THE ARRIVAL of a brand new sheriff shouldn’t be at all times a joyous event—at the least within the movies of John Ford or Clint Eastwood. Usually, it means one thing has gone terribly flawed. But in New Orleans it’s one other probability for a parade.
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On May 2nd a crowd lined Canal Street as marching bands, sheriff’s deputies on bikes and costumed revellers paying homage to Mardi Gras headed in direction of the Mississippi. They had been escorting town’s new sheriff, Susan Hutson, to her inauguration. After defeating a 17-year incumbent, Marlin Gusman, in final yr’s election, Ms Hutson is the primary feminine sheriff in New Orleans’s 304-year historical past, and the primary African-American feminine sheriff within the state of Louisiana.
Her reward is to supervise the Orleans Justice Centre, a jail with a historical past of violence and mismanagement. Ms Hutson guarantees a extra humane strategy to the incarcerated. Though she shouldn’t be the primary such progressive sheriff, Ms Hutson’s new jurisdiction is among the many largest. Her expertise might be intently watched.
Faced with overcrowding within the Nineteen Seventies, Louisiana shifted many inmates from state prisons to metropolis jails. The New Orleans jail inhabitants swelled, peaking at greater than 6,000 in 2005. Hurricane Katrina that yr introduced nightmarish studies of inmates waist-deep in flood water. Violence, organised crime and poor sanitation plagued the jail for years. Following a class-action lawsuit introduced by ten prisoners, Mr Gusman agreed to a consent decree with the Department of Justice in 2012, underneath which the sheriff’s workplace promised to enhance situations. The presiding federal district-court decide, Lance Africk, described the jail as “an indelible stain on the community”.
A decade later, the consent decree has nonetheless not been lifted. The jail, although it now has slightly below 1,000 inmates, stays harmful. Force is commonly used to interrupt up fights. An common of three inmates a yr have died in custody since 2014, practically all from drug overdoses, suicide or preventable medical emergencies. Short staffing and excessive turnover result in lapses in safety. A surge in crime might put the jail underneath even higher stress. More than 90 murders have been recorded in New Orleans this yr, the worst four-month stretch to start out a yr since 2005.
Unlike most sheriffs, Ms Hutson has by no means served in legislation enforcement. From 2010 she labored because the unbiased monitor for the New Orleans Police Department, itself underneath a consent decree since 2012. “I don’t look at everything through a blue lens, but I’ve worked around law enforcement long enough to know the standards,” she says. Inspired by the protests after the homicide of George Floyd in 2020, she determined to problem Mr Gusman.
Her marketing campaign careworn enhancing medical companies for prisoners, together with psychological well being. She pledged to present them full visitation rights, minimise the usage of drive by deputies and supply housing that accords with an inmate’s self-identified gender. She additionally vowed to convey the workplace into compliance with the consent decree. But she opposes a $50m growth of the jail that will add 89 beds for mental-health companies, the development of which was ordered by Judge Africk and supported by Mr Gusman. Ms Hutson argues that the cash could be higher spent on upgrading town’s dilapidated buildings and she is going to search to enchantment towards the transfer.
So after the festivities, she could have her fingers full. “Jails are like big freighter ships moving down the Mississippi, they need continuous attention to shift course,” says Andrea Armstrong, a legislation professor at Loyola University New Orleans. If town’s crime surge continues, residents might turn into extra receptive to Ms Hutson’s critics, who consider a gentler strategy to inmates will solely embolden criminals. In the movies, it’s not lengthy earlier than a brand new sheriff faces a showdown. ■