By Quinn Coffman
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Louisiana and its correctional department, claiming prisoners continue to be detained far past their sentences.
The lawsuit filed Friday is aimed at both the state and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, accusing officials of confining incarcerated people for “weeks and months” after their legitimate release dates.
It comes after more than a decade of complaints, audits, class action lawsuits and threats of a suit from the DOJ.
“Every person in the United States , whether incarcerated or otherwise, enjoys certain fundamental rights,” said Kristen Clarke , assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Right’s Division. “Foremost among them is the right to individual liberty. The Founders were keenly aware of the potential abuse of power when government can arbitrarily take away a person’s freedom without a lawful court order specifying the period of their confinement.”
In a joint statement, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill called the lawsuit “Grinch Joe Biden’s parting Christmas present to the State and people of Louisiana .”
“We look forward to fighting this, because the safety of Louisianans is our top priority,” the statement says.
Ongoing problems alleged
The DOJ said in a release that its lawsuit comes after a multiyear investigation into allegations of “systemic overdetention” in LDOC’s system.
In a report from January 2023 , the DOJ made Louisiana aware of the alleged conditions, providing written notice of the supporting facts and what the minimum necessary measures would be to remediate them.
The DOJ began investigating the Louisiana agency in December 2020. The ensuing report said that for a time in 2022, more than 1 out of every 4 inmates released had been held too long, and the average length of their overdetention was 29 days.
DOJ officials also said that paying local jails to hold people who were being overdetained cost the state more than $2.5 million a year.
The report was required under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which also authorizes the DOJ to act when it believes an institution is depriving detainees of their constitutional rights.
“In this context, the right to individual liberty includes the right to be released from incarceration on time after the term set by the court has ended,” Clarke said in the DOJ statement.
The lawsuit reportedly does not seek monetary damages, but instead “injunctive relief” to the ongoing conditions in LDOC’s institutions, outlined in the DOJ’s investigation.
The release says Louisiana has made “marginal” efforts to address the problem of overdetention, but the DOJ does not find them adequate, since the problem has allegedly been well-known to Louisiana for a long time.
“To incarcerate people indefinitely, as LDOC does here, not only intrudes on individual liberty, but also erodes public confidence in the fair and just application of our laws. The Justice Department looks forward to proving its case in court,” Clarke said in the statement.
Is review process adequate?
A report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor earlier this year found that the Department of Public Safety and Corrections did not have an adequate review process to ensure changes to release dates are accurately calculated. An agency official said it was the fourth time the auditor’s office had made such a finding.
The corrections department disputed the findings at that time, asserting in a response that its review process was adequate and noting the auditor did not find any errors in the release date calculations it reviewed.
In its response to the audit, the DOC said it is deploying a statewide electronic document upload portal that will “streamline the document intake process” and allow the agency to track uploads in real time.
In July, a state appeals court dismissed a lawsuit alleging an inmate had been held past his release date, overturning a lower court.
The inmate, who had been released on parole but arrested a second time, argued LDOC had not properly given him credit for time behind bars while awaiting his second trial. But the appeals court found that officials were correct in not applying the time served to his first sentence, and said the lower court’s ruling meant he was actually released before his full sentence was up.
Other lawsuits against LDOC alleging overdetention remain pending. Two such cases are seeking class action status.
‘We look forward to fighting this’
When reached for comment over the latest lawsuit, an LDOC spokesperson referred The Advocate to the statement made by Landry and Murrill.
“As we have continuously said, this problem stems from the failed criminal justice reforms pushed by the past administration. These reforms ultimately complicated the criminal justice system, giving criminals a get out of jail free card,” the statement reads.
“This past year, we have taken significant action to keep Louisianans safe and ensure those who commit the crime, also do the time.”
Landry and Murrill drew attention to the end-of-year timing of the lawsuit, which they pointed out comes before President Joe Biden’s lame-duck period ends and Donald Trump returns to the White House .
“This is the same radical ‘justice’ department that goes after political opponents, targets Catholics, and sees concerned school parents as a threat,” the statement reads. “All the while our country was being invaded at our southern border and violent crime was on the rise across the Nation. The American people have had enough of Biden’s inept DOJ.”
The statement also adds that “The Trump administration would likely have not allowed this case to be filed,” and that the Biden administration is looking to “jam through as many frivolous cases as possible before the clock runs out.”
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