Where are our Clients?
Many of our members are concerned about their incarcerated clients who have been displaced by Katrina, including pre-trial detainees who may not even have counsel appointed or bond set. So far, our efforts to get a handle on what prisoners have been moved where have not born much fruit. I contacted the Office of Emergency preparedness but was no current information is available. So far the only information we have has come through the media.
The Shreveport Times reports here that "About 200 prisoners were brought to Caddo Correctional Center; 311 inmates to Bossier Parish's maximum-security jail, the newest lockup of the parish jail complex off Old Plain Dealing Road. The prisoners came by school buses and state Corrections Department buses and vans from Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, where they were transported earlier in the week from flooded facilities in the New Orleans area."
Tha AP is reporting here that "More than 7,600 prisoners were transported out of the New Orleans area," but does nto say where they are being sent. the article quotes Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. I have not bee succesful in gettign through to anyone with DOC.
If you know of any information about relocation of prisoners please place a post here.
posted by Elton B.Richey, Jr. @ 6:39 PM
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1 Comments:
All:
As you all know, thousands of inmates, both DOC and pre-trial, have been evacuated from New Orleans to various facilities throughout the State. The bureaucracies are at work to set this all straight, but in the meantime there are many of our clients who are afraid, don’t know if their families are safe, don’t know if anyone knows where they are, and don’t have a clue how or when they will be able to contact their attorneys.
I am asking each of you who have a sufficient relationship with your local sheriff and/or wardens to go to them and attempt to meet with any evacuees in your parish. Tell them that we are creating a clearing house for lawyers to locate their clients and for inmates to locate their lawyers and families. Tell them that allowing us to meet with the inmates will keep down unrest because the inmates will know that their lawyers are aware of their situation – that they are not lost.
I am attaching an “inmate tracking form” which I suggest we all use for the time being. [Note: form could not be attached on this blog, but you can get from LACDL listserv or from me at phyllis@kricket.net.] Please complete a form for each inmate, using additional sheets if necessary for multiple charges/parishes. As you gather information, please forward it to my office until such time as a more permanent clearing house is established. You may send it by fax, or pdf, or e-mail, or any form that you can get the information to me. I will put it into a searchable database of some sort.
Jim Boren is working with Justice Kimball to try to get a formal order from her to the DOC, but in the meantime, we will just have to rely on our diplomatic skills to get this done.
I intend to begin meeting with inmates displaced to Rapides Parish on Tuesday. Jim Boren is working to begin with inmates in EBR. Please check in and notify us via the listserve or e-mail if you are able to gain access to inmates in your parish. Please coordinate with the other criminal defense attorneys in your area so that the sheriffs and wardens don’t get confused by multiple requests.
Phyllis E. Mann
Post Office Box 705
Alexandria, LA 71309
(318) 448-0000
FAX (318) 448-2250
Cell (318) 729-3868
e-mail: phyllis@kricket.net
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