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.

"We feed them real good, take care of them. We don't have any problem with them -- we're not oppressive unless they are," Cain said.

New Orleans Looters Processed

More than 250 prisoners have been brought to Camp Greyhound, 80 percent of them male. Most have been charged with looting, but other alleged crimes range from the attempted murder of a police officer to lesser offenses like public intoxication or not having a driver's license.

Some of the jailed insist they committed no crimes but were caught up in sweeps for looters.

"We're here for looting … so … everybody knows that. But I was just with people who were looting. I was guilty by association," said prisoner Elizabeth Nette.

As with most incarcerations, Cain pointed out there are two sides to every story. He pulled Nette's file and read that an officer received information that Nette and her boyfriend were involved in the burglary of a pharmacy.

Nette said she didn't know if her four children knew where she was being held, a common problem. Fellow prisoner Constance Jackson also expressed worry about contacting her family.

"My daughter and my grandbaby don't even know where I'm at. My momma don't even know where I'm at," she said.

Jackson claimed she merely picked up items dropped in the street by other looters.

Cain said looters have plundered a Red Cross truck and stolen a water truck. Looting can carry a punishment of up to three years in prison.

"They don't arrest someone for looting food and water. That's not looting, that's surviving, and the police do not bother them," Cain said. "When they go and steal the beer, the whiskey, the electronics, guns, whatever other kind of thing, then that's looting."

And what of finding the families of prisoners like Nette?

"We're going to take her jail and let her deal with that," Cain said. "She has a boyfriend, and he's not in jail, so he needs to worry about her family. And if he's not one that would worry about her family then she shouldn't have had him as a boyfriend."