The Justice Department has moved to intervene in a class action lawsuit regarding conditions of confinement at the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in New Orleans, a pre-trial and correctional facility plagued by life-threatening conditions.
The litigation seeks to address conditions that violate the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The department seeks remedies to correct inadequate medical, mental health care, and suicide prevention practices; failures to protect prisoners from physical and sexual violence; deficiencies in environmental health and safety; and inadequate language access services for Latino prisoners with limited English proficiency (LEP).
The United States seeks to join as plaintiff-intervenors in Jones v. Gusman, class action litigation brought on behalf of the men, women, and youth confined to OPP, to protect them from abusive and unconstitutional conditions of confinement.
Both Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who oversees OPP, and the plaintiffs to the class action support the United States’ motion to intervene, to achieve a single, comprehensive resolution of the class action and the United States’ investigation of OPP.
“The Justice Department has longstanding, serious concerns about the conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison. The constitutional violations we found affect the health and safety of prisoners, corrections officers, and the community,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
The department issued findings in October 2009 and April 2012, and has been working with OPP and community stakeholders to develop a comprehensive blueprint for sustainable reform. Necessary reforms will require improved policies, procedures, staff training, and supervision to ensure that OPP protects prisoners from violence and sexual assault by staff and other prisoners; provides adequate mental health and medical care, including suicide prevention; provides language services to LEP prisoners; and provides adequate fire and environmental safety.
The department’s intervention in this case will facilitate much-needed reforms at OPP in the fastest and most efficient manner, said James Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
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