Tyree Quinn, a convicted felon awaiting trial on two murder charges, was sent to “the hole” for his role in a jail stabbing this month at Orleans Justice Center. Soon after, he was treated for inhaling smoke from a fire set by inmates inside Sheriff Susan Hutson’s lockup.
Even for those accused of the most violent of crimes, the situation at a jail that has swelled in population this year feels “dangerous,” Quinn said in a recent phone call.
A series of violent incidents has erupted inside the jail as the number of people staying there has risen significantly, even as violent crime in the city has declined.
Data and criminal justice watchdogs point to several drivers: more people getting arrested; higher average bonds that are keeping suspected criminals in jail longer; more state inmates doing time at the parish jail; and dozens more people being held on municipal charges.
The jail’s population of around 1,140 is near 1,250 cap set by the New Orleans City Council four years ago — from a jail population that dipped below 800 as recently as summer 2021. As the rolls have swelled, a rash of stabbings, fires and supervisor walkouts have plagued the understaffed facility.
The population has risen partly on the back of more police arrests. From January to mid-September, the total number of arrests in Orleans Parish increased 10% from the same time period last year, said Jesse Manley, program director at Court Watch NOLA, which monitors the courthouse.
The average bond went up during that time period, too, from $22,000 to $30,000, and bonds are being set higher across the board, Manley said.
“It’s not just a higher volume,” he said of the number of arrestees. “It’s a higher bar to clear.”
Gun arrests saw the highest increase across the charge categories in 2023, Manley said. There was a 70.6% increase in gun charges, including illegal possession of stolen firearms and illegal carrying of weapons.
The council raised the issue of the jail’s crowding in a meeting last week, but it’s not clear what penalties Hutson’s office might face if the cap is exceeded.
More nonviolent offenders
Jail census data also show more people held on municipal charges. Since June, the number of people booked on those relatively minor counts has risen fivefold, from 7 to 37.
Casey McGee, an OPSO spokesperson, said the agency plans to meet with police officials to discuss handling more municipal arrests with summonses rather than jail.
Bruce Reilly, a local social justice advocate, said the most obvious way for the jail to thin its rolls is putting fewer low-level, non-violent offenders behind bars.
“They could do that in a heartbeat,” said Reilly, deputy director of the New Orleans-based Voice of the Experienced.
As of Monday, data showed around 43% of the jail’s inmates were there for non-violent offenses. A little more than 60 inmates at the jail are there for probation or parole violations.
More DOC inmates
The jail also houses state prisoners, for which it receives $28.39 per person per day from the state Department of Corrections, McGee said.
That number has crept up, too, from 74 DOC inmates on Jan. 4 to 97 inmates on Sept. 20, according to DOC spokesperson Ken Pastorick.
Those 97 inmates include 26 awaiting a transfer soon to a state prison reception center. They are among as many as 40 newly sentenced people in the parish jail, Pastorick said. About 25 to 30 people are in the jail on state parole holds, and 30 to 35 others are convicted and jailed locally for appeals or other legal challenges, according to the state agency. Some of those serving their sentences are housed at the jail under work-release programs.
Pastorick noted that in 2005, an array of Orleans Parish jail facilities housed about 5,000 state inmates. He said DOC “virtually stopped housing state inmates in Orleans Parish on a permanent basis” since about 2014, before the new jail opened.
McGee said the sheriff’s office is working to thin the population of state inmates as well, through transfers.
“We have been in touch with other facilities about taking some of our DOC individuals and are awaiting word from them,” McGee said.
More people jailed on violent charges
Still, the jail remains mostly filled with people accused of violent crimes who are awaiting trial. Their numbers have grown amid a 3-year surge of violence that has tapered this year.
In August, 709 people were being held at Orleans Justice Center on violent charges. As of Friday, 775 people facing violent charges were housed there, McGee said.
As the percentage of violent offenders at the 8-year-old lockup has risen, so have the violent incidents reported at the understaffed jail, including at least three fires set this month, on Sept. 6, Sept. 15, and Sept. 16, McGee said.
Around 702 people work for the sheriff’s office, which is considered fully staffed at 900. About half of them are correctional officers assigned to the jail, McGee said.
Quinn said he was in isolation, removed from the general jail population, during the first of those fires, after his alleged involvement in an inmate stabbing.
During two subsequent fires, he inhaled smoke for hours. Quinn said inmates fed the flames with bedding, paper plates and a sludge of meat, sweets and vegetables that jailed people refer to as “loaf.”
Quinn was one of 38 inmates to receive medical attention after the fires raged and Hutson’s office sent in deputies who deployed flash bangs to restore order.
“They ramshacked everybody. The warden came in there and said, ‘Y’all want to keep starting fires? I’m going to take your clothes,'” Quinn said. “They took everything—paper, towels and our so-called private property.”
He said each of the six inmates who were rebooked with arson had their own reason for igniting the fires. Some were suicidal, he said. Others were protesting jail conditions, including lack of regular access to showers.
For his part, Quinn doesn’t believe staffing issues led to those fires.
“They have more than enough supervision,” Quinn said, “You just need people to actually work those spots.”
John Simerman contributed to this story.