New Orleans Parish Prison: America's Worst Jail - Essay Sample

Introduction

New Orleans parish prison is a jail in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The jail was opened in the year 1989 and the sheriff's office operated it. Most prisoners in the parish prison are still awaiting trial with over thirteen thousands of fifteen thousand prisoners in the year 2016 that were not tried. The prison was ranked to be one of the worst prisons, by Mother Jones magazine in the United States of America has some of the worst conditions for prisoner's habitation in the year 2013. The prisoners in the prisons have passed through some of the hard times because of the bad management of the prison. An example is when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast in August 29th of 2005. the workforce that was based in the sheriff's office abandoned the prison leaving the prisoners with no access to basic needs like water and food, they were just locked in their cells for the day (Hewwit, 59-68). There were over six hundred and fifty prisoners locked inside. Prisoners were mistreated by prison guards, and the cells were also flooded with water. Later after this disaster, the prison was given two hundred and twenty-three million dollars to renovate the prison and set up better conditions for the inmates to the sheriff's office.

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The purpose of a prison is to lock lawbreakers and separate them from the citizens to create law and order which is a good thing to the community. The New Orleans Parish Prison does that but there is not enough protection and well-taking care of the prisoners who also have rights like other American citizens, they are supposed to get tried, serve their sentences and go back to the community. There have been reported very many deaths that have occurred in the prison, it is among the top prisons with such high numbers of mysterious prison deaths. In between April 2014 and April 2016, there were 46 death cases that were reported to have happened from the prison. Everyone, even the prisoners have the right to live. The prison is doing its work by keeping the lawbreakers where they are supposed to do but there are very harsh living conditions through the sheriff office was allocated a big amount of money to improve the prison standards. There are also a large number of prisoners who are not tried which is not right according to the law of the United States of America.

The New Orleans Parish Prison has been tagged unsafe because the rate of death is four times compared nationally by the Brutal federal monitors. The living condition improved very little even after the allocation of the twenty-three million dollars. There are very many fights, drug operations and attempted suicides in the prison with some succeeding. There is a lot of ignorance in the prison according to research done by this organization. A system of early intervention in the prison that is supposed to detent criminal acts in the prison does not work. Some prisoners that were released from the prison confirmed this and also explained on the hardships that prisoners are entitled to in that prison. To make changes in the prison new head or governance should be changed or shifted as well as new rules set for the prisoners and prison wardens in the prison. There should be increased and monitored security which can be done by the help of CCTV cameras to reduce illegal operations. There should be a great medical and mental health care to reduce the number of suicidal cases and attend to emergencies to reduce death cases. Compared to other prisons of its caliber, the New Orleans Parish Prison has a bad reputation and the purpose of it is not well executed. Other prisons have better governance and better living conditions.

Welfare is the assistance given by the government to people with all levels of income. Its biggest purpose is to help the poor. The government should ensure that people are tested for drugs before they get the money to make sure that they will put the money into good use and that the money is not for illegal purposes. This will also help those that are positive with drugs to get the necessary help and guidance. Welfare is not a free ride, it should be given to people that can generate more from the income and not too lazy fellas. Information gathered from the people that have received welfare is that some doesn't have legit reasons and end up misusing the money while some have not been given the welfare because of certain legal factors but were desperately in need of the money. There is corruption in the offices and some ha to pay some amount of money to get the welfare, some are unable to afford the bribes and some lie about their information making putting them at a better position to get the welfare. Most people think that welfare is a good direction to improve the lives of the citizens, the only problem is that not everyone can access it because the system is corrupt. Though it should be accessible to every citizen who qualifies (Chris, 510-530).

Works Cited

Tuzzolo, Ellen, and Damon T. Hewitt. "Rebuilding inequity: The re-emergence of the school-to-prison pipeline in New Orleans." The High School Journal 90.2 (2006): 59-68.

Ledford, Chris. "Symbolic Racism, Institutional Bias, and Welfare Drug Testing Legislation: Racial Biases Matter." Policy Studies Journal 46.3 (2018): 510-530.