Highlights in Local Activism Against the Prison Industrial Complex

Here on the Louisiana Justice Institute blog, we have been following developments in the Danziger Bridge investigation and other police violence and corruption cases, as well as activism against abuses at Orleans Parish Prison and other aspects of the Prison Industrial Complex, since early on the history of this blog. From protests to lawsuits and reports and criminal prosecutions, we have reported on resistance to the criminal justice system in this city and state. Below is a collection of some highlights from our reporting over the past few years.

2011 Danziger Bridge Trial:
-Did New Orleans Media Contribute to Police Violence After Hurricane Katrina?
-Danziger Trial Presents Opportunity for Systemic Change.
-Chilling Testimony in Opening Weeks of Danziger Trial.
-Danziger Bridge Police Trial Exposes NOPD Corruption... Again.
-Lawyers for Police in Danziger Shootings Offer Passionate Defense.
-Prosecution rests in Danziger trial.
-Defense rests in Danziger Trial, Insisting Victims were armed.

Additional 2011 Reporting:
-January 2011: Prisoner Abuse at Tangipahoa Parish Prison.
-January 2011: Baton Rouge further criminalizes sex workers.
-February 2011: In Louisiana, Odds of a Death Sentence 97% Higher If Victim is White.
-February 2011: Activists Harassed During Vigil at OPP.
-March 2011: NOPD attack Mardi Gras parade.
-March 2011: First National Conference of Formerly Incarcerated Persons Convenes In Alabama.
-March 2011: US DOJ report on NOPD.
-March 2011: Louisiana's Crime Against Nature law.
-April 2011: Raymond Robair trial.
-May 2011: The Waguespack family and the NOPD.
-June 2011: Will Judge Raymond Bigelow Face Investigation?
-June 2011: Jena Six activist sentenced to 15 years in prison.
-June 2011: NOPD continues to target sex workers.
-June 2011: Sex Offender Registration for Sex Workers Ends in Louisiana.

2010 Reporting:
-February 2010: Officers fight charges and reform.
-March 2010: Activist Parnell Herbert discusses police accountability.
-March 2010: Police harassment of Mardi Gras Indians caught on video.
-March 2010: Police harassment of "copwatch" activists challenged in court.
-March 2010: LJI calls for federal intervention in the NOPD.
-March 2010: Police Association of New Orleans Works to Protect Killer Cops.
-April 2010: Questions raised about search for new police chief.
-April 2010: Landrieu blasts critics in police chief search.
-April 2010: New coalition, Community United for Change, challenges NOPD.
-May 2010: M. Endesha Juakali discusses history of struggle against NOPD violence.
-June 2010: Community United for Change continues to challenge NOPD.
-June 2010: ACLU of Louisiana Releases Report on NOPD's Lack of Respect for First Amendment.
-June 2010: ACLU of LA challenges Gusman's plans for larger prison.
-June 2010: Guest commentary on juvenile justice.
-July 2010: Report on LGBT youth in juvenile justice system.
-July 2010: Torture in St. Tammany jail.
-September 2010: Activists march across Danziger Bridge.
-September 2010: Small successes at the Innocence Project.
-October 2010: Why New Orleans needs a smaller jail.
-October 2010: How the NOPD (mis)uses its citywide alert system.
-November 2010: Sex Worker Advocates Highlight New Orleans Human Rights Violations at United Nations.

2009 Reporting:
-October 2009: Investigations of Gretna police actions on Crescent City Connection after Katrina.
-November 2009: Local activist fights unfair charges.
-December 2009: Former New Orleans Black Panther and criminal justice activist passes on.

New Paralegal Training Provides Ray of Hope for Formerly Incarcerated People in New Orleans, By Rosana Cruz

From our friends at Bridge The Gulf:
Drive down this short stretch of St. Bernard Avenue, and you will see signs of a struggling neighborhood in despair. Bars, blighted homes, metal-grated storefronts, and the still-shuttered Circle Food Store tell the story of this strip. Here in New Orleans’ 7th ward, hope and sustenance have been drained by Katrina’s floodwaters, and by decades of racism’s insidious trend of sapping vital resources from a community.

But there is vitality too. Fresh vegetables are sold on the sidewalk outside Circle Foods. A few new, small businesses are slowly gaining a foothold. The surviving barrooms, central institutions to the music and culture of New Orleans for generations, are gathering places for local politicians, community advocates and neighbors from diverse class backgrounds.

This ironic mix of vitality and despair isn’t unique in New Orleans, but the small beacon of hope in the middle of the 1200 block is. Within the walls of a small storefront, The RAE House (pronounced “ray”) hosts an innovative new class that’s beginning to resurrect hope.

 Resurrection After Exoneration’s (RAE’s) brother organization, VOTE (Voice of the Ex-offender) holds its Paralegal Training Class here twice a week. The class is unique in that it trains Formerly Incarcerated Persons (FIPs) and their loved ones about the law and legal system. The hope is to create a new team of paralegals, legal secretaries and community legal advocates, made up of the people most impacted by Louisiana’s failing criminal justice system. The charter class began in November.

Seeds for legal training planted in Angola

The vision for the Paralegal Training Class began more than 20 years ago in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (better known as Angola). Two men serving life sentences, Norris Henderson and Kenneth “Biggy” Johnston, became legal scholars in the prison’s law library, logging long hours studying rows and rows of case law and reviewing the individual cases of their fellow prisoners. It was through the knowledge they gained by reading, exploring, and working on other prisoners’ cases that they were able to eventually win their own freedom through the courts.


Their knowledge and experience helped make them respected leaders in the prison. Mr. Henderson and Mr. Johnston became inmate counsels, representing prisoners who went up before the disciplinary board. They then founded the Angola Special Civics Project, to activate a politically engaged block among the prisoners. This block was able to change prison policy and lobby legislators. Ultimately they even changed laws. Their efforts helped passed the so-called “old timer’s act.” Also know as the 20-45 law, this law created parole eligibility for prisoners sentenced to life for heroin distribution who were over 45 and had served 20 years or more. Middle-aged men who had gone into prison as mere youth were now gaining freedom, thanks to the advocacy and knowledge of the law of these “jailhouse lawyers.”

Now, Voice of the Ex-Offender (VOTE), the organization founded by Mr. Henderson years after he left Angola, is trying to accomplish the same thing on the outside. The Paralegal Training Class equips Formerly Incarcerated Persons and their loved ones with enough legal knowledge to serve their broader community. Students attend the free classes two evenings per week, three hours per class. They are instructed by Mr. Henderson, Mr. Johnston and Calvin Duncan, who was exonerated recently from serving over 28 years for a crime he did not commit. Together these three have over 60 years of legal studies and practice. They teach constitutional law, criminal procedure, legal research and basic analytical skills to the eager students, who deftly apply the lessons to their own lives and experiences.

Lessons hit students close to home

Vernon went to prison when he was 17 years old. Laverne's husband spent 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, 14 of those years on death row. Ms. Betty's son has been in prison for over 20 years. Mr. Chopin volunteers as a Muslim Chaplin to hundreds of inmates and detainees in Orleans Parish Prison. Their motivation to study law and participate in the training programs stems not only from their personal experience, but also from the countless people that they know are in need of support. “I know that with what I learn in this class, I might be able to do something meaningful for all the people I left back there [in Angola],” says Eugene Dean, a student and long time member of VOTE.

Ms. Elois Reed takes an even broader view. “The class is energetic. We love to be in class, we love to learn all this. It is like this because it is bottled up inside the people…. Things are hard, people are struggling. They have our backs up against the wall. But this knowledge can make a difference…. I really believe we are a sleeping giant. And this class, this knowledge, this is what it is taking to wake us up.”

The intense interest from the students has already had an impact: the class is being extended from the originally envisioned 10 weeks to 14. A new term for incoming students is projected to begin this summer. The current students are beginning to discuss next steps. Some want to pursue careers as paralegals, to work on their loved ones’ cases, and to become legal resources to community members who can scarce afford access to most legal advice. But they also want to do more. The long term vision is to create a policy think tank that can study, change and make policy, with the ultimate goal of creating a public safety system that works and that focuses on the root causes of crime.

This is the beacon of hope shining across the dim stretch of St. Bernard Avenue. Every week, it gets a little bit brighter.



Rosana Cruz is Associate Director of VOTE (Voice Of The Ex-offender). Previously Rosana worked with Safe Streets/Strong Communities and the National Immigration Law Center. Prior to joining NILC, she worked with SEIU1991 in Miami, after having been displaced from New Orleans by Katrina. Before the storm, Rosana worked for a diverse range of community organizations, including the Latin American Library, Hispanic Apostolate, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans, and People's Youth Freedom School. Rosana came to New Orleans through her work with the Southern Regional Office of Amnesty International in Atlanta.

Rest In Peace Althea Francois

Althea Francois, a life-long activist for peace and social justice, passed away on December 25th at the age of 60.

Althea spent her life actively engaged in struggles for justice, starting with her involvement in the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party, where she began her efforts to help political, economic and racial prisoners. She embodied the finest and most basic ideals of empathy and generosity and inspired all that had the privilege of coming in contact with her.

Althea has long been a leader in local organizing against the Prison Industrial Complex. In the late '90's, Althea worked to create a base for political prisoner work in New Orleans, and was one of the main organizers in the campaign to free the Angola Three; three Black Panthers held in solitary confinement for their political beliefs. When Angola Three member Robert King was released in February of 2001, he moved to the home of Althea and Marion Brown, another former panther.

Shortly before Katrina, Althea was able to purchase a home-base for her daughters and grandchildren in New Orleans' Gentilly neighborhood. In 2005, the flooding of New Orleans ripped apart the security she had at long last established. The years since then were a tense balancing act between work in Atlanta, work in New Orleans, her children and her grandchildren. Though Althea rarely complained, she was beset with a number of crippling maladies - asthma, high-blood pressure and the incessant pressure of keeping a family together in these difficult times with never enough support.

In the months after Katrina, she was one of those who came together to form a new organization, called Safe Streets / Strong Communities. Her dedication, vision, and commitment guided the organization through several intense years of struggle over the city's criminal justice policy. Her efforts brought real reforms, from the establishment of the city's Office of the Police Monitor to uncovering and exposing the role of New Orleans police in post-Katrina killings.

When told the news of her passing, former prisoner Robert King struggled to find words to express the depth of his sorrow. Invoking Matthew 25:35, he said "I was hungry and you fed me, was thirsty and you gave me drink, was in prison and you visited me. Althea fed us with hope. She had an enormously giving spirit that we will all deeply miss."

Althea loved her daughters with the ferocity of a lioness and was so proud of their accomplishments. They were the center of her being.

Sadly, Althea had no insurance and no savings, thus leaving her daughters not only with the grief of losing her, but with the challenge of raising funds for her funeral.If you can help with a donation to the family, donations to defray the funeral costs can be sent to:

Rhodes Funeral Home
3933 Washington Avenue
New Orleans, LA
(504) 822-7162

Or:

Olga Francois
c/o Todd Taylor
7704 Benjamin St.
New Orleans, LA70118
(202) 277-0997

Althea's Service will be Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 1:00pm at Rhodes Funeral Home.

Thanks to the Campaign to Free The Angola Three for some of the information above.