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Justice in a Shattered City
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 10, 2005 — -- Law enforcement officers, journalists and hurricane survivors still in New Orleans have witnessed a city already decimated by the storm now descending into chaos. But late this week there were signs that police were attempting to crack down on lawless behavior.
Eleven days after Hurricane Katrina, the city seemed rudderless and leaderless, and a boat trip through once bustling streets turned up a Dante-esque collection of human corpses and stray hounds.
"It's been really ugly. It's been, you know, reports of rape, murder, thefts -- you name it and it's happened," said Kenneth Norris of the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
But Friday provided a brief glimpse of a gathering sense of order in a town once known more for a cavalier attitude toward the law. An Amtrak train and Greyhound bus station has been converted into a makeshift jailhouse, now called Camp Greyhound. In the early days after the storm, many prisoners were permitted to go free even after being caught, but now they are being formally booked and jailed.
"They'll come from all over the city, from all of the agencies that are together that are now policing out there. They'll bring them here. This will be like central lockup," Norris said.
Prison cells festooned with barbed wire were constructed in what was previously a bus parking lot, and a locomotive engine supplies power to Camp Greyhound. Officials from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, the U.S. attorney, state's attorney, state police and the National Guard all came to pitch in.
Prisoners stay in the converted station for a day, sleeping if necessary on the concrete ground of the bus stop. Male prisoners are then sent to the Hunt Correctional Center, about 100 miles away, and women are moved to the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. They hold hearings by video conference with New Orleans judges.
The first prisoner booked was taken by complete surprise.
"He drove up to buy a ticket to get out of town, but he drove up in a stolen car and we gave him a ticket to our jail back here. He didn't get out of town," said Burl Cain, the warden for more than 10 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Cain is now heading Camp Greyhound.
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