The U.S. Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Friday that Louisiana prisons routinely hold inmates for weeks or months when they would have been released after completing their sentences.
The lawsuit against the state was filed after a multi-year investigation into a pattern of “systematic over-incarceration” that violates prisoners' rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
Since at least 2012, more than a quarter of inmates scheduled for release from Louisiana prisons have been held past their release date, according to the Department of Justice.
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According to the Department of Justice, Louisiana prisons often hold prisoners for long periods of time who were supposed to be released after serving their sentences. (AP)
The Justice Department warned Louisiana officials last year that it could sue the state if it could not resolve the issue. Lawyers for the department argue that the state has made “last-minute efforts” to address the problem, and that such attempted solutions are “inadequate” and violate prisoners' constitutional rights. “This shows deliberate indifference,” he said.
”[T]”The right to personal liberty includes the right to be released from incarceration on a scheduled basis after a court-determined period,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark said in a statement.
“Indefinitely imprisoning people…not only violates individual freedoms, but also undermines public confidence in the fair and impartial application of the law,” the statement added.
Since at least 2012, more than a quarter of inmates scheduled for release from Louisiana prisons have been held past their release date, according to the Department of Justice. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill (both Republicans) blamed the problem on a “failed criminal justice reform” pushed by “the previous administration.”
“Over the past year, we have taken important actions to keep Louisianans safe and to protect those who commit crimes on time,” Landry and Murrill told The Associated Press in a joint statement. Ta. “The State of Louisiana is committed to preserving the constitutional rights of Louisiana residents.”
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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry speaks at the CPAC Texas 2022 Conference at the Hilton Anatole. (Radin/Pacific Press/Light Rocket via Getty Images)
Officials in both states also argued that the lawsuit was a last-ditch effort by President Biden, who leaves office next month, and that President-elect Trump's administration would not have pursued the case.
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Advocates have repeatedly challenged conditions in Louisiana's prison system. That includes the country's largest high-security Angolan prison, where inmates harvest vegetables by hand on 18,000 acres. This site was once an Angora plantation. A slave plantation owned by Isaac Franklin and named after Angola, the country of origin of many of the slaves who worked there.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
