As federal judges weigh controversial jail expansion, New Orleans City Council again cries foul

Weeks after city officials, under pressure from a federal judge, filed a zoning change application for a controversial jail expansion, the New Orleans City Council unanimously passed its second symbolic resolution in 10 months against the proposal.

The resolution takes aim at longstanding plans for a $51 million, 89-bed facility meant to house inmates with mental and medical health problems, which critics say would be a costly waste of funds better spent on providing services before people run afoul of the law.

Yet while New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the council and activists have made their opposition abundantly clear, the fate of the facility now rests with a federal appeals court, which is weighing the mayor’s request to halt construction.

The building is an outgrowth of Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s 2013 reform agreement with the federal government and inmate advocates. The agreement, known as a consent decree, involves a promise to provide adequate mental and medical health care. Monitors appointed by U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, who oversees the consent decree, say only a new building will fulfill the promise.

But since last June, Cantrell has been fighting in court to hit pause on the building, which under state law the city would be required to build. Pointing to the building's estimated $10 million annual operating cost, and the jail's declining inmate population, she says the money would be better spent elsewhere. In lieu of a new structure, she would like to renovate parts of the existing main jail building, which would cut down on space available for general population inmates.

Nevertheless, Africk says the city must abide by an agreement made by former Mayor Mitch Landrieu to build the facility. Cantrell has an appeal pending at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeal.

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