Prisoners and Families of New Orleans needs your help immediately!* If you haven't heard already Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans and is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane, the same as Hurricane Katrina. There will possibly be a mandate for all people (outside of prisons and jails) of New Orleans to evacuate starting tomorrow August 29th, the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It is predicted that hurricane Gustav will pose great flooding potential regardless of its category rating, the levee that broke by elected official's decisions during Hurricane Katrina has not been fixed to it's potential, or replaced.

The over crowding Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, holds 2, 500 prisoners (this count is not certain, due to lack of information given to the public.) Although not official, we have information that the Prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison will be evacuating to Angola Prison and Hunt Prison in the next coming days and are also prisons that can be affected by Hurricane Gustav due to overcrowding.

During Hurricane Katrina there were prisoners able to evacuate and others who remained locked in their cells with a minimal chance of survival. Prisoners were left in flooded cells, with no food, and had minimal ventilation, to say the least. Family members, of prisoners who were held at Orleans Parish Prison, are still in the fight to locate their loved ones who had been evacuated to other prisons during Katrina. Due to the flooding, lack of organization and care from New Orleans Department of Corrections and elected officials, prisoner's records were also missing. As a result, prisoner's constitutional rights have been violated.



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