WHAT: A JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE called by Critical Resistance, Families & Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, People’s Hurricane Relief Committee, and the Southern Center for Human Rights
WHERE: Orleans Parish Prison
2800 Gravier street
(Corner of Gravier and South White, One Block From South Broad)
WHO: Ortegas Coleman, who was imprisoned at the Greyhound Bus Station
Ms. Miranda Smith, whose son was evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison
Althea Francois , whose daughter was evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison
People’s Hurricane Relief Committee
Xochitl Bervera, Friends and Families of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children
Vanita Gupta, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Lisa Kung, Southern Center for Human Rights
Nick Trenticosta, New Orleans Civil Rights Attorney
Tamika Middleton, Critical Resistance
Members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus will attend
WHEN: 11:00 am, Wednesday, October 12, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, LA – “They won’t let my daughter out of prison, even though she was supposed to have been released weeks ago,” says Althea Francois. “This is a long time for us to be separated – I’m worried sick about her. And I know there are thousands of families in the same situation.”
Stories like Ms. Francois’ have galvanized a broad coalition of human rights organizations, community groups, Orleans Parish prisoners, and their families, who will gather on Wednesday in front of the now infamous Orleans Parish Prison (OPP). The press conference will take place during Critical Resistance’s Delegation on Safety and the Status of Prisoners, which is calling attention to charges that prisoners were left to drown in locked jail cells, hundreds more were arrested for the ‘crime’ of trying to feed themselves after Katrina, and thousands have had their cases thrown into legal limbo post-Katrina.
The press conference will share personal stories of prisoners left to rising floodwaters without food or water in locked jail cells at Orleans Parish Prison, of arrest and imprisonment at the makeshift jail now set up at the New Orleans’ Greyhound bus station, and of individuals who would have been released from jail or prison but for Katrina.
Members will demand an independent investigation into the evacuation of OPP and amnesty for those arrested for trying to feed and clothe themselves post-Katrina, while calling for real public safety in a rebuilt New Orleans. “Rising from the devastation of Katrina, we have an amazing opportunity to rebuild a truly new and genuine system of public safety for New Orleans,” said Xochitl Bervera, Co-Director of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children.
Along with lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Southern Center for Human Rights, the press conference will include personal stories from mothers whose children were left to drown in chest-high water at Orleans Parish Prison, and Ortegas Coleman, who was one of hundreds imprisoned at the makeshift jail set up in the New Orleans’ Greyhound Bus Station.
Pointing to additional recent accounts of police beatings, “Katrina’s aftermath reflects the way we as a nation increasingly deal with social ills: police and imprison primarily poor Black communities for ‘crimes’ that are reflections of poverty and desperation,” said Tamika Middleton, New Orleans-based Organizer with Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization whose mission is to end society’s use of imprisonment as an answer to social problems.
Louisiana has had the highest rate of incarceration of any state in the U.S. Blacks are grossly over-represented, making up 72% of the state prison population, while only representing 35% of the total population “This emphasis on ‘law and order’ has historically had a devastating impact on the people of New Orleans,” Middleton continued. “Locking people up in this crisis is cruel mismanagement of city resources and counters the outpouring of the world’s support and concern for all survivors of Hurricane Katrina.”
