Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Jails in New Orleans

Nature and Scope of the Collapse

Hurricanes are the worst kind of storm known to humanity. On August 29, 2005, New Orleans came under the wrath of mother nature when Hurricane Katrina, a category five storm, hit the city with wind speeds as high as 120 miles per hour (Zimmermann, 2015). After the storm washed away, it left, in its wake, destruction of property, amounting to an estimated $108 billion, while about 1,833 people lost their lives (Zimmermann, 2015). By far, Hurricane Katrina is the deadliest and costliest storm on record. At the time, New Orleans was home to about 480,000 people, who were then issued with immediate evacuation calls before the storm hit the land (Zimmermann, 2015). Those who had the means to evacuate left the city, but others who were too poor to afford any kind of self-evacuation stayed back. When the storm hit, the impacts exposed a series of deep-rooted issues in New Orleans, problems that went beyond the direct effect of the storm. Essentially, the effects of the storm on the city and the people exposed the local government’s unpreparedness, particularly in regards to the safety of citizens in correctional institutions. According to Zimmermann (2015), the highest number of Hurricane Katrina’s victims were people in jail whose evacuation came late after the storm hit the land.

The need for emergency preparedness became apparent after the storm, and more so, the interest of Americans in correctional facilities. Unlike free citizens, inmates do not have the power to care for themselves and make decisions in cases of emergency. The safety of people in jail lies squarely in the hands of prison administrations. Consequently, inadequate planning and preparedness for natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, led to tragic and unconstitutional results. At the time, before the hurricane, New Orleans jails held nearly 8,000 inmates (Robbins, 2018, pg. 1). Unfortunately, the storm found them in jail despite the issuance of a mandatory evacuation (Robbins, 2008). The correctional staff abandoned the people in jail when floodwater began to fill jail buildings. Detainees had to stay in flooded buildings for four days before they received any form of help to get out (Robbins, 2008). The inmates stayed for days on end with increasing water levels, with no food and drinking water.

The evacuation from the flooded jails did not offer much solace to the inmates and the New Orleans society. After going on for days without food, enduring elongated days of standing to avoid drowning, most inmates died inexplicably. Those who survived the ordeal still suffered further harm when they were kept on highway overpasses for days, awaiting placement in other correctional institutions (Kurlychek & Johnson, 2019). Some inmates were beaten by correctional staff and fellow inmates (Zimmermann, 2015). Despite the transfer of inmates to other correctional institutions outside the state, it was evident that the judicial system in New Orleans experienced sudden death after Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, these results were unexpected and unconstitutional, but worse still, they were preventable.

Prison administrators in every state are responsible for the welfare of the people in their correctional institutions, specifically those working in jails and inmates. The need to focus simply on the need to correct mistakes instead of saving lives is unconstitutional. If the prison administrators had put in place emergency plans, many lives would not have been lost, and the judicial system would not have ground to a halt.

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