Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds inmates for weeks or months after they were supposed to be released after serving their sentences, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Friday.
The lawsuit against the state follows a years-long investigation into a system of “systemic overdetention” that violates inmates’ rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
Since at least 2012, more than a quarter of inmates scheduled for release from Louisiana prisons have been held beyond their release dates, according to the DOJ.
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Louisiana prisons often hold inmates long after they were supposed to be released after serving their sentences, the DOJ says. (PA)
The Justice Department warned Louisiana officials last year that it could take legal action against the state if it failed to resolve the problems. The department’s lawyers argue that the state made “marginal efforts” to resolve the problems, pointing out that those attempts at resolution were “inadequate” and demonstrated “deliberate indifference” to the constitutional rights of inmates.
“[T]“The right to individual liberty includes the right to be released from prison on time after the court-appointed sentence has been completed,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
“Indefinitely incarcerating people … not only infringes on individual liberty, but also erodes public confidence in the fair and just application of our laws,” the statement added.
More than a quarter of inmates scheduled to be released from Louisiana prisons since at least 2012 have been held beyond their release dates, the Justice Department said. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and state Attorney General Liz Murrill, both Republicans, blamed the problem on “the failure of criminal justice reforms” pushed by “the previous administration.”
“Last year, we took important steps to keep Louisianans safe and ensure that those who commit the crime also serve their time,” Landry and Murrill said in a joint statement to The Associated Press. “The State of Louisiana is committed to preserving the constitutional rights of the citizens of Louisiana.”
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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry speaks at the CPAC Texas 2022 conference at Hilton Anatole. (Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The two state officials also claimed the lawsuit was a last-ditch effort by President Biden, who leaves office next month, arguing that President-elect Trump’s new administration would not have pursued the case.
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Advocates have repeatedly challenged conditions in Louisiana’s prison system, which includes Angola, the nation’s largest maximum security prison, where inmates pick vegetables by hand on 18,000 acres of land . The site was once the Angola Plantations, a slave plantation owned by Isaac Franklin and named after Angola, the country of origin of many of the slaves who worked there.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
