The slave trade in Louisiana

Let's see we've got public health services outsourced to a non-profit with political connections. We've a bunch of money in public contracts.  All the usual elements are here.   

The drug rehab Cenikor, recently hit with allegations it made patients work at private companies with no pay, has become an increasingly accepted alternative to jail in recent years all while public officials and state agencies have supported the organization.

Ethics Board records show more than a dozen elected officials – from legislators, like Baton Rouge Rep. Pat Smith, to local officials, like Livingston Sheriff Jason Ard and Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III – helped the nonprofit raise money at fundraisers.

In February, Gov. John Bel Edwards was honored as Cenikor’s “elected official of the year” for helping to combat drug abuse at Cenikor Foundation’s Voices for Recovery fundraiser. James LeBlanc, the state’s top prison official, was tapped as "community partner of the year."

Soo many people paid this non-profit to supply them with unpaid labor from exploited rehab patients.

An investigation by Reveal from the Center of Investigative Reporting and resulting lawsuits show the organization sent patients to work at the Exxon refinery, LSU dining hall and Ambrosia bakery, along with a host of other businesses. Several former patients even said they were sent to work at The Advocate.

Cenikor allegedly kept the wages leaving the patients unpaid – a scheme one lawsuit dubbed “indentured servitude” – potentially violating labor laws.

More than a dozen former patients claim in lawsuits they were sent to Cenikor by judges and court systems. Court officials, however, contend that judges typically don’t specify to which facility defendants must go in lieu of jail time, but Cenikor was one often used.

Kudos to the Advocate, at least, for telling on itself. But really shouldn't everybody here know better at this point?