TWO VISIONS FOR ORLEANS PARISH PRISON…

TWO VISIONS FOR ORLEANS PARISH PRISON…

Currently, Orleans Parish Prison is under Federal Court SUPERVISION and the Sheriff is under Order to make improvements to the jail´s Medical and Mental Health Care facilities for inmates; as well as, a host of other changes.

Two COMPETING plans for THE NEW Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) COMPLEX were unvailed recently.
One by Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the other by Sherriff Marlin Gusman.
Both men have very different views on what the future jail should look like. Each HAS published their own detailed plan on what the future orleans parish prison should look like and how to achieve it.

The Landrieu administration PROPOSES a reduction in the city’s incarceration rate, which the city´s JAIL consultant, James Austin, SAYS is the highest in the nation. Mayor Landrieu wants to reduce the jail’S population from IT’S current 2,216 to 1600.
Gusman wants to build a NEW building for inmates who need special accommodations. The building, to be known as, Phase III, WOULD be three to five-stories and HAVE 380 to 778 beds, depending on what the city’s inmate population is, at certain future dates. The new facility would cost between $56 million to $97 million dollars.
On the other hand, Mayor Landrieu proposes renovating the existing 1,438-bed Phase II building now under construction to accommodate sick and mentally ill prisoners. According to Landrieu , the cost of that conversion, for example making cells suicide resistant, is $6 million. This plans call for the Temporary Detention Center to remain open and use those 500 beds for minimum-security inmates.
Mayor Landrieu has also called for a reduction in (WHAT?)
NOLA.com published both plans filed on August 1:
Mayor Mitch Landrieu
Sheriff Marlin Gusman
Read the entire article at:
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/08/orleans_parish_prison_mental_h.html