(The Center Square) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Wednesday that demands an “immediate and aggressive response across multiple state agencies to address a major breach at the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility.
Ten inmates at the New Orleans facility escaped on Friday after removing a toilet and burrowing through a hole in the wall, even writing “to [sic] easy LOL” as a bit of parting graffiti.
Five of them have been caught, but the remainder are still at large.
“Our criminal justice system is a three-legged bar stool. If one fails, the whole system collapses,” Landry said in a news release. “This brings us to where we are today – New Orleans willingly handed the jail keys to those leaders who vowed to keep criminals out of jail. Sadly, it worked.
“However, the state will not sit idly by. We are taking immediate, decisive action to ensure that this never happens again. The people of Louisiana deserve not only transparency and accountability, but also a justice system that is unyielding in its commitment to public safety – and our executive order demands it. Enough is enough.”
The executive order will task state Attorney General Liz Murrill with an investigation into the jail break. The order also requires the state inspector general to oversee audits of case files. The state Department of Corrections will review jail operations for compliance with jail standards and relocate any state inmates, for which the parish is paid by the DOC, to state facilities. The Louisiana Supreme Court will be asked to review the Orleans Criminal Court. His order also requires the state Judiciary Commission evaluate judicial performance in high-crime parishes.Landry’s order also requires documentation of continuance requests by court clerks, and judges are encouraged to address unnecessary delays.The Metropolitan Crime Commission will be asked to develop a system to track cases from arrest to conviction.
