Whatever Happened to the Prisioners?

[HeatherAKC]

I remember seeing a group of prisioners in orange garb on a freeway ramp. They had to leave their prision b/c of flooding. The news had overhead camera shots of them. They were guarded and seemed to be in total control, but I never heard anything else about how they ended up?

Anyone know what happened to that group of prisioners?

[artist]

they were bussed out - I don't know where too though.

[stormie_skies]

As I understand it, the Greyhound station is being used as a temporary prison right now. Other prisoners were transferred to other Louisiana prisons, or prisons in other states.

Here is an interview with the New Orleans D.A. :

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9312220/

[cancunkid]

I find it interesting the prisoners were not evacuated. If there was anyone who was at the mercy of the city 100% it was prisoners. Honestly would you want all these guys loose if the prison should be damaged? Obviously NO gov didn't take Katrina very seriously no wonder so many with limited resources didn't evacuate.

[x-y-no]

I find it interesting the prisoners were not evacuated. If there was anyone who was at the mercy of the city 100% it was prisoners. Honestly would you want all these guys loose if the prison should be damaged? Obviously NO gov didn't take Katrina very seriously no wonder so many with limited resources didn't evacuate.

I would think that evacuating prisoners would have taken away from already strained transport capacity. Mayor Nagin on "Meet the Press" said that they barely had drivers and buses to transport people to the Superdome.

Also, there would be the matter of finding someplace secure to take the to. I doubt that could have been arranged in the short time available.

[Mattie]

catch 22- save the criminals or the infirmed elderly . . .

The prison system *could* have had another option and that was to call in transport officials from surrounding areas on Saturday and let other departments handle the processing and holding of these prisoners until after the storm passed. However, there aren't provisions for that and it would have caused an administrative nightmare for those areas that were not directly involved with the preparation for Katrina.

So in retrospect, the police were saving the prisoners, while the nursing homes and hospitals were unable to evacuate.

Again, though, hindsight is 20-20.