New Orleans Judge Slated to Release Prisoners Citing Breakdown in Criminal Justice System
Tuesday Aug 29th, 2006 8:20 AM

New Orleans judge Arthur Hunter has pledged to begin releasing prisoners today whose cases have been delayed since Hurricane Katrina. Many prisoners jailed in New Orleans for over a year haven't talked to a lawyer or had a day in court. Some have yet to be charged with a crime. We speak with Katherine Mattes of Tulane University's Criminal Law Clinic.

At 2pm today (8/28/2006) Gregory “DJ” Christy, a resident of the Lafitte housing development, joined by more than 70 supporters entered his apartment with the intention of reoccupying it for the first time since August 2005. 9 supporters of Christy were arrested in the attempt to reopen public housing. All 9 have been bailed out of the Orleans Parish Prison.

The reopening of the Lafitte today was a response to the policies of HUD which have left the Lafitte closed to residents. The development was not badly damaged by Katrina or the subsequent flood.

Ready to live in his home, Christy and supporters came stocked with water and cleaning supplies. Christy and a group of seven supporters occupied his apartment for over an hour in the sweltering heat as Housing Authority police and city police deliberated on whether to arrest them and how to respond to the opening of the unit.


read more...

Disaster profiteers make millions while local companies and laborers in New Orleans and the rest of the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast region are systematically getting the short end of the stick, according to a major new report from the nonprofit CorpWatch.

A CorpWatch analysis of FEMA's records shows that "fully 90 percent of the first wave of (the post-Katrina reconstruction) contracts awarded - including some of the biggest no-bid contracts to date -- went to companies from outside the three worst-affected states. As of July 2006, after months of controversy and Congressional hearings, companies from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had increased their share of the total contracts to a combined 16.6 percent." The CorpWatch analysis shows that more federal reconstruction contracts have gone to Virginia and Indiana - usually large, politically connected corporations -- than to any of the three Katrina-devastated states.

Promised that hundreds of apartments would be reopened by the end of August but seeing HANO’s cleanup efforts stall several times, and questioning the ultimate intentions of the Housing Authority and HUD, residents of the C.J. Peete development have decided to take action into their own hands. Tired of waiting, public housing residents are returning and cleaning up their homes themselves.

BOSTON, Massachusetts, August 23, 2006—One year ago, the US government promised survivors of Hurricane Katrina that it would take bold steps to address the deep inequalities the storm revealed. Twelve long months later, government at all levels, from the Bush Administration down to local officials, has yet to make good on its pledge, according to international humanitarian organization Oxfam America.

'...as of early August, not one house in those two Gulf Coast states had been rebuilt with that money.'