How New Orleans Criminalizes Women, Girls, Youth and LGBTQ & Latinx People 2 PREPARED BY
TAKEMA ROBINSON ANNETTE HOLLOWELL AUDREY STEWART CARYN BLAIR CHALLENGING CRIMINALIZATION: HOW NEW ORLEANS CRIMINALIZES WOMEN, GIRLS, YOUTH AND LGBTQ & LATINX PEOPLE
New Orleans has been labeled “ground zero” for criminal justice reform in America in a nod to the city’s history of overreliance on incarceration as well as recent successes in the long battle for criminal justice reform. Following decades of organizing and advocacy, reform of the city’s police and jails has taken root in the form of federal monitoring and oversight of the jail and police department and in drastic reduction of the daily jail population from 6,000 in 2005 to less than 1,800 in July 2015.1 Responding to the concerted efforts of grassroots organizations—including Voice of The Experienced (VOTE),* Youth BreakOUT!, Women With A Vision (WWAV), Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition (OPPRC) and national allies like the Vera Institute and the MacArthur Foundation—Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has made criminal justice reform a central priority over the past six years. However, despite these considerable strides, New Orleans remains a national and world leader in systemic criminalization and incarceration of its citizens.
New Orleans is Louisiana’s largest city and This study centers the voices and experiences also the city with the largest incarceration of youth, women, girls, Latinxs and LGBTQ rate. In a state that incarcerates more citizens people who face particular injustices due per capita than anywhere else in the world, to intersecting and interlocking systems New Orleans ranks at the top of the list, of white supremacy and patriarchy as they with approximately 90 percent of those are shuttled into and through New Orleans’ incarcerated being Black.2 And although criminal justice system. Despite the steadfast significant progress has been made, the work by organizations representing and reform efforts and support programs have fighting for these vulnerable communities, focused primarily on the impact of the interventions have been slow to take root and criminal justice system on Black men and criminal justice reforms are sorely lacking boys, while little to no attention has been in strategies to address the complex web of paid to particular impacts on women, girls, barriers and burdens that cause New Orleans’ Latinxs and LGBTQ people. most vulnerable populations to fall prey to the New Orleans criminal justice machinery.
�. “The New Orleans Jails, 10 Years Later,” New York Times. August 27, 2015.
For this study, we applied a variety of research methods to gather data and perspectives from those directly impacted by the system and those working to reform the system. We conducted four focus groups with directly impacted people and 40 interviews with 115 informants. We also reviewed public data sources and action research and data collection efforts conducted by organizations working for criminal justice reform in New Orleans. All research was conducted between March and June 2016.
115 STUDY SUBGROUP NUMBER OF INFORMANTS INTERVIEWEES BY SUBGROUP
40 WOMEN 26 INTERVIEWS GIRLS 31 COMPLETED YOUTH 35
LATINXS 17
4 LGBTQ COMMUNITY 6 FOCUS GROUPS CONDUCTED
5 BRIEF TIMELINE OF NEW ORLEANS CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
Criminalization of Black New Orleanians has deep roots, reaching back to the Code Noir laws introduced in 1724, which imposed a possible sentence of death for crimes such as burglary and striking a white person; restricted enslaved people’s religious practice, gatherings and movement; and required free people of color to treat white people with “respect” or face criminal charges.
Prompted by the large number of Blacks in Louisiana, the Code Noir was enacted in 1724 to regulate relations between slaves and white colonists. The Code Noir had already been adopted in French colonies in the Caribbean as early as 1685. The code governed the institution of slavery all the way through the Civil War, and mandated that all slaves be baptized Roman Catholic and that they married in the Church. Beyond this, slaves had no rights and couldn’t even be freed by their slave masters without the approval of the Superior Council.
Source: Wall, Bennett et al., Louisiana: A History. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, Inc. 2002.
Similarly, criminalization of LGBTQ people Stonewall rebellion, which was a watershed has deep roots nationally and locally, as moment for the national gay rights movement. evidenced by legislation criminalizing gay Throughout years of protesting, organizing sex and requiring clothing to match assigned and political action, laws that criminalize gender, as well as historical and current LGBTQ people have remained on the books accounts of routine and brutal harassment well into the 2000s, including some that of LGBTQ people by New Orleans police. remain today. In 2016, Louisiana’s governor, For many LGBTQ people, police harassment John Bel Edwards, issued an executive order has been a routine occurrence, especially in prohibiting discrimination based on sexual spaces where gay, lesbian and transgender orientation and gender identity in government people have historically gathered. This form and state contracts. The anti-discrimination of targeted police harassment was the spark law was swiftly deemed unconstitutional by of a 1966 uprising of trans women in San State District Judge Todd Hernandez because Francisco’s Tenderloin district and of the 1969 it sought to create or expand state law.3
3. “Louisiana gov. John Bel Edwards’ LGBT rights order thrown out by judge,’ CBS News. Dec. 14, 2016. < http://www.cbsnews.com/news/louisiana-governor- john-bel-edwards-lgbt-rights-order-judge/ > (February 1, 2017).
6 The 1970s set the stage for the modern surge consenting sexual behavior in private between of criminalization and a massive rise in adults of the same sex (this ruling was incarceration. As President Nixon declared eventually overturned by Lawrence v. Texas in the “war on drugs” in 1971 and new laws were 2003). passed targeting organized crime, a lawsuit Incarceration rates continued to climb settlement in Louisiana incentivized the throughout the 1990s when President Clinton building of larger local jails to house state passed the Violent Crime Control and Law prisoners. Inmates at Angola, Louisiana Enforcement Act of 1994, and tough-on- State Penitentiary, had filed a lawsuit in 1971 crime rhetoric dominated the political stage. over deplorable conditions and crowding, As jail and prison populations skyrocketed, eventually leading to a settlement agreement New Orleans-based organizations responded under which local sheriffs were housing with organizing, litigation and advocacy. In thousands of State Department of Corrections February of 1998, the Juvenile Justice Project (DOC) inmates. Per diem compensation for of Louisiana filed suit over conditions at housing inmates rose from $4.50 per day in Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth, and the 1970s to nearly $20 per day by 1990, which The New York Times published a scathing adjusted for inflation is a 33% increase in 20 investigative report on the state of juvenile years. Influenced by this financial incentive, justice in Louisiana and conditions at the local sheriffs filled their jails with DOC youth prison. Women With A Vision was inmates and opposed reforms that would founded in 1989 by a group of Black women reduce incarceration rates.4 In the mid-1970s, in response to the impact of the HIV/AIDS the Orleans Parish Prison housed about 800 epidemic and substance abuse on New inmates. By the time Hurricane Katrina Orleans’ communities of color and the need struck 30 years later, the jail population had for advocacy to address the injustices that increased tenfold to almost 8,000.5 affect Black women in New Orleans. Orleans During the 1980s and 1990s, criminalization Parish Prison Reform Coalition formed in of youth and LGBTQ people increased 2004, urging sheriff candidates in that year’s dramatically, fueled by punitive responses to election to sign on to a ten-point platform of the AIDS crisis and narratives about “crack jail and criminal justice reform. babies” and “super-predators.” The term When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, the “super-predator” was coined by John Dilulio Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) housed nearly in 1995 and popularized by a Time magazine 8,000 pre-trial and sentenced inmates. These article warning of the dangers posed by out- inmates were trapped in the jail as floodwaters of-control urban youth. Within a few years, rose, while Sheriff’s Office officials had no nearly every state had expanded laws that plan for their evacuation or safety, eventually exposed youth as young as 13 to the adult evacuating inmates to a highway overpass. criminal justice system and adult sentences, In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many including life in prison without parole.6 organizations and individuals used this period LGBTQ people were also under fire; the 1986 of extreme chaos in the city’s criminal justice Supreme Court decision in Bowers v. Hardwick system as an opportunity to tackle massive upheld the right of states to criminalize problems and long-standing issues. They
4. Chang, Cindy, "Louisiana Incarcerated (2012)," The Times-Picayune. Revised, 2015. < http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/page/louisiana_prison_capital. html> (July 05, 2016). 5. Reckdahl, Katy, "How to Shrink a Jail," Next City. March 28, 2016.
7. “Incarceration Trends,” Vera Institute of Justice.
The United States’ incarceration rate is the highest reported in the world, and Louisiana incarcerates its residents at a rate 150 percent higher than the national average, higher than any other state. Across the state, Louisiana’s parish jails hold more than 30,000 people, including people convicted of relatively minor offenses by local courts, some federal prisoners, and nearly half of all the state prisoners.10 Angola is home to over 6,000 of Louisiana’s prisoners, 80% of whom are Black.11 Incarcerating people (including those never convicted of a crime), even if only for a few days, causes them difficulties in almost every aspect of life for the foreseeable future. People with convictions are saddled with copious fees, fines and debt at the same time that their economic opportunities are diminished, resulting in a lack of economic stability and mobility.
The following working definitions of criminalization were used to frame how the subgroups studied are criminalized in New Orleans. The first definition is sourced from the field of criminology and asserts that criminalization is:
The process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals. Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. 12
The second definition is provided by Michelle Alexander, author ofThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, who offers the following:
Mass criminalization takes into account a whole range of interconnected issues, including the economic and educational conditions that steer people toward the criminal justice system to begin with. 13
10. Tarnowski, Bryan, “Paying the Price,” Human Rights Watch. March 29, 2016.
9 During the course of the interviews, $11,770 per year. In total, at least 80 percent the participants largely agreed that of incarcerated individuals are indigent.14 criminalization is a consequence of poverty Criminalization reinforces economic and racism. More than half of those entering stress on impoverished families and limits the criminal justice system live at or below the economic mobility of both formerly the federal poverty line, earning less than incarcerated people and their families.15
When asked to reflect on their own personal and organizational definitions of criminalization, the interviewees discussed the realities of struggling communities of color colliding with a dehumanizing system. Their responses follow:
“How people are criminalized for their conditions.” –Women With A Vision (WWAV)
“A highly punitive system that treats normal adolescent behavior as criminal.” –Grow Dat Youth Farm
“How dominant culture criminalizes [people of color] to further marginalize vulnerable populations.” –Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools
“Being punished for who you are.” —BreakOUT!
“Lack of humanization of all people so that some groups, when their behaviors reflect challenges, stress or trauma in their lives, aren’t given the respect to address those and instead are pushed into a punitive system. This includes the experience of living with the chronic effects of poverty and racism and how people are vilified for being in struggle.” —The Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies (IWES)
“You kind of create these situations where self-preservation or preservation of family makes you a criminal. You hungry, folks are hungry, they are going to do what’s necessary to eat, take something to purchase the food or take the food. That’s going to happen.” —Voice of the Experienced (VOTE)
14. Subramanian, Ram, Rebecka Moreno and Sophie Gebreselassie, “Relief in Sight? States Rethink the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction, 2009-2014,” Vera Institute of Justice. December 2014.
Criminalization is used as a capitalist tool to build the architecture that perpetuates inequality. By criminalizing people based on their appearance and use of their own bodies, the criminal justice system turns a profit by stripping assets and extracting wealth from our most vulnerable populations. This is especially true in New Orleans, where much of the funding to run the criminal justice system is generated in Municipal Court, which handles 200–400 cases per day. Defendants in Municipal Court often get lost in the fines and fees of multiple cases and the resulting “attachments” (warrants) that put them back in the courtroom, where they lose time and income and are treated like modern- day slaves, shackled together at their ankles as they await their turn in front of the judge.16 The intersectionality of gender, race and sexuality within New Orleans’ criminal justice system creates a ripple effect, which impacts those being criminalized and places limitations on the families and support networks of those in the system.
16. Abrams, Eve, “For many in New Orleans, Municipal Court is the gateway to the criminal justice system,” January 20, 2016.
11 Women are the invisible casualties of the country’s mass incarceration and failed drug war. Across the country, women bear the brunt of the costs—both financial and emotional—of their loved ones’ incarceration. When an individual is incarcerated, family members on the outside, usually women, are primarily responsible for court- related costs associated with conviction. The familial impact of incarceration is further complicated when women are also the ones being incarcerated.
12 Over the past quarter century, there has been a be quite devastating. Women who are arrested profound change in the involvement of women or incarcerated often have primary parenting within the U.S. criminal justice system. Since responsibilities, and many have significant 2010, women have been the fastest growing health, emotional and financial needs. Most correctional population nationally.17 women in prison in the United States have children under the age of 18, and even short- Women’s engagement in criminal behavior is term incarceration has higher consequences often related to their connections with others; for women and their families because they many have been caught in the crossfire of are often the primary parents and primary the drug war through intimate and familial providers. Additionally, the negative impact relationships with men engaged in drug of involvement with the criminal justice activity. These relationships put women at system is generational: children of mothers considerable risk, including conviction for a who are incarcerated are five times more likely drug offense as an aider and abettor or co- to become involved in the criminal justice conspirator, typically with stiff, mandatory system.19 penalties. Sometimes the sentences for these women are longer and more severe Women in New Orleans are often overlooked in than those of their partners, boyfriends and the criminal justice reform conversation, and husbands. Outside of drug-related arrests and programming to address their specific needs convictions, women are typically charged is limited and under-resourced, according with nonviolent and minor crimes associated to interviewees. Women who are arrested with economic survival in dire economic or incarcerated are much more likely to conditions. The median income of women have experienced poverty, intimate partner who become incarcerated is $13,890, less violence, sexual abuse and other forms of than half (42 percent) of the median income victimization often linked to their offending of women who are not incarcerated. Women behavior. When women, particularly women report greater levels of poverty and fewer of color, are the victims of crime and abuse employment opportunities immediately and seek assistance from police, they risk preceding incarceration than do men. These being criminalized even as they report a crime. numbers tell a story of women being driven Black trans women in particular report that into the criminal justice system through police often assume they are sex workers and economic circumstance and struggling to profile or even proposition them based on this recover following a period of incarceration.18 assumption.20 Ultimately, the lack of services and supports to address these needs are The societal costs of arrest and incarceration of contributing factors to women’s involvement women are high, and when women are swept with the justice system and recidivism rates into the criminal justice system, the impact to among women. their families and community networks can
17. Glaze, Lauren and Danielle Kaeble, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013,” Bureau of Justice Statistics. December, 2014.
13 WOMENS STORIES:
Dianne, a grandmother of three, was sitting on the hood of a friend’s car near her home when police showed up with guns drawn and searched her and the car. Dianne and the driver were both arrested. She was charged with marijuana possession and, possibly because she’d had a conviction from 1993, officers chose to send her to jail rather than issue a citation. Her family spent the next ten days collecting the money to bond her out. She spent nearly two years working to pay off an $800 fine for the marijuana possession and faced arrest when she fell behind on payments.
LOCALLY: 74.3%
OF ARRESTS 33.5% OF WOMEN IN 2015 IN WERE FOR ORLEANS PARISH WERE MUNICIPAL FOR TRAFFIC CHARGES CHARGES
NATIONALLY: Since 2010, the female jail MEDIAN INCOME population has been FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN IS $13,890, MORE THAN the fastest growing 42% OF MEDIAN INCOME FOR NON correctional INCARCERATED 60% OF WOMEN.2 WOMEN IN PRISON population HAVE A CHILD UNDER 18.3 nationally.1
1. Glaze, Lauren and Danielle Kaeble, “Correctional Populations in the United States, 2013” Bureau of Justice Statistics. December, 2014.
15 Locally and nationwide, Black girls are being engage in activities that adults consider affronts placed in handcuffs for having tantrums in to their authority. Available data suggests most kindergarten, thrown out of class for asking school-based arrests of girls (90 percent) are questions, sent home from school for arriving for disturbing the peace or fighting.21 These in shorts on a hot day, labeled as “truant” if policies can be dehumanizing, leaving girls of they are being commercially sexually exploited, color feeling uncared for. Black girls are subject and labeled as “defiant” if they speak up in the to discipline that is harsher and more frequent face of what they identify to be injustice. Black than that of their white peers, and are six girls are often criminalized in schools (arrested times more likely to be suspended than white on campus or referred to law enforcement) girls. Nationally, Black girls make up only 17 instead of engaged as children and teens whose percent of girls in public schools but account mistakes could be addressed through non- for almost half of school-based arrests.22 Girls punitive restorative approaches. are overrepresented in school-based arrests, compared with the general rate of criminal In New Orleans, Black girls describe being or justice involvement. Ultimately, the racial labeled and suspended for being “disruptive” disparities in punishment are greater for girls or “defiant” if they ask questions or otherwise than for boys.
21. “Orleans Parish Juvenile Court School-Based Offenses 2014,” Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. 22. Patrick, Kayla, “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools,” National Women’s Law Center. May 12, 2016.
GIRLS’ STORIES:
One focus group participant noted that at her school, they have lockdowns when school leaders feel threatened. Wherever students are, they can’t leave, and this happens frequently. She said that at her school, mostly girls have fights, and if she has a fight with someone and the other person bleeds, then she’s the one who gets handcuffed, regardless of who started it. She remarked that people get arrested for a lot of things at her school and that makes students not want to show up. “It’s easier to go to jail than get A's in school. I’m not going to school if I’m just going to jail.”
16 LOCALLY: GIRLS MADE UP
99% OF GIRLS 26% ARRESTED IN ORLEANS OF SCHOOL BASED ARRESTS PARISH IN 2014 IN ORLEANS PARISH IN 2015. 1 AVAILABLE DATA SUGGESTS WERE BLACK. MOST (90%) OF SCHOOL BASED ARRESTS OF GIRLS ARE FOR DISTURBING THE PEACE OR FIGHTING.2
NATIONALLY:
In the 2011-12 school year, Black girls were 31% of girls referred to law enforcement and were 34% of school-based arrests.3
1. LCCR internal data received by email June 8 2016 2. Orleans Juvenile Court. Orleans Parish Juvenile Court: School Based Offenses 2014. Report. New Orleans. 3. Morris,Monique W. Pushout. New York, NY: The New Press, 2016.
17 Young people are part of families and communities and, as such, experience the same conditions, oppressions and challenges of their larger communities, from over-policing to family destabilization as a result of mass incarceration. However, in addition to facing systemic biases and oppression that mirror those of their communities, young people are particularly targeted for behaviors that are a predictable part of youth development. Teens and young people of color and young adults are criminalized for what they wear and where they gather, as are transgender and gender nonconforming youth. School is a center for the lives of most young people and is also, paradoxically, a place where they face escalated responses to their behaviors that expose them to the criminal justice system. For young adults, each aspect of their identities can bring increased risk of hyper-policing that proliferates into incarceration. Often unaware of their rights when engaging with police, young people are frequently victims of police misconduct and brutality.
18 In New Orleans, advocates have been fighting misdeeds. The combination of insufficient for meaningful reform of juvenile justice support for young people dealing with practices and school discipline approaches trauma, and authority figures who are quick for decades. This work has yielded major wins to assume criminality especially of Black locally and statewide, including the passage youth, leads to devastating outcomes for of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003, young people who are already struggling to which mandated the closure of the infamous overcome a host of intersecting oppressions. Swanson Center for Youth in Tallulah and The overwhelming majority, more than 99 ignited a movement for youth justice. percent, of juvenile arrests in New Orleans are Black youth, and only about a third of the Despite these wins, New Orleans youth, young people jailed in the city’s Youth Study especially Black, Latinx and Vietnamese Center are there for violent offenses. young people, remain at high risk of being profiled and criminalized for ordinary
YOUTH STORIES: On a cold day, a young person didn’t have a jacket and had to wear his father’s coat to school. The coat had a lighter in the pocket. When the student was caught playing with the lighter, police were called and he was arrested for having a weapon at school. Because the student’s mother has a limited understanding of English, she didn’t understand the charge or what was happening with her son.
OF ADMISSIONS TO THE YOUTH STUDY CENTER 33% IN 2015 WERE FOR 99% VIOLENT CRIMES2 OF JUVENILE ARRESTS 839 JUVENILE IN ORLEANS PARISH IN 2014 ARRESTS IN ORLEANS WERE OF BLACK YOUTH1 PARISH IN 20141
Young people between ages 18 and 24 were 11% of the population but 100% 143 OF YOUTH ARRESTED AT SCHOOL YOUTH WERE made up 20% of Field IN 2014 WERE BLACK3 ARRESTED AT SCHOOL IN 20143 Interview Cards collected by NOPD in 20154
1. LCCR : Juvenile Justice Data Dashboard: Data Through 12/31/14. Louisiana Center for Childrens Rights Juvenile Justice Data Dashboard Data Through 123114 Comments. Accessed May 06, 2016. http://www.laccr.org/dashboard/. 2. Johnson, Breanna. Youth Study Center Annual Population Report 2015. Report. New Orleans: City of New Orleans, March 2016. 3. Orleans Juvenile Court. Orleans Parish Juvenile Court: School Based Offenses 2014. Report. New Orleans. 4. New Orleans Police Department. Nola.gov. April 8, 2016. Accessed June 6, 2016. http://www.nola.gov/nopd/policing-data/data/stop-and-search-(field-interview-cards)/2015-stop-and-search-annual-report/. 19 As people whose lives are often lived at the intersection of gender and racial oppression, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in New Orleans experience criminalization in ways that overlap with other subpopulations but that are also specific to punishing their real and perceived sexual and gender identities.
20 Because of systemic and societal settings as well, often targeted when they do homophobia, LGBTQ youth are frequently not conform to gender norms. unsafe at home, in school and in the Louisiana has punitive and unscientific community, which makes them more likely laws criminalizing HIV-positive people that to be homeless and vulnerable to violence disproportionately impact LGBTQ people of and criminalization. Nationally and in color. Conviction for so-called “intentional New Orleans, LGBTQ youth make up a exposure” results in a felony record and disproportionate share of homeless youth. is a sex offense requiring sex offender LGBTQ youth in foster care are often targets registration. Criminal justice approaches of violence from other youth and caregivers to preventing human trafficking often end in family and group home settings and are up criminalizing LGBTQ people through criminalized for defending themselves prostitution laws and intentional exposure against violence. In a 2011 study, more than laws. The New Orleans Police Department half of LGBTQ youth surveyed in Louisiana has a documented history of targeting trans reported experiencing violence at school and gender nonconforming people for sexual related to their sexual orientation and gender exploitation and arrest for sex work, often expression.23 As a result of being pushed out based on flimsy evidence such as the accused of both home and school, LGBTQ youth are possessing multiple condoms or being on frequently arrested for minor “crimes” of a particular street. Black trans-women are economic survival such as theft or failure especially vulnerable to police violence and to pay for food and drink. Because of criminalization. As in other subpopulations, homelessness, LGBTQ youth are more likely economic precarity and racism are key factors to be in situations where they are targeted in the criminalization of LGBTQ people in by police simply for being on the street. New Orleans. Low-income and Black LGBTQ Interview findings suggest that LGBTQ youth people are most vulnerable to criminalization. experience disparate discipline in school
LGBTQ PEOPLE’S STORIES:
A Black transgender girl in Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) custody in the Baton Rouge area was rejected from family placements and faced discrimination from caseworkers because of her gender identity. In one foster placement, she was lured into a fight by her foster brothers and then arrested for fighting and charged with attempted murder. She was eventually committed to Swanson Center for Youth, a juvenile prison for boys, until advocates managed to get her transferred to LGBTQ housing in Baton Rouge.
23. “GLSEN School Climate in Louisiana 2011 State Snapshot,” GLSEN. 2013.
21 LGBTQ YOUTH 50% MAKE UP 10% OF LGBTQ YOUTH IN OF POPULATION LOUISIANA REPORTED EXPERIENCING PHYSICAL BUT 40% OF
HOMELESS YOUTH VIOLENCE AT SCHOOL NATIONALLY.1 RELATED TO THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION.2
50% 87% OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE OF LGBTQ PEOPLE REPORTED BEING CALLED A OF COLOR REPORTED 3 SLUR BY NOPD OFFICERS. BEING STOPPED BY POLICE IN 2014.3
1. Durso, L.E., & Gates, G.J. (2012). Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of Service Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth who are Homeless or At Risk of Becoming Homeless. Los Angeles: The Williams Institute with True Colors Fund and The Palette Fund. 2.“GLSEN School Climate in Louisiana 2011 State Snapshot,” GLSEN. 2013.
22 LATINXS
Latinxs living in New Orleans face criminalization in ways that are similar and overlapping with other subpopulations, but this group also faces additional and interrelated threats from the immigration system. Regardless of their citizenship status, Latinxs often face discrimination and profiling by police and an increased likelihood of interaction with police. In 2011, the Department of Justice found that the New Orleans Police Department engaged in widespread discrimination toward people who had limited English proficiency or were perceived to be immigrants.
23 Advocacy by grassroots organizations like the To this end, Latinx women are often the ones New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice left behind, fighting for their husbands, sons (NOWCRJ) has improved NOPD practices and led and brothers, and burdened with the duty of to adoption of a policy that prevents local police providing financial and emotional support to from participating in immigration enforcement. their family members, both in and out of the However, implementation of that policy remains system. challenging and does not protect people as Simultaneously, immigrant Latinx women are they travel into neighboring communities for being targeted for arrest from the moment they work or housing. Immigrant workers who are enter the United States. A more recent trend undocumented are caught up between legal in New Orleans has been the adjudication of systems that deny them access to tools of Latinx women, many of whom are mothers, to legitimacy such as identification documents, ankle monitoring programs as they await court, driver’s licenses and vehicle registration— and as opposed to incarceration. The intent to not then punishes them for failing to have these separate mothers from children is positive; documents. For example, undocumented however, prohibitive ankle monitoring programs immigrants often cannot get driver’s licenses often result in violations that further criminalize and, because of racial profiling, Latinxs are these mothers. The women of Congreso are more likely to be stopped and arrested for minor working locally to build leadership and capacity traffic violations. Latinx workers are also often to take control of their situations and take action criminalized while seeking work in public spaces on the use of ankle monitors to control their and charged with trespassing or loitering. As bodies.24 with other subpopulations in this scan, fines, fees and costs associated with even short periods The high rates of arrest and detention of of incarceration make Latinx workers vulnerable undocumented Latinxs in New Orleans reflect to cycles of repeated arrests. a national increase in arrest, detention and conviction of undocumented people. Between The New Orleans ICE field office is one of 1992 and 2012, the number of unlawful reentry the most aggressive in the country, known convictions nationally increased 28-fold, from for targeting non-priority individuals. In 690 cases per year to almost 20,000 per year. 2013 the New Orleans ICE office had the Given that increase, New Orleans’ ranking at the second-highest rate of issuing charges against top of the list for ICE arrest and detention is even undocumented immigrants of any field office. more striking. Of 11,592 encounters between ICE officers and immigrants, 70 percent resulted in charges. Like other subpopulations in this scan, Once arrested, undocumented immigrants immigrant workers and undocumented people were likely to be held for extended periods and are more likely to face financial challenges, have only 29 percent of those arrested were released, limited access to social services and be highly making the New Orleans field office one of the reliant on familial support networks. Arrest and most likely to keep immigrants incarcerated detention, even in the short term, disrupts these while they await prosecution. Of the 500-plus support networks and can catalyze a series of members of the New Orleans Congress of Day cascading negative impacts for an immigrant Laborers, 310 reported being arrested during family. 2013.
24. Stewart, Audrey (personal communication December 6, 2016).
24 LATINX STORIES:
Raul Rios was walking to the grocery store with his 4-year-old son and a family friend, Byron Rocael de Leon, in August 2013. An SUV pulled up to the group and a police officer got out and told the group not to move while an ICE agent got out and handcuffed Raul and Byron and kicked over Raul’s son’s tricycle. Neither officer asked for any identification. Raul told the officers that he was a U.S. citizen and was told to “shut the fuck up or you’ll make it worse for yourself.” The ICE agent brought both men to a mobile fingerprinting unit in the SUV. Fingerprint records confirmed that Raul was a U.S. citizen and he was released. Meanwhile, Byron was taken to an immigration detention center and he was eventually deported in November 2013. Raul’s son, who saw Byron as an uncle, was traumatized by the encounter and is now frightened of law enforcement agents.
BETWEEN 1992 AND 2012 2012 DOJ INVESTIGATION THE NUMBER OF UNLAWFUL OF NEW ORLEANS POLICE REENTRY CONVICTIONS DEPARTMENT FOUND NATIONALLY INCREASED 28- WIDESPREAD BIAS TOWARDS FOLD, FROM 690 CASES TO PEOPLE PERCEIVED TO BE IMMIGRANTS AND THOSE WITH 19,463.1 LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY.
Out of 11,592 ICE “encounters” with undocumented immigrants in New Orleans in 2013, 70% (8189) were charged by ICE, making New Orleans the field office with the second highest rate of charges. Only 29% were released making the New Orleans field office one of the most likely to detain criminally charged undocumented immigrants awaiting prosecution.2
1. Light, Michael T., Mark Hugo Lopez, and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera. "The Rise of Federal Immigration Crimes." Pew Research Centers Hispanic Trends Project RSS. 2014. Accessed June 16, 2016. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2014/03/18/the-rise-of-federal-immigration-crimes/. 2. Vaughn, Jessica M. “Catch and Release: Interior Immigration Enforcement in 2013.” Center for Immigration. March 2014. Accessed June 16, 2016.
25 STATEMENT ON DATA AVAILABILITY
Criminalization is not limited to the effects the system has on individuals. Little data exists at the local level to fully connect the dots on criminalization and its impacts on groups already afflicted by systemic institutionalized oppression. This is a human rights issue that affects individuals, families and advocacy groups. The lack of data demonstrates that some victims of criminalization are going unheard and are not receiving supportive services from the advocacy organizations that exist to help them navigate the system.
The scarcity of information on criminalization be made available to the public for all people of people based on race, gender and sexuality who have entered the criminal justice system also presents the case for reforming the way to determine the effects that identity traits data is collected and shared with the public have on police-community interactions. in New Orleans. Disaggregated data needs to
26 CURRENT CAPACITY TO IMPACT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM & CRITICAL LEVERS FOR CHANGE
New Orleans infrastructure to address criminal justice reform has grown tremendously over the past ten years. In addition to the growth of community organizing and policy advocacy organizations such as Women With A Vision, BreakOUT!, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice and Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, national organizations like the Vera Institute of Justice and the Robert and Solange MacArthur Justice Center opened offices in New Orleans; and critical coalitions like the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition and the Louisiana Youth Justice Coalition were formed to deepen strategy development and deployment across organizations with community organizing, policy advocacy and litigation capacities. Despite the growth, challenges remain, particularly in addressing the needs of the subgroups in this study. These challenges include:
• Lack of coordination within the field of • Community organizing groups lack criminal justice reform in New Orleans, capacity to track legislation and access to to address needs of the subgroups in this litigation support study • Many of the policy reform initiatives with • Absence of mass communication and respect to OPP and NOPD have been led public will-building strategy or campaign by the current mayor and other elected to educate voters about criminal justice officials who have term limits and are being reform in New Orleans replaced by conservative politicians
• Service organizations disconnected • Lack of data and analysis to drive reform from systemic advocacy (but engaged in process and inform the public significant individual advocacy)
DIRECT DATA POLICY ORGANIZING LITIGATION COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE MANAGEMENT ADVOCACY
WOMEN 11 4 7 8 7 5
GIRLS* 15 4 4 6 6 3 YOUTH 15 4 5 6 6 4
LGBTQ 7 4 3 4 3 3 PEOPLE
LATINX 2 2 0 2 2 1 PEOPLE TOTAL 24 7 11 18 12 16
*Some organizations included in this tally do some work with girls but serve a caseload that is predominately male. * Not including 9 governmental agencies/public officials that were interviewed
27 CRITICAL LEVERS FOR CHANGE
There is great momentum for systemic change in the criminal justice system in New Orleans. But even while reformers celebrate their victories, there is much work left to complete, especially as it relates to the communities highlighted in this report, who have yet to have specific focused strategies developed to address their specific needs. In order for the reform community to maintain traction and begin addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations in New Orleans targeted by criminalization efforts, these organizations must be supported at this critical time. Reform organizations and coalitions can benefit from thoughtful and strategic partnership with philanthropic institutions willing to underwrite organizations via long-term general operating support and funding organizational capacity building, research and investigative reporting, mass communications strategies and coalition building, litigation and policy advocacy for 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s.
In December 2016, the New Orleans Office recommended that the Municipal Court of Inspector General (OIG) released a report operate through a General Fund appropriation titled Municipal Court Funding, in which and have more concise financial agreements it evaluated the operation of New Orleans and assessment procedures, and that lobbying Municipal Court and the funding sources should take place to repeal the laws that (city, state and internally-generated) of the establish fees to fund Municipal Court. Court’s operation. The analysis of the Court’s As New Orleans and the nation enter a time financial practices raised concerns about of sweeping political changes, support for the legality, transparency and accuracy of advocacy groups working for the communities this funding structure. The extent to which featured in this report is dire. Political actors the Court was operating on self-generated who dehumanize and criminalize individuals revenues—generated from fines and fees based on their identities are being elected into assessed on convictions—brought into office, and there is a need to build capacity at question impediments to due process, as the local level for data collection, advocacy money for operations was acquired from and agency to maintain traction on the work those being criminalized. Additionally, the that has been done. Now is a time to build on report noted that there were weak systems interagency work and develop more social of accountability and a lack of performance responsibility for the individuals being measures in place to evaluate how the Court’s criminalized in our community. funding linked to its effectiveness. The OIG
28 As organizations continue to fight to reform offered the following set of strategies for the system at the city and state level, potential moving the needle on reform in New Orleans: for systemic change is great. Interviewees
• Find ways to move (or remove) elected, • Adequately fund the Orleans Public non-term-limited criminal justice actors Defenders’ office
• Develop mass communication strategy • Advance bail reform for both felony and to leverage traction around criminal misdemeanor cases justice reform gains toward longer lasting, • Develop cross-system communications sustainable changes and data sharing between service • Leverage Democratic, reform-oriented providers and system actors governor to push for statutory reform at • Effectively address the punitive conflation state level of sex work and sex trafficking laws • Scale existing proven programs to create better access to mental health care and to trauma-informed disciplinary systems in school
29 APPENDIX TIMELINE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
NEW ORLEANS NATIONAL NEW ORLEANS REFORM COMMUNITY
1969 1971 1989 Police raid Stonewall Inn in Inmates at Louisiana State Women With A Vision forms Manhattan. Stonewall riots Penitentiary file suit over as an organization focused on erupt, becoming a catalyst for the conditions at the prison. This health promotion and community formation of the Gay Liberation litigation eventually leads outreach. Front and the start of the modern to population caps for state LGBT rights movement. prisons and an agreement under 1992 which local parish sheriffs January 22, 1992: Plaintiffs 1970 are compensated for housing represented by the ACLU National President Richard Nixon thousands of Department of Prison Project file suit against OPP. declares "war on drugs." The Corrections (DOC) inmates in local Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt jails. New Orleans jail size swells, Organizations (RICO) Act is housing nearly 3,000 DOC inmates 1993 enacted as part of the larger when Katrina hits 34 years later. Institute for Women and Ethnic Organized Crime Control Act of Studies (IWES) is founded focused 1970. 2003 on reproductive health, rights and The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of justice for women of color. 1986 2003 is passed. Bowers v. Hardwick decision 1994 allows states to criminalize sex in 2004 New litigation involving female private between consenting adults Marlin Gusman is elected sheriff. inmates at OPP is initiated. of the same sex (later overturned in 2003 decision in Lawrence v. 2005 1997 Texas). August 29, 2005: Hurricane October 1997: Sheriff Foti enters Katrina hits New Orleans. into consent decree after illegally 1994 housing 300 juveniles at the September 13, 1994: President 2009 Clinton passes the Violent Crime Department of Justice releases a Conchetta Facility of Orleans Control and Law Enforcement Act report on its investigation of OPP, Parish Prison. of 1994. claiming that conditions there violate the constitutional rights of inmates.
30 1995 2010 2004 • John Dilulio coins the term • February 2010: Mitch Landrieu is • September 2004: A group of “super-predator,” predicting a elected mayor. organizers and activists collaborate wave of “brutally remorseless” • September 2010: Mayor Landrieu to create a nine-point platform to “elementary school youngsters convenes a Criminal Justice reform and change the conditions who pack guns instead of lunches” Working Group established by at Orleans Parish Prison, forming and “have absolutely no respect executive order and tasked with Orleans Parish Prison Reform for human life.” By 1999, nearly determining a recommendation on Coalition (OPPRC) every state in the country expands the size of the new parish jail. The laws that expose children to adult working group eventually endorses 2005 prosecution and sentencing. a jail size of 1,438. • August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans. 2002 2011 • September 22, 2005: Human • U.S. prison population exceeds two • February 3, 2011: City Council Rights Watch reports that OPP million. passes an ordinance to build a prisoners were abandoned during 1,438-bed jail. The ordinance Hurricane Katrina. 2007 includes a requirement that • Congress begins 3,400-bed all current buildings must be 2006 immigration detention “quota.” decommissioned and demolished • August 10, 2006: ACLU releases after completion of the new facility. “Abandoned & Abused: Orleans 2013 Parish Prisoners in the Wake of • Obama commutes sentences of 2012 Hurricane Katrina,” documenting hundreds of nonviolent offenders. • March 26, 2012: U.S. Marshals the experiences of thousands of Service removes all of the men, women and children who 2014 agency’s federal inmates from were abandoned at Orleans Parish • “Advancing Equity for Women Orleans Parish Prison because of Prison (OPP) in the days after the and Girls of Color” report released conditions. storm. by the White House Council on • May 2012: The Times-Picayune 2007 Women and Girls. launches the first of an eight-part • May 31, 2007: Vera Institute series on mass incarceration and releases Proposals for New 2016 the prison industrial complex Orleans' Criminal Justice System: • Obama commutes the sentences in Louisiana called “Louisiana Best Practices to Advance Public of hundreds of people serving long Incarcerated.” Safety and Justice, identifying sentences for nonviolent offenses, • June 22, 2012: The Lens reports specific areas of need and policy including several people from that the sheriff and city officials are solutions for New Orleans Louisiana. having “quiet discussions” about criminal justice system. The report building an additional jail facility recommendations are adopted by to house 600 inmates. the City Council as a blueprint to guide criminal justice reform.
31 2013 2007 NOPD passes policy 402, which • December 2007: Juvenile Justice states in part, “Officers shall not use Project of Louisiana files suit over an individual's actual or perceived conditions at Youth Study Center. gender identity, or sexual orientation as reasonable suspicion or probable 2010 cause that an individual is or has • September 2010: Hundreds of engaged in any crime.” people contribute $22.39 each (the daily cost to incarcerate one person 2014 in the jail) toward the cost of a • March 15, 2014: Marlin Gusman full-page ad in the Times-Picayune, wins reelection calling on the mayor and City Council to stop funding a huge jail 2015 and shift funds to other priorities. • May 27, 2015: New Orleans • October 4, 2010: ACLU releases becomes one of 20 jurisdictions its report “In For a Penny: The to win a planning grant from the Rise of America’s New Debtors’ MacArthur Safety and Justice Prisons,” which includes a Challenge, a grant given to sites section specifically looking at that have “demonstrated the incarceration in New Orleans. motivation, collaboration, and commitment needed to make 2011 real change in their local justice • February 2011: As part of campaign systems.” led by Women With A Vision, Doe v. Jindal is filed, challenging law 2016 that required people convicted • February 23, 2016: NOPD adopts of “crimes against nature by bias-free immigration policing solicitation” to register as sex policy which prevents local police offenders. from engaging in or assisting with • May 2011: BreakOUT! officially immigration enforcement. opens its doors with six founding • April 2016: New Orleans wins $1.5 members and an advisory board. million dollar Safety and Justice Challenge grant to implement reforms to reduce jail population • June 2016: Governor John Bel Edwards signs the Raise the Age bill into law. Bill changes the age of adult criminal justice system entrance from 17 to 18.
32 2012 • April 1, 2012: Southern Poverty Law Center attorneys file suit on behalf of inmates at Orleans Parish Prison, alleging brutal and inhumane conditions at the jail including widespread rape and violence, abuse by guards and lack of mental health care. • June 2012: Urban Congress to End Criminalization of our Communities Now! is held in New Orleans. During the convening, OPPRC demands an immediate release of all municipal nonviolent offenders, people who would be released if a Category 3 hurricane entered the Gulf. • June 27, 2012: Doe v. Caldwell is filed in federal court, seeking to remove from the state sex offender registry hundreds of people who are still forced to register due solely to a crimes against nature by solicitation (CANS) conviction. It seeks to extend the ruling in Doe v. Jindal beyond the nine original plaintiffs. • October 2012: BreakOUT! and other organizations testify at City Council hearing about a new proposed NOPD policy for treatment of LGBTQ individuals.
33 2013 • May 2013: BreakOUT! —along with Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association (VAYLA), the Congress of Day Laborers, STAND With Dignity, Voice of the Experienced, the Independent Police Monitor, and other community members and organizations—delivers a statement to NOPD asking for a public meeting to discuss gender and racial profiling policies. • August 2013: Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office begins declining detainer requests by ICE as part of settlement in civil rights lawsuit brought by two immigrant workers held at OPP.
2014 • Jan 16, 2014: OPPRC hosts sheriff candidate forum at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. Candidates include Marlin Gusman (incumbent), Ira Thomas, Charles Foti, and Quentin Brown. • August 21, 2014: City Council votes to retrofit Phase II to accommodate sick and mentally ill patients, rather than building an additional Phase III jail building. • October 2014: Women With A Vision launches Crossroads diversion program in New Orleans Municipal Court in partnership with chief municipal court judge Desiree Charbonnet.
34 2014 • October 2014: Children from the Congress of Day Laborers (Congreso) lead children’s march to end police harassment of New Orleanians. BreakOUT! releases and delivers to the mayor “We Deserve Better” report on NOPD harassment and profiling of LGBTQ people. Children from Congreso deliver a letter to the mayor detailing harm of NOPD collusion with ICE. • December 11, 2015: Civic leaders sign a letter urging Judge Lance Africk, who is overseeing the consent decree, to use the consent judgment to push for a jail no larger than 1,438 beds. The letter also demanded that children under 18 years old be sent to the Youth Study Center, and that mental health facilities be included in the 1,438-bed jail building.
2016 • January 2016: ACLU files suit over public defense after the Orleans Public Defenders office begins declining serious felony cases because they lack resources to adequately defend such cases.
35 2016 • June 21, 2016: Following receivership hearings and advocacy by inmate advocates and families, Marlin Gusman effectively relinquishes day to day control of jail operations to a third party following arguments by the DOJ and inmate attorneys that progress on the consent decree was so slow and conditions so dangerous in the jail that a third- party administrator was needed.
36