In Katrina's Wake: Dismantling Mass Incarceration in New Orleans Ten Years After the Storm

• In Event: Perceptions of Police, Crime, and Justice

Abstract

While Hurricane Katrina brought unprecedented national and international attention to Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), the tragedies it exposed were linked to a distinctly Louisiana-inflected version of mass incarceration. Before the storm ever made landfall, New Orleans had the highest incarceration rate of any large U.S. city. A decade later, the city has made progress in dismantling some aspects of mass incarceration, most notably, the size of its prisoner population. This paper critically examines the progress the city has made using semi-structured interviews with residents regarding their experiences with police, court officials, and OPP. The focus is on residents perceptions of crime and control, as well as whether their encounters with law enforcement, court officials, and correctional officers have improved in light two consent decrees and a variety of reform initiatives. Preliminary findings suggest that whites identify crime as a major problem facing the city. African Americans are concerned with ongoing police harassment and abuse. The data suggest that while improvements in criminal justice policy have contributed to decreases in the size of the jail population, they have not adequately addressed racial disparities in criminal justice processing, nor have they dismantled a culture of racialized fear.

Author

• Jill A. McCorkel, Villanova University