHEREAS, S.1668 should encourage growth of New Orleans as a healthy community;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That the Council of the City of New Orleans is supportive of efforts towards Senate passage of S. 1668 and is committed to working closely with our Louisiana United States Senators and the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to further strengthen this legislation as it moves through the Congress.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That in regard to any mixed-income development that those developments have safety provisions be put in place that include but are not limited to adequate police and fire protection, private security, effective on-site management with regular inspections, and periodic and continuous code enforcement review;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That in regard to any mixed-income development that those developments provide adequate social services including but not limited to health care, day care, youth development, workforce development, job training, and access to public transportation;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That the Housing and Human Needs Committee of the New Orleans City Council will further review S.1668 and provide comments to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs in a reasonable timeframe; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS, That the Clerk of Council forward a certified copy of this resolution to The Honorable C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of the City of New Orleans, the Louisiana State and Federal legislative delegation, the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, U.S. House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Housing and Community Opportunity, Committee on Financial Services.

Civil rights leader urges congressional probe, sanctions over lack of indictment for Gretna bridge incident

Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is urging a congressional hearing and a halt to federal transportation funding for Louisiana "until officials can ensure freedom of movement."

The call comes after a grand jury's decision earlier this week not to indict a Gretna, La. police officer who fired a shot on the Crescent City Connection Bridge during a notorious incident following Hurricane Katrina in which people were forcibly prevented from fleeing New Orleans as the floodwaters rose.

Founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jackson pointed out that the Crescent City Connection Bridge is a state bridge built with federal funds, and that the Gretna police department has no authority to block it.

"In America, there are no laws that prohibit freedom of movement from one neighborhood, municipality, region or state into another," he said in a press statement. "Gretna officials should understand that Gretna is a part of the United States and not sovereign."

No indictment in post-Katrina Gretna Bridge blockade

Speaking of criminal justice in post-Katrina New Orleans, an Orleans Parish grand jury declined to indict Gretna Police Officer Lawrence Vaughn on a charge of illegal use of a weapon in connection with his firing a gun on the Crescent City Connection two days after Hurricane Katrina, the Times-Picayune reports. The charge was related to a controversial incident in which officers from Gretna and other jurisdictions forcibly prevented people from fleeing New Orleans in the wake of the disastrous flooding caused by levee failures. The blockade -- which has triggered five civil suits -- appears to have been a violation of the U.S.-endorsed United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which guarantee that "every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement" as well as the "right to move freely in and out of camps or other settlements."

Criminal Justice Meltdown in New Orleans?

by Bill Quigley, Guest Contributor

"We are faced with the daily reality of an imminent collapse of our criminal justice institutions." -- New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley

NEW ORLEANS -- Some say crime causes a city to be under siege; others say crime is the symptom of a city under siege. Either way, New Orleans is in serious trouble. Our criminal justice system is in unprecedented crisis.

Thursday there were four murders in 24 hours in New Orleans. Over the weekend three more people died from gunshots. So far this year, 170 people have been murdered in New Orleans -- a rate seven times the national average.

The District Attorney of New Orleans just resigned at the insistence of the Mayor, the Attorney General and several legislators. His office owes a group of discharged employees a federal civil rights judgment of over $3 million -- and neither the City nor State was willing to pay unless he resigned. There is high turnover in the office and thousands of people arrested have been released because the office could not timely decide whether to charge them with crimes or not. His resignation will not make New Orleans any safer.

Katrina severely damaged an already dysfunctional criminal justice in New Orleans. In fact, what has occurred and is happening now in New Orleans is really neither "justice" nor a "system."

Before Katrina, New Orleans averaged 1,000 violent crimes each quarter. In the second quarter of 2007, New Orleans reported over 1,300 violent crimes -- despite the fact that not many more than half the people of New Orleans are back.

Black-on-black crime continues to dominate. Of the 161 homicide victims in 2006, 131 were black men, along with most of the suspects. Many victims and the suspects were teenagers. About two-thirds of the deaths of 2006 have gone unsolved.

Police work out of trailers, including the brass. During the summer, officers filled out paperwork in their cars because there was no working air conditioning in their temporary trailer offices. Not until spring 2007 was there a working crime lab.

New Orleans has a post-Katrina police force over 80 percent as large as before the storm -- nearly half are new officers. At the end of 2006, seven police officers were indicted on murder charges -- and then hailed as "heroes" by many fellow officers as they reported to court. The police force is supplemented by hundreds of National Guard members patrolling the city in camouflaged Humvees, and, on special occasions, members of the state police as well.

The public defender system is starting to improve but remains unable to represent all those facing charges. Recently, Orleans Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter mailed over 450 letters to attorneys in New Orleans ordering them to report to his courtroom to start defending poor defendants. Most declined.

Jail is not the answer to our crime problems because Louisiana already leads all 50 states in the percentage of our people in jail, and New Orleans leads Louisiana. A report on those in the New Orleans jail show that the majority are awaiting trial and many of those in jail could easily be released. A third are in on bonds of $5,000 or less -- the only reason they remain in jail is because of their poverty. Over half are facing only minor charges, and nearly three-quarters have no other outstanding warrants for their arrest.

Addressing crime takes a functioning criminal justice system -- and New Orleans is working on that by increasing communication between the various agencies and enacting some new programs. But, like the resignation of the District Attorney, this is not likely to dramatically reduce crime.

Three recent reports help show the way for New Orleans to improve the criminal system. They stress earlier and better communication between the police and prosecutors; a wider range of pre-trial release options; and greater use of alternatives to prison.

The August 2007 report of the Urban Institute, "Washed Away? Justice in New Orleans," [PDF] documents past and present challenges for criminal justice. The Vera Institute of Justice report, "Proposals for New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: Best Practices to Advance Public Safety and Justice" [PDF] gives four concrete ways that the system can be improved in the short run. The community-based Safe Streets/Strong Communities' organization has several recommendations on its Web site about how New Orleans can fight crime without criminalizing or alienating the people in the neighborhoods.

But even if all these changes are started, most leaders acknowledge what Criminal Judge Calvin Johnson, who has presided in criminal court for nearly 20 years, says over and over "We cannot arrest our way out of this problem."

Crime is not an isolated action. It is impossible to fix the crime problem if the rest of the institutions that people rely on remain deeply broken.

The head of the local FBI suggested to the Christian Science Monitor that criminals in New Orleans "are products of an educational system that didn't educate, a state judicial system that failed to mete out consequences for criminal activity, and an economic landscape devoid of meaningful jobs."

Katrina and its aftermath place enormous daily stresses on all people, particularly those already disadvantaged by race, gender and class systems. Treatment facilities report much more substance abuse, suicide and domestic violence. Yet, the mental and physical health systems are only a shell of what they were before the storm. Affordable housing is scarce and families are separated. Public education is not working for the poorest children. There is only so much the criminal justice system can do.

The number of doctors and social workers and nurses who treat mental health is down dramatically. Beds are down nearly 80 percent. Hospitals turn troubled people away every day. Doctors report people who cannot be turned away are chemically restrained on gurneys in the hall or kept in dimmed emergency waiting rooms until they can be released. The system is backed up around the state.

Even regular medical treatment is a challenge for uninsured and insured both as many hospitals remain closed. Drug and substance abuse treatment are scarce. The extreme lack of affordable rental housing means many older family members have not returned to New Orleans. Many teenagers have returned on their own -- living alone or with other relatives and friends.

Public education for those not in charter schools continues to be quite an uphill battle for the children -- often in highly policed public schools that illustrate the school-to-prison pipeline.

Before Katrina, New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation a couple of times. The police arrested few people for violent crimes and prosecutors and judges and juries convicted less. Police, prosecutors and public defenders were overworked and underpaid -- often losing their most experienced people to the suburbs and other cities where the work was calmer and the pay better.

After Katrina it is all worse. There is much more stress on the streets. There is much less counseling and treatment available. There are fewer extended families to provide a supportive environment. The police are less experienced. The police do not communicate well with the prosecutors, who do not work well with the victims and witnesses, while the judges feud with the public defenders, and on and on.

After Katrina, there is even less of a system and certainly less justice for everyone -- the public, victims, the accused, law enforcement and people working in the institutions. Only when the criminal justice system is supported by a good public education available to all children, sufficient affordable housing for families, accessible health care (especially mental health care), and jobs that pay living wages, can the community expect the crime rate to go down.

The District Attorney has resigned. But New Orleans and the Gulf Coast remain in serious trouble on all fronts. Our criminal justice system is but one illustration of our institutions melting down. For us, crime is not the cause of our community being under siege; crime is the scream of our community under siege.

Bill Quigley is a law professor and director of the Law Clinic and Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans.