Louisiana holds people in prisons past their release date, DoJ lawsuit alleges

Source: The Guardian/AP

Sun 22 Dec 2024 15.47 EST


Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds people weeks and months after they have completed their sentences, the US justice department alleged in a lawsuit filed on Friday. The suit against the state of Louisiana follows a multi-year investigation into what federal officials say is a pattern of “systemic overdetention” that violates inmates’ rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The justice department alleges that since at least 2012, more than a quarter of the people due to be released from Louisiana prisons have instead been held past their release dates. The DoJ warned Louisiana officials last year that the state could face a lawsuit if it didn’t fix the problems – but lawyers for the department say the state’s “marginal efforts” to address the issues were “inadequate” and showed a “deliberate indifference” to the constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals.

“(T)he right to individual liberty includes the right to be released from incarceration on time after the term set by the court has ended,” assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke said in a statement announcing the suit. “To incarcerate people indefinitely … not only intrudes on individual liberty but also erodes public confidence in the fair and just application of our laws.”

In a joint statement provided to the Associated Press, the Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, and state attorney general, Liz Murrill blamed the problem on the “failed criminal justice reforms” advanced by “the past administration”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/22/louisiana-prisons-doj-lawsuit