{"id":1578140,"date":"2024-03-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/louisiana-plan-to-imprison-people-longer-imperils-sickest-inmates"},"modified":"2024-03-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T09:00:00","slug":"everyone-will-die-in-prison-how-louisianas-plan-to-lock-people-up-longer-imperils-its-sickest-inmates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/28\/everyone-will-die-in-prison-how-louisianas-plan-to-lock-people-up-longer-imperils-its-sickest-inmates\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEveryone Will Die in Prison\u201d: How Louisiana\u2019s Plan to Lock People Up Longer Imperils Its Sickest Inmates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n by Richard A. Webster<\/span>, Verite News<\/a> <\/p>\n \n\n \n

This article was produced for ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Verite News<\/a>. Sign up for Dispatches<\/a> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n \n

Janice Parker walked into the medical ward at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola several years back, looking for her son, Kentrell Parker. <\/p>\n\n

He should have been easy to find. The 45-year-old New Orleans native had been bedridden since an injury in a prison football game left him paralyzed from the neck down more than a decade earlier. His bed was usually positioned near a window by the nurses\u2019 station.<\/p>\n\n

When she didn\u2019t see him there, Janice Parker feared the worst. Her son is completely dependent on staff to keep him alive: to feed him, clean him after bowel movements, change his catheter and prevent him from choking. Because he struggles to clear his throat, even a little mucus can be life-threatening. <\/p>\n\n

A nurse pointed toward a door that was ajar. Janice Parker\u2019s son was alive, but she was disturbed by what she saw: He was alone in a dark, grimy room slightly larger than a bathroom, with no medical staff or orderlies nearby. He was there, he told his mother in a raspy voice, because a nurse had written him up for complaining about his care. This was his punishment \u2014 the medical ward\u2019s version of solitary confinement. He told her he had been in the room for days, Janice Parker said during a recent interview. \u201cThere was no one at his bedside. And he can\u2019t holler for help if needed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

For years, Janice Parker said, she has complained to nurses and prison officials \u2014 in person, over the phone and through an attorney \u2014 about the neglect that she has witnessed on her frequent visits and that her son has described. He has told her that he\u2019s gone days without food. He has developed urinary tract infections because his catheter hasn\u2019t been changed. At one point, Janice Parker said, he developed bedsores on his back because nurses hadn\u2019t shifted his body every few hours. <\/p>\n\n

Her complaints have gone nowhere, she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n Parker has spoken to nurses and prison officials about the neglect that she has witnessed and that her son has described, but her complaints have gone nowhere.\n \n (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Kentrell Parker is among the most frail inmates in Louisiana\u2019s prison system, requiring constant care from a medical system that has largely failed to meet the needs of people like him. The deficiencies of Angola\u2019s medical system are well documented: Department of Justice reports in the 1990s, a court-monitored lawsuit settlement in 1998 and a federal judge\u2019s opinions in another lawsuit filed in 2015.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \nCase Study: \u201cPatient 22\u201d Choked on Sausage After Brain Injury\n

\n\u2013 U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick<\/em><\/p>\n

In a November 2023 opinion, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick wrote that Angola\u2019s medical care had not significantly improved since she ruled in 2021 that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. <\/p>\n

Among the cases she cited to illustrate her conclusion was \u201cPatient 22.\u201d What happened to this inmate, she wrote, was \u201cthe most egregious example\u201d<\/a> of the prison\u2019s substandard care and its practice of relying on inmate orderlies rather than trained professionals to provide medical care. <\/p>\n

The 60-year-old patient, who had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury, was transferred to Angola\u2019s emergency medical unit and then to an outside hospital after he was kicked in the face by another inmate, according to a medical expert for the plaintiffs. <\/p>\n

The inmate returned to the prison, where he was sent to the medical ward for two and a half months, suffering repeated falls while there. Medical staff placed him in a \u201clocked room with nothing but a mattress on the floor,\u201d the judge wrote. A doctor who testified on behalf of the prison said putting a mattress on the floor was appropriate because of the inmate\u2019s risk of falling. <\/p>\n

Although a speech therapist had recommended a diet of soft food because the inmate had trouble swallowing, the prison failed to provide one, the judge wrote. In January 2021, the patient choked on a piece of sausage and died. An inmate orderly administered CPR until emergency medical services arrived.<\/p>\n

In court filings and testimony, the state pointed to an apparent conflict in medical records regarding the patient\u2019s recommended diet. A doctor who testified on behalf of the prison said the death was accidental, and he didn\u2019t believe that it showed a violation of the standard of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n

In 1994, the Justice Department reported that Angola inmates were punished for seeking medical care<\/a>, with seriously ill patients placed in \u201cisolation rooms<\/a>.\u201d Prison staff failed to \u201crecognize, diagnose<\/a>, treat, or monitor\u201d inmates\u2019 medical needs, including \u201cserious chronic illnesses and dangerous infections and contagious diseases.\u201d Two decades later, a federal judge wrote that Angola\u2019s medical care has caused \u201cunspeakable\u201d harm and amounts to \u201cabhorrent cruel and unusual punishment<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

For years, Jeff Landry, Louisiana\u2019s new governor, defended the quality of Angola\u2019s medical care. When he was attorney general, a post he held from 2016 until January, he argued that inmates are entitled only to \u201cadequate\u201d medical care<\/a>, which is what they got. During the pandemic, Landry opposed releasing elderly and medically vulnerable prisoners, warning that it could result in a \u201ccrime wave\u201d<\/a> more dangerous than the \u201cpotential public-health issue\u201d in the state\u2019s prisons.<\/p>\n\n

And now that Landry has moved to the governor\u2019s mansion, the number of inmates who rely on the medical care in Louisiana\u2019s prisons is likely to grow. Soon after Landry was sworn in, he called for a special legislative session on crime. Over nine days in February, lawmakers worked at a dizzying pace to overhaul the state\u2019s criminal justice system. They passed a law that requires prisoners to serve at least 85% of their sentences before they can reduce their incarceration through good behavior. Another law ends parole for everyone but those who were sentenced to life for crimes they committed as juveniles.<\/p>\n\n

The \u201ctruth in sentencing\u201d law will nearly double the number of people behind bars in Louisiana in six years, from about 28,000 to about 55,800, according to an estimate by James Austin of the JFA Institute. The Denver-based criminal justice nonprofit studies public policy regarding prison and jail populations, including the jail in New Orleans<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Austin projects that the law will add an average of five years to each new prisoner\u2019s incarceration, resulting in a growing number of older inmates who will further burden prisons\u2019 medical systems. The share of inmates 50 and older already has risen substantially in the past decade, from about 18% in 2012 to about 25% in 2023, according to figures from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n

Although these laws aren\u2019t retroactive and won\u2019t affect Parker\u2019s chance of release, they could be devastating for future inmates in his condition. Louisiana has three programs that allow for its sickest inmates to be released; two of them will be eliminated and inmates will be eligible for the third only after serving the vast majority of their sentences, according to state Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, who spearheaded the legislation.<\/p>\n\n

Absent additional resources, Austin said, a medical system that for decades has struggled to care for its most vulnerable will \u201conly worsen.\u201d He called what is happening in Louisiana \u201cone of the most dramatic plans to increase prison population I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n Jeff Landry, Louisiana\u2019s new governor and formerly the state attorney general, has defended the quality of Angola\u2019s medical care.\n \n (Matthew Hinton\/AP)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Villio said in an email that she disagreed with Austin\u2019s projections. (The Landry administration didn\u2019t respond to questions from Verite News and ProPublica.) The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office, however, estimated that the state\u2019s expenses are likely to rise because inmates will be held longer. <\/p>\n\n

All told, the bills Landry signed seem designed to ensure that \u201ceveryone will die in prison,\u201d said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voice of the Experienced, a New Orleans nonprofit that advocates for the rights of the incarcerated.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cMore and more sentences of 30 to 60 years, which are not uncommon, will be death sentences,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we do not all age gracefully or go quietly in our sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \u201cThey Don\u2019t Even Try to Pretend to Show Compassion\u201d\n \n \n \n \n

After a jury found Parker guilty in the 1999 murder of his girlfriend, Kawana Bernard<\/a>, he was sentenced to life without parole and sent to Angola. The sprawling maximum security prison, which holds about 3,800 inmates on the site of a former slave plantation, was once known as \u201cthe bloodiest prison in America<\/a>\u201d because of rampant violence. That reputation remains<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola\n \n (Kathleen Flynn)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Still, it wasn\u2019t until her paralyzed son was sent to the prison\u2019s medical unit that Janice Parker truly feared for his life.<\/p>\n\n

In the years that he has been held there, at least 17 prisoners have died after receiving substandard health care, according to U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, who ruled in 2021 that Angola\u2019s medical care was unconstitutional and in November 2023 that the state had failed to significantly improve it.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIf he stays there,\u201d Janice Parker said, \u201che\u2019s gonna die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Though Parker\u2019s movements are now limited to facial expressions and slight shifts of his head, he was once known as \u201cCoyote\u201d for his relentless style of play as a cornerback for the East Yard Raiders in the prison\u2019s full-pads football league. After the team won the prison championship in 2009, he was chosen for Angola\u2019s all-star team.<\/p>\n\n

They traveled to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center to compete against its best players. After Angola dominated most of the game, its coaches pulled their starters to prevent injury, Derrick Magee, a former teammate, said in an interview. Parker insisted on playing.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n Kentrell Parker, second from left, poses in 2010 with teammates from the East Yard Raiders in a photograph held by his mother. The players are holding championship belts from Angola\u2019s Crunch Bowl in 2009, according to former teammate Derrick Magee. Parker was paralyzed in a game soon after.\n \n (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Magee said the memory of what happened during that game continues to haunt him nearly 14 years later. The opposing team ran a short run play. As their fullback drove a few yards forward, Parker drilled him, driving his neck into the player\u2019s torso. Nearly a dozen others piled on.<\/p>\n\n

The whistle blew. One by one, the players stood up. Parker, however, lay on the grass. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on, Coyote?\u201d Magee asked.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cMan, I can\u2019t move,\u201d Parker replied.<\/p>\n\n

He had suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury in his neck. Dr. Raman Singh, the medical director for the Department of Corrections at the time, summarized Parker\u2019s condition<\/a> in a letter a month after his injury: \u201cHe requires total assistance with all activities of daily living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

After about 19 months of treatment outside the prison, Parker was taken back to Angola and admitted to its hospital, which includes a 34-bed ward for prisoners who need long-term or hospice care, according to the Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n

Janice Parker has observed the conditions in the medical ward on her frequent visits, nearly every month for more than a decade. The smell of urine and feces permeates the infirmary. Tables and medical equipment are covered in dust and grime, she said. Patients, suffering from open wounds and sores, scream in pain throughout the day. <\/p>\n\n

On one visit, she said, clumps of her son\u2019s hair had fallen out and the bare patches of his scalp were covered in scabs. He told her he hadn\u2019t been bathed in weeks. Another time, she found him lying in his own feces, suffering from an infection after bacteria had \u201centered his blood from his stool<\/a>,\u201d according to the 2015 lawsuit filed by her son and other inmates, in which Angola\u2019s medical care was ruled unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n

Kentrell Parker\u2019s sister, Keoka, said that during the many visits she has made to Angola, not once has she seen a nurse check on her brother or any other inmate. Instead, it\u2019s the inmate orderlies \u2014 untrained men who in many cases have been convicted of violent crimes \u2014 who care for the patients. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe certified people \u2014 the people with degrees, the nurses \u2014 they don\u2019t turn my brother over, they don\u2019t feed him, they don\u2019t wash his face, they don\u2019t give him therapy or exercise him,\u201d Keoka Parker said. \u201cThey don\u2019t even try to pretend to show compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Department of Corrections didn\u2019t respond to questions from Verite News and ProPublica about the complaints by Parker\u2019s family; in documents filed in response to his lawsuit, it denied all allegations related to him.<\/p>\n\n

Like her mother, Keoka Parker said she lives in terror of a phone call from the prison informing her that her brother has died because of medical complications or neglect.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n Keoka Parker\n \n (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

For Lois Ratcliff, whose son spent several years in Angola\u2019s hospital after an infection paralyzed him from the waist down, that fear was realized. <\/p>\n\n

Ratcliff said she visited her son, Farrell Sampier, at least every other weekend in the prison hospital between 2013 and 2019. She often sat and talked with Parker. Seeing them suffer needlessly left her so depressed, she said, that she contemplated suicide. Ratcliff often wondered whether the cruelty was the point.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never be able to get that out my head, the things I seen, and how they treat the people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n

During a 2018 visit, Ratcliff said, she found Parker lying in his bed, his face surrounded by flies. The nurses did nothing and refused to let her help him, she said. Unable to swat the flies as they buzzed about, Parker did the only thing he could to bring himself some relief: He ate them.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \nCase Study: \u201cPatient 38\u201d Locked in an Isolation Room With a Serious Infection\n

\n\u2013 U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick<\/em><\/p>\n

Dick, the federal judge, cited a medical expert\u2019s conclusion that \u201cPatient 38\u201d had died because of delayed medical care<\/a> as one example of Angola\u2019s substandard care. <\/p>\n

This inmate, who had an artificial heart valve and suffered from diabetes, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, developed symptoms of a potentially life-threatening infection, Dick wrote. In response, Angola\u2019s medical staff treated him for the flu, giving him Tylenol and an antiviral drug, and locked him in a room, a medical expert for the plaintiffs testified.<\/p>\n

The inmate\u2019s condition worsened over the next three days, when his lab results showed signs of sepsis, a bacterial infection and kidney failure, Dick wrote. On the third morning, his vital signs indicated he had gone into shock, but there\u2019s no record that a doctor provided care<\/a>, according to medical experts for the plaintiffs. Based on his vital signs, the plaintiffs\u2019 experts wrote, the patient \u201cshould have been sent to a hospital. Instead, he received no care.\u201d <\/p>\n

About an hour later, the patient was found on the floor of his isolation room, the judge wrote. Staff tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at a local hospital after cardiorespiratory arrest stemming from pneumonia, the judge wrote. <\/p>\n

A medical expert hired by the state said the patient\u2019s care met constitutional standards and that it was appropriate to treat him for flu rather than pneumonia. \u201cThe Court is dumbfounded to understand how treating these symptoms as flu can be justified without so much as a physical examination,\u201d Dick wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n

In 2015, Parker and Sampier were among a dozen named plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections; the agency\u2019s secretary, James LeBlanc; Angola\u2019s warden; and the assistant warden in charge of medical care. The suit alleged that the prison\u2019s medical care caused inmates to suffer serious harm, including the \u201cexacerbation of existing conditions, permanent disability, disfigurement, and even death.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Dick ruled in favor of the plaintiffs<\/a> in 2021. In a November 2023 opinion supporting that ruling, she concluded that the prison knew inmates were sick but failed to provide them with adequate treatment<\/a>, worsening their conditions and in several cases leading to their deaths. That 100-page opinion confirms many of the allegations made by Parker\u2019s family: untrained inmates<\/a> doing the work of nurses, patients locked in isolation<\/a> rooms, unsanitary conditions<\/a> and a medical staff that routinely ignored<\/a> patients\u2019 needs. <\/p>\n\n

The judge\u2019s ruling came too late for Ratcliff. In 2019, her 51-year-old son died at an outside hospital while in Angola\u2019s custody. His autopsy indicated that he had suffered a stroke. <\/p>\n\n

The state has appealed Dick\u2019s ruling<\/a>; it went before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month. Newly elected Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who was Landry\u2019s top lawyer when he held that office, argued that prison administrators have made significant improvements, including the addition of air conditioning to several dorms, telemedicine and specialty clinics.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI believe that the judges should give us credit for what we have done to improve conditions,\u201d Murrill said in court.<\/p>\n\n

She also pushed back against the very premise of the lawsuit, denying that medical care at the prison was ever lacking or unconstitutional. The state has argued that Dick\u2019s ruling was based largely on a review by plaintiffs\u2019 medical experts<\/a> of the most difficult cases and that the judge didn\u2019t consider whether problems stemmed from medical error or differences in medical judgment. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe never conceded there was a violation in the first place,\u201d Murrill told judges.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n The Cost of Being Tough on Crime\n \n \n \n \n

The legal fight over Angola\u2019s health care system was part of a broader battle to improve conditions within Louisiana\u2019s prisons and unseat the state as the per-capita incarceration capital of the country<\/a>, if not the world<\/a>. In 2017, two years after inmates filed suit, a bipartisan coalition of inmate advocates, law enforcement officials and politicians pushed through a package of bills to revamp the state\u2019s criminal justice system and help inmates like Parker.<\/p>\n\n

That effort was hailed nationally and placed Louisiana at the forefront of a movement to combat mass incarceration<\/a>. But it would be relatively short-lived. Landry would soon promise to roll back most of these changes as he campaigned for governor on a platform of fighting a post-pandemic spike in crime.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \nCase Study: \u201cPatient 29\u201d Had 108-Degree Temperature, but Prison Staff Didn\u2019t Try to Cool Him\n

\n\u2013 U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick<\/em><\/p>\n

This 28-year-old inmate had requested help repeatedly but was never assessed<\/a> by a medical provider, the judge wrote. In March 2020, the inmate called for help again, complaining of stomach and back pain. He was evaluated by an EMT, but there was no indication that he received any treatment. <\/p>\n

That afternoon, the man was found on the floor, foaming at the mouth with a temperature of 108.2 degrees \u2014 \u201cobviously a heat stroke,\u201d according to a medical expert who testified for the plaintiffs. Medical staff did not try to cool the inmate with ice, Dick wrote. Instead, they inserted a catheter in an apparent effort to test his urine for illicit drugs. <\/p>\n

An expert for the defense testified that there was no reason to administer ice. \u201cYou can only do so much when someone isn\u2019t breathing and doesn\u2019t have a heartbeat,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was essentially a dead man.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, Dick wrote, was the least of the failures. The larger problem, she wrote, is that the inmate\u2019s calls for help were dismissed. The way this patient was treated, she wrote, showed \u201can attitude of general indifference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a January filing in federal appeals court, lawyers for the state wrote that prison medical staff use ice in heat stroke cases \u201cwhen appropriate.\u201d Even if the state were to concede that the patient should have been cooled with ice, lawyers argued, \u201cThis case would be at most a case of medical negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n

In 2017, Department of Corrections officials went to the state Capitol to warn lawmakers that medical costs were taking up an exorbitant portion of their budget. LeBlanc, the corrections secretary, cited one chronically ill inmate who cost the agency more than $1 million a year. He told lawmakers that one of the best ways to tackle the problem was to reduce the prison population, in part by releasing terminally ill or bed-bound inmates.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI have inmates in Angola that are in fetal positions, who are paralyzed from the neck down, are in hospice,\u201d LeBlanc said in a 2017 interview<\/a>. \u201cTheir life is over, it\u2019s done, they\u2019re finished. Why do we need to keep them in prison? There\u2019s no reason for that. They can spend their last few days with their family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Lawmakers responded by dialing back some of the state\u2019s more draconian penalties. They softened a \u201cthree strikes\u201d sentencing law<\/a> that put people in prison for life even for nonviolent offenses and created a medical furlough program that allowed bed-bound inmates and those unable to perform basic self-care to be released to a health care facility. All told, legislation enacted in 2017 resulted in a 26% decrease in the state\u2019s prison population<\/a> by the end of 2021 and nearly $153 million in savings<\/a> by June 2022.<\/p>\n\n

While those changes saved money and freed up space in prisons, the programs to release infirm patients were flawed, said Dr. Anjali Niyogi, founder of the Formerly Incarcerated Transitions Clinic<\/a> and co-author of a legislative task force report<\/a> about those programs. The process was complicated, it was unclear how decisions were made and prison officials often overruled the opinion of medical professionals, she said. <\/p>\n\n

Case in point: Although Parker was initially sent to a medical facility<\/a> after he was injured, the Department of Corrections brought him back to Angola. (Janice Parker has a copy of a letter from LeBlanc to Angola\u2019s warden saying it was because Parker\u2019s condition had changed<\/a>, but her attorney was told years later that it had been because of an unspecified behavioral issue<\/a>.) Since then, Parker has been repeatedly denied any kind of medical release, even though Angola\u2019s medical director, unit warden and a mental health team have recommended it.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n In 2019, prison officials recommended that Kentrell Parker be approved for a medical furlough, which would allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence in a health care facility. Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc declined to move Parker\u2019s case forward to the state Committee on Parole, which has the final say. Parker\u2019s family said LeBlanc has never explained his decision.\n \n (Obtained by Verite News and ProPublica. Highlighting by ProPublica.)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n

The Department of Corrections declined to comment on Parker\u2019s attempts to be released, saying any information would be contained in department documents provided by his family to Verite News and ProPublica. <\/p>\n\n

In 2022, state Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, tried to address shortcomings in the medical release programs. But by then, the political dynamics had shifted. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a moderate Democrat, was on his way out; Landry was taking high-profile stands against crime as he laid the groundwork for his gubernatorial campaign.<\/p>\n\n

Villio, a Landry ally, led the charge against Duplessis\u2019 bill<\/a>. When advocates contended that even prisoners convicted of violent crimes should be allowed to die with dignity, she responded: \u201cDid the victims of murder have an opportunity to die with dignity? Were the victims of rape dignified in that act?\u201d <\/p>\n\n

She took a similar message<\/a> into last month\u2019s legislative session as the new chair of the powerful House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice. Her bill requiring inmates to serve at least 85% of their sentences represents a dramatic change; today, inmates serve an average of 40%, largely because of credit earned for good behavior, said Austin, the consultant who projected how Villio\u2019s bill would affect the state\u2019s prison population.<\/p>\n\n

But Villio told fellow lawmakers that her bills raising the minimum time served and ending parole wouldn\u2019t increase the prison population or spending. She reasoned that because the bills would create certainty in sentencing, they would spur judges to issue shorter sentences. \u201cThere is no intent to ramp up the prison population,\u201d she said in a February legislative committee hearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n

The Legislative Fiscal Office, however, concluded otherwise. The bill ending parole could add between $5.7 million and $14.2 million<\/a> to the Department of Corrections\u2019 costs, legislative staffers wrote. The truth in sentencing bill would \u201clikely result in a significant increase<\/a>\u201d in spending, they wrote \u2014 at least $5 million in the first full fiscal year, based on Department of Corrections figures. The department estimated those costs would increase every month.<\/p>\n\n

Landry\u2019s current budget proposal would increase funding for the Corrections Department by about $53 million, or 7.4%, but it does not project a significant expansion in the incarcerated population, nor would it increase health care funding.<\/p>\n\n

Tennessee attorney David Louis Raybin, who helped draft a truth in sentencing law there in 1979, said he knows what Louisiana is in for. Tennessee\u2019s law was repealed six years later, after a string of riots<\/a> in the state\u2019s overcrowded prisons. But in 2022, Tennessee lawmakers adopted yet another truth in sentencing law over Raybin\u2019s objections<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \n

\u201cIt takes about three years for this to have its effect. But once it does, it hits with a vengeance,\u201d said Raybin, a self-described conservative Democrat who previously worked as a prosecutor and helped draft the state\u2019s death penalty statute. \u201cYou guys are going to get whacked down there. Your population is going to go through the ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Three days after the legislative session ended, Janice Parker visited her son. He was in severe pain from a distended stomach and a blockage in his catheter. She said the prison\u2019s medical staff didn\u2019t answer her questions about what was wrong and refused to send him to a hospital.<\/p>\n\n

As she sat by her son\u2019s bedside and held his limp hand, she didn\u2019t have the heart to tell him that their fears of what would happen if Landry became governor had come true: Louisiana was returning to its punitive roots.<\/p>\n\n

Though her son still is technically eligible for some sort of medical release, she worried that after 14 years of suffering and disappointment, news of the changes would sever his last thread of hope.<\/p>\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n Janice Parker holds a photo of herself with her son that was taken as she visited him at Angola.\n \n (Kathleen Flynn, special to ProPublica)\n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n

Case study document illustrations by ProPublica.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n

This post was originally published on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Richard A. Webster, Verite News <\/p>\n

This article was produced for ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network in partnership with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4134],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1578140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1578328,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578140\/revisions\/1578328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1578140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1578140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1578140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}