Pearl River      Living in New Orleans, we become accustomed to being in the news.  People like our food, music, Mardi Gras, and festivals for just kicks or business conventions, so the headlines follow.  Somebody wants to report on climate change, New Orleans will be front and center.  We get used to all that, and some locals embrace it all with pleasure, rather than trepidation.   None of that makes the current headlines about the Orleans Parish jail and its sheriff fill up the citizenry with pride, especially when it’s front page and top of the news stories in national newspapers and television. Here we are back front and center only weeks after the jail and sheriff were also in the news for an almost historic two-vote victory and recount to maintain a millage paying 20% of their budget.  This time it’s a jailbreak with plenty of “who’s on first, nobody seems to be on second” twists and turns.

First, the news alert said that 11 prisoners had escaped the local jail, though it soon turned out to be 10; jailers had miscounted.  Three have been caught, as I write.  One was chased down under a car in a parking garage in French Quarter, three miles away in what everyone in the world knows is tourist-central.  Another was caught along Chef Menteur highway, far away in the eastern part of the city, perhaps seven or eight miles from the jail.  He had plenty of time to get there.  The video from jail cameras of them running away – clearly 10 – was around 1:30 am in the morning.  They got out through a pre-cut hole behind a toilet and then over the barbed wire fence using blankets.  All sources indicate that they had help on the inside from woefully underpaid jail workers. Three have been suspended, and Sheriff Susan Hutson promises investigations.  The escapees posted notes saying “this was too easy” and “catch us if you can,” thumbing their noses at authorities.

Now moving from bad to worse. the sheriff and her team didn’t discover that they were missing until 8:30 AM.  Jailers didn’t notify the New Orleans police force until 10:30 AM.  The district attorney across the street from the jail in the courthouse found out from the news at 11:15 AM.  They all have plenty to say about this, but the New Orleans police chief tactfully said, she would deal with that issue later.  While most news services warned that the escapees, half of whom were imprisoned on various murder charges, attempts or convictions were “armed and dangerous,” the alert system for city hall and the mayor, NOLA Ready, in its first warning said they were armed and dangerous, then later deleted that with a softer warning.

Who knows when the remaining prisoners will be apprehended, but one thing is crystal clear.  The first term sheriff, Susan Hutson, had already been burned by one problem after another from in-house scandals, bad management, and voter bond rejections, with a line of folks announcing to replace her already; she’s totally toast.  Some in the field are weak and unknown.  One leading opponent is former police but was suspended while there for among other things taking a bat after her partner at the time.  I’ll guarantee there will be a host of others who come forward now before the last prisoner is caught.  One might be Judge Arthur Hunter, a former police officer, who has announced for mayor, but should move over to this race, where he has a better chance.  Another might be former sheriff Marlin Gusman, who dealt with some issues, but was competent and had huge chops as a former city chief of staff and councilman.  Many will likely suggest that Sheriff Hutson spare herself the embarrassment of running for a second term and a guaranteed defeat and invent a job offer in some other city elsewhere in the country.

My grandparents lived in Drew, Mississippi, where they raised my mother and uncles down the road from the notorious Parchman Prison in Sunflower County.  Back in the day, every trip there we would hear stories of the latest time a prisoner had escaped from Parchman or some work crew and ended up the yard or back door of some other relative or friend’s house.
The coda would sometimes include laughs about Floyd, the town policeman catching the inmate, miraculously. That just came with the territory.

Best to keep the doors, gates, and shutters locked and the dog in the yard, because unless something changes very soon, that is our reality now in New Orleans, too, even if no one is laughing about it.