New Orleans Jail is So Foul it Violates Inmates' Right to Counsel
/As the American Bar Association works in Missouri and other states to develop new, accurate measures to evaluate public-defense caseloads, the ongoing struggles between Orleans Public Defenders and its jail make it clear that caseload alone is an imperfect barometer that can be tremendously skewed by issues like jail access.
In Orleans, as elsewhere, most indigent defendants remain in jail until trial because they can’t afford bail. Altogether, Orleans defenders make 4,500 jail visits a year, which eat up so much work time that the caseload measure becomes almost meaningless. “You can blow three hours trying to talk to your client for 15 minutes,” said Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton, who described the jail as “one of our most disruptive inefficiencies right now.”
When Orleans Public Defenders go into court on Thursday, they will tell a state civil-court judge that Sheriff Gusman is violating both state and federal laws that govern a defendant’s right to counsel. They’ll show their log documenting inconsistent wait times and non-private conditions: rooms where they must discuss delicate case matters within earshot of other inmates and exchange paperwork through deputies, who may or may not deliver it.
