Oh, Orleans Parish Prison - They Left Us Here to Die

"Well have you seen my green eyed son
He shot a man down with a sort of gun
And they found him down by the ponchartrain
Where they cuffed his hands with a big iron chain
Orleans Parish Prison won't you free my green eyed son
I heard him say as they led him away sorry for what he's done
Orleans Parish Prison won't you free my green eyed son."

ORLEANS PARISH PRISON (Dick Feller), sung by Johnny Cash

ACLU Seeks Information on the Fate of 6,500 New Orleans Prisoners

Locked Prisoners Were Abandoned by Guards When Katrina Struck; More Than 500 Missing

"According to the ACLU, the Orleans Parish Prison fell into chaos in the five days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29. As the water rose in the prison buildings, deputies deserted en masse, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells. Prisoners broke windows and either leapt out or set fire to pieces of clothing and held them outside the windows to signal to rescuers. The prisoners spent days without power, food or water, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests or necks. " (from ACLU press release, NY - Oct 6, 2005)
http://www.aclu.org/Prisons/Prisons.cfm?ID=19225&c=121

According to inmates interviewed by Human Rights Watch, they had no food or water from the inmate’s last meal over the weekend of August 27-28 until they were evacuated on Thursday, September 1. By Monday, August 29, the generators had died, leaving them without lights and sealed in without air circulation. The toilets backed up, creating an unbearable stench.

“They left us to die there,” Dan Bright, an Orleans Parish Prison inmate told Human Rights Watch at Rapides Parish Prison, where he was sent after the evacuation.

As the water began rising on the first floor, prisoners became anxious and then desperate. Some of the inmates were able to force open their cell doors, helped by inmates held in the common area. All of them, however, remained trapped in the locked facility.

“The water started rising, it was getting to here,” said Earrand Kelly, an inmate from Templeman III, as he pointed at his neck. “We was calling down to the guys in the cells under us, talking to them every couple of minutes. They were crying, they were scared. The one that I was cool with, he was saying ‘I'm scared. I feel like I'm about to drown.' He was crying.”

The ACLU of Louisiana joined the ACLU National Prison Project in filing official requests last month to determine if prisoners were abandoned to die in the Orleans Parish Prison during and after Hurricane Katrina, and for further details on the prisoner evacuation plan. (from http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0923-01.htm)

Orleans Parish Prison is the ninth largest in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Under the terms of a longstanding class action lawsuit over prison conditions, the ACLU has acted as counsel for the more than 6,500 OPP prisoners since 1989. In that capacity, the ACLU has sought to enforce court orders regarding the medical and mental health and environmental conditions of the prisoners.
(from http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0928-14.htm)

More on this story: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/27/1433256

Marty ignored. Did he forget to make a reservation?

photo from http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/102005HrgExhibits.pdf

Marty Bahamonde is a FEMA official from Boston who was caught in New Orleans when Katrina hit. The NY Times just printed a record of the emails exchanged between Bahamonde and various other FEMA officials.

They can be read at http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20051022_FEMA2.pdf
and are also posted at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's website at: http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/102005HrgExhibits.pdf

The specific exchange that is making the most noise right now is this one:

From: Bahamonde, Marty
To: 'michael.d.brown~dhs.gav'
Sent: Aug. 31, 11:20 am [Katrina hit New Orleans on 8/29 at 7am]
Subject: New orleans

Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical. Here some things you might not know.
Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.

The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac. Estimates are many will die within hours. Evacuation in process. Plans developing for dome evacuation but hotel situation adding to problem. We are out of food and running out of water at the dome, plans in works to address the critical need.

FEMA staff is OK and holding own. DMAT staff working in deplorable conditions. The sooner we can get the medical patients out, the sooner we can get them out.
Phone connectivity impossible.

More later
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
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[Note: DMAT=Disaster Medical Assistance Team]

No response from Brown is recorded. The next email is from Cindy Taylor, another FEMA official who has been communicating with Bahamonde and sharing his frustration, and who sarcastically comments on the email she forwards from Sharon Worthy who is Michael Brown's press secretary.

From: Taylor, Cindy
TO: Bahamonde, Marly; Widomski, Michael
Sent: Wednesday, August 31,2005 227 PM
Subject: FW: Scarborough

Let me preface by saying I know he needs downtime, but ummm... how much time do each of you need for dinner, including travel time to the restaurants of your choice?

From: Sharon Worthy (Brown's press secretary)
Cc: Cindy Taylor (FEMA deputy director of public affairs)
Sent: Aug. 31, 2:00 p.m.
Subject: FW: Scarborough

To: 'Valerie.Smith@DHS.GOV'
Cc :'natalie.rule@dhs.gov';Andrews, Nicol D - Public Affairs;'cindy.taylor@dhs.gov'
Subject: Scarborough

Please schedule Joe Scarborough this eveninq for 9pmCST period. Spoke with his producer and told him to call you. Mr. Brown wants to do this one.

Also, it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner.
Gievn that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and from a location of his choise, followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you.

Sharon Worthy
Press Secretary
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[Note: Joe Scarborough is a former right-wing Florida Congressman forced to resign, now turned arch right-wing radio talk show host and MSNBC commentator -- who has preached for years for huge cuts in Federal programs and services. But that incongruity hasn't stopped him from lately criticizing the White House and FEMA as incompetent.]

To which Bahamonde responds to Taylor:

From: Bahamonde, Marty
To: Taylor, Cindy; Widomski,Michael
Sent: Aug. 31, 2:44 p.m.
Subject: Re: Scarborough

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! No won't go any further, too easy of a target. Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while I try to sleep, but instaed I will hope her wait at Ruth Christ is short. But I know she is stressed so I won't make a big deal about it and you shouldn't either.
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[Notes: MRE=Made Ready to Eat, an emergency ration, Ruth's Chris is a steakhouse chain]