High court costs and fines imposed by judges too often hamper the ability of indigent defendants to get back on the right track after they plead guilty or are convicted, according to two national studies released today, both of which decry the practice of jailing people solely for failing to pay fees.
Both studies, one by the American Civil Liberties Union and another by the Brennan Center for Justice, examined New Orleans in their critiques of these practices in 16 states across the country. The ACLU questioned whether judges are ignoring U.S. Supreme Court decisions that require judges to determine if there is a legitimate reason why a defendant can't pay before putting the person in jail.
In many states -- Louisiana being a prime example -- the court systems themselves and key offices within it, such as public defenders, receive substantial portions of their financing from fines and fees imposed on people who are convicted.
One would think the fact that the city has resorted to abusing its law enforcement powers for the purpose of shaking down residents would at least be perversely logical, but, on further examination, even that excuse doesn't make any sense.
In two New Orleans criminal court cases cited by the ACLU, men were sent to the Orleans Parish jail after failing to pay fines or fees of less than $500 that were imposed after guilty pleas to marijuana possession and minor theft. The months the men subsequently spent in jail cost the city, in each case, more than $3,000, the group calculated.
But hey no reason to abandon the philosophy. As long as somebody is collecting from somebody, the brutal system works just fine for the collector. Take Sheriff Gusman, for example. He seems to have the play down pat.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman is threatening to take the city to court unless it pays him 28 percent more money than last year to house New Orleans inmates.
The move likely heralds yet another round of legal wrangling between the city and the sheriff’s office over funding for the jail, which has been ongoing since the late 1960s — prompting criminal justice reform advocates to suggest changing the way the city pays for its jail services.
The city now pays Gusman $22.39 per inmate per day. That’s less than the state and federal prison systems pay him, with daily rates of $26.39 and $43 respectively.
At the root of the ongoing dispute is that no other major city in the country pays its sheriffs for jail space with a per diem system.
New Orleans’ daily rate originates from a lawsuit filed by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1969, on behalf of all prisoners at the Orleans Parish Prison, asking that the city pay the Sheriff’s Office sufficient money to maintain constitutional conditions.
An order establishing the daily rate was added in 1989 and has been amended several times since then, most recently in 2003, to the current rate of $22.39 per day.
The ACLU withdrew its name from the lawsuit last year on the grounds that its original intent — to improve jail conditions — had ultimately been turned on its head by the per diem system.
“The only incentive a per diem system provides is to have more people in jail,” said Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York. “Because the more inmates you have, the more money you have.”
More people in jail, the more money Gusman's department can demand from the city to house them, the bigger the drag on the already suffering municipal budget.
New Orleans city departments are gradually bringing their spending under control, but they still are on track to overspend their 2010 personnel budgets by $6.5 million, not counting an extra $4.1 million that City Hall is likely to end up having to pay Sheriff Marlin Gusman to house and feed prisoners in the city's jails.
However, the picture had worsened as regards Gusman's operation. On May 31, it appeared that the city would be billed $3.3 million more for the year than the $20.5 million it had budgeted. As of Aug. 31, the shortfall had grown by $800,000 as the average daily number of inmates rose. Under a federal court decree, the city must pay Gusman a set amount of money per day for each city prisoner in the jail system.
Earlier this year Mayor Mitch Landrieu referred to the city budget as a "moral document"
The budget is the single most important city document affecting the lives of citizens. We should look at the budget as a moral document – because it says everything about who we are and what we value.One would think that a (at least) $4.1 million hole in Landrieu's moral document would cause him to keep a closer eye on the cruel prison-collections system behind it. One would hope, anyway.
Landrieu: Sheriff building 400 temporary jail beds "doesn't bother me"
New Orleans is slated to eventually get a brand new jail, but on Wednesday Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he had no idea the Orleans Parish Sheriff is moving forward with the construction of a new temporary jail complex in the meantime. Landrieu, however, says there was no reason for him to know about it and adds the project is fine by him.
“It doesn’t bother me that he’s building it,” said Landrieu.” “The sheriff needs a space to put the individuals the judges put in jail or the police officers arrest.”
Landrieu disagrees and seemed confused as to why the issue is even making headlines.
“The sheriff is charged with making sure that the individuals in his care and control are housed appropriately and it's been part of discussions with FEMA,” said Landrieu. “The sheriff is an independently elected individual. He’s responsible for that task, so it's really not something out of the ordinary. I was curious as to why the story even got airtime to be honest with you."
The mayor's detached "curiosity" regarding a system of dual extortion against the poorest citizens and the city treasury displays a curious "moral" judgment indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment