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Published on April 3, 2013
Inmates at the now-shuttered House of Detention in Orleans Parish didn't have to forgo all of their vices, according to videotapes aired during a federal court hearing Tuesday over a proposed consent decree to govern jail reforms in the parish. One inmate is seen shooting up heroin, while others freely snort drugs behind bars and chat on cell phones. Another inmate releases bullets from a long-barreled handgun onto the ground inside the jail, behind bars. In another video, an Orleans Parish jail inmate went out on the town in the French Quarter, chatting up cops and cruising down Bourbon Street. How he got there remains uncertain. Inside the jail, cash dice games apparently were a source of entertainment for the inmates, according to the video, which lawyers for Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office said were from four years ago. The date of the taping, however, remained in question early Tuesday. Just how the gun, the drugs, the phones and all of the cash got into the facility -- and perhaps most importantly, how an inmate was able to get out and roam the Quarter -- is bound to come up as the hearing moves forward Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk allowed the stark images of flagrant illegal activity into evidence, saying they cut to the heart of claims by inmate lawyers and the U.S. Department of Justice over grim conditions inside the jail. Airing of the tapes, which were turned over by Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office after a request from the city, came at the start of the second day of a week-long hearing that pits the city against Gusman, the U.S. Department of Justice and inmate advocates with the Southern Policy Law Center. Africk will rule on whether to approve the proposed consent decree above the city's objections. The city is waging a fight to stave off perhaps $17 million to $22 million in additional costs to fund inmate care under the proposed consent decree to govern reforms at the maligned jail facility.