Federal monitors warned a year ago Orleans jail units were ‘often unstaffed’ and high-risk inmates weren’t segregated
‘OPSO has taken the position that OPSO gets to determine which housing posts are mandatory,’ report says
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Federal monitors warned last year that Sheriff Susan Hutson wasn’t properly segregating high-risk violent inmates and that her deputies often left housing units completely unsupervised inside the Orleans Justice Center jail.
The deficiencies cited in the monitors’ April 2024 and October 2024 reports to U.S. District Judge Lance Africk not only highlighted the continued failure of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office to comply with key safety and supervision elements of its federal consent decree, but also show how little improvement occurred before Friday’s shocking and long-undetected escape of 10 inmates, including five jailed in murder or attempted murder cases.
Lead federal monitor Margo Frasier’s team sounded the alarm 13 months ago in its 19th compliance report to Africk, warning of the Hutson administration’s more casual handling of high-security inmates such as Derrick Groves, the four-time killer who ran out of the facility with nine other escapees early Friday morning (May 16).
“There are inmates who repeatedly do not follow the rules of OJC, including assaulting other inmates, assaulting staff, destroying property, starting fires, smoking contraband and/or threatening self-harm,” the monitors wrote. “OPSO used to house many of those inmates in a high-security unit, but chose to abandon this practice shortly after Sheriff Hutson took office (in May 2022).
“To make matters worse, many of these high-risk inmates were housed in dormitories during the monitoring period. It is of concern that the practice of limiting the movement of high-security inmates and the practice of placing them in specialty housing was eliminated.”
A subsequent 20th report from the monitors, released last October, said, “OPSO did move the high-risk inmates that were housed in dormitories into units with cells. It is of concern that the practice of limiting the movement of high-security inmates and the practice of placing them in specialty housing was eliminated. The monitors strongly urge OPSO to reestablish a high security unit.”
But the violent inmates who escaped Friday -- seven of whom remained at large Sunday -- were being housed in a pod on the jail’s first floor, the OPSO said Friday in its last media briefing. Former Sheriff Marlin Gusman told Fox 8 on Saturday that his administration only housed high-security inmates on the jail’s second or third floors, thus placing additional barriers between them and a ground-level escape.
“You need to make sure that you don’t put offenders that pose this type of security risk in a position where they can take advantage of the lack of staffing that you have,” Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche said Sunday. “These people are facing decades-to-life in prison. So, this is a matter of life or death for these inmates.”
The monitors’ 19th report was based on observations conducted within the jail between April 1-Sept. 30, 2023. The report was issued in April 2024 and Hutson responded a month later, saying she was “well aware of the issues raised by the monitors.”
Hutson added, “Through the diligent work our Compliance and Accountability Bureau, we have created corrective action plans. ... OPSO will continue to do our part to promote public safety for those in our custody and the community at large.”
Goyeneche said the biggest, most dangerous security blunder in the facility’s 10-year history proves that isn’t the case.
“Over the last four years, the sheriff’s office has actually regressed with respect to their (consent decree) compliance,” he said.
The monitors’ 20th report, issued last October, expressed continued frustration with Hutson’s administration.
“The monitors have endeavored to provide guidance to OPSO as to how to remedy the unsafe and unconstitutional conditions which existed when we began monitoring in late 2013, and which continue to exist,” they wrote. “While there has been recent discussion about establishing a close-custody unit (for high-risk offenders), it has yet to be implemented.”
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The federal monitors wrote last year they were extremely troubled by the OPSO’s lack of consistent direct supervision of inmates. They audited guards’ written security check logs against video evidence for one week in April 2024 and found the day shift only performed 15 percent of the checks indicated on their logs, and the night shift only 7 percent of its claimed security checks.
“This is, unfortunately, consistent with the systemic deficiencies identified by the monitoring team during on-site visits when deputies were inconsistent in describing how an acceptable security check would be performed,” the monitors wrote. “Furthermore, the deputies admitted that they did not perform all of the tasks for a proper security check each time a security check was recorded as having taken place.
“Generally, an adequate security check was only performed, if at all, when a physical count of the inmates took place -- twice a day.”
That ongoing deficiency was exploited in Friday’s escape.
Inmates were seen on video spending several minutes yanking on a cell door until it broke. They had time to tear a bathroom apparatus from the cell’s wall and scrawl taunting messages around the hole they used to escape into a plumbing area. And they still weren’t noticed as they spilled out of a loading dock exit that Gusman said they should never have been able to access without being seen on jail cameras, if the cameras were operating and being monitored.
“OPSO continues to not timely conduct and document security rounds (30 minutes or 15 minutes, depending on the unit), nor perform direct supervision surveillance consistent with the requirements of the Consent Judgment or OPSO policy,” the monitors wrote in April 2024. “Direct supervision requires surveillance of all of the inmates and cannot be properly performed by sitting behind a desk or in the control module. It requires walking around the unit, looking into the individual cells, and actively engaging with the inmates.
“Over the last four monitoring tours, the monitors witnessed the majority of the units being unsupervised. ... Review of incident reports revealed that units were often unstaffed, including many mandatory posts. If staff are not present, it is impossible to make the required rounds.”
The OPSO conceded Friday that the inmates who escaped shortly after midnight had not been noticed as missing until a morning roll call came up short around 8:30 a.m.
The potential for such a dangerous outcome did not go unnoticed in the monitors’ report last spring.
“All 24 of the housing units in OJC are designed for direct supervision,” they wrote. “Continual presence of a deputy in each housing unit is mandatory under the Consent Judgment. OPSO has taken the position that OPSO gets to determine which housing posts are mandatory and routinely does not assign mandatory staff to each housing unit. In addition, deputies are frequently absent from even the housing units designated by OPSO as mandatory.”
Monitors also knocked OPSO for failing to perform monthly “shakedowns” of its 24 housing units, as required by the consent decree. They wrote that neglect was contributing to more dangerous conditions involving weapons fashioned from the jail itself and narcotics or other contraband being smuggled into the facility.
“The review of contraband reports clearly indicates reoccurring issues and that the number of contraband incidents continue to be high,” the monitors reported. “The failure to search inmates thoroughly and properly upon returning from court also constitutes a source of illegal drugs.”
Hutson said Friday that she was running the jail with only 60 percent of needed staff, and has repeatedly sought more funding from both the city council and parish voters. A recent renewal of a 10-year millage that provides about 20 percent of the OPSO’s operating budget passed by a margin of just four votes.
But City Council vice president Helena Moreno and Rep. Jason Hughes (D-New Orleans) said Saturday they have asked the Louisiana Legislative Auditor to examine Hutson’s administration and spending to determine whether the OPSO’s existing budget is being properly utilized to improve security and staffing at the jail.
“The level of staffing is extremely insufficient to adequately supervise inmates and allow for the safe operation of the facility,” the federal monitors warned in April 2024. “There have been insufficient security staff over the past few monitoring periods, and it has worsened to a level where OPSO struggles to staff the facility and cover basic functions. OPSO’s staffing reports document that most mandatory posts are not filled on a consistent basis.
“There is still a lack of a coordinated effort on the utilization of overtime and redeployment of staff to ensure the mandatory posts are covered on a consistent basis.”
Goyeneche said he wasn’t sure when the federal monitors’ next visit and report would occur, but was certain the escape would make it soon.
“The monitors, if they’re not here, they’re en route here, and they will be doing their own due diligence to determine how this occurred,” he said. “This is a manhunt that we haven’t seen in the City of New Orleans in ... I can’t remember when.”
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