
By Shadi Rahimi and Yoram Savion / Photographs by Steve Liss and Joseph Rodriguez / Archival footage from CNN, ABC26, 2-Cent Entertainment, Russia Today To get the latest juvenile justice news: follow CJNY at www.facebook.com Or on Twitter: twitter.com Treated Like Trash: Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Parish detained 100-200 youth on average daily, most of them waiting to go before a judge for low-level offenses. As Katrina approached in August 2005, authorities at the two local detention centers transported youth to the adult Orleans Parish Prison. There, youth endured flooding and exposure to toxins in their cells; a harrowing evacuation; and, upon arrival at a local bridge - further deprivation of food, water and medical care, heat exposure, violence and psychological stress. And, despite FEMA declaring the Youth Study Center in New Orleans more than 50 percent uninhabitable, youth were eventually moved back into the detention facility. Our member groups Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Youth (FFLIC) and others joined to push against the system, while also participating in reform tables with system stakeholders led by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI). In 2008, JJPL filed a class action lawsuit against New Orleans and the school board. Triumph: New Orleans now boasts the only stand-alone and nonprofit juvenile public defender's office in the country, Juvenile <b>...</b>
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