The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has regressed in 14 areas between October 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023. That’s according to a new report issued by the federal monitor overseeing the consent decree governing the OPSO and the Orleans Justice Center.
That same report also questions if the OJC’s new warden is qualified to hold the job.
“The OPSO is required to employ a professional corrections administrator who meets the requirements outlined in the Consent Judgment, the report, compiled by lead monitor Margo Frasier, read. “For the monitoring period, that position was held by Dr. Astrid Birgden, but no documentation has been provided that her experience complies with the requirements under the applicable provision of the Consent Judgment.”
In a separate statement, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson questioned this finding.
“While the monitors call into question my hiring of Dr. Astrid Birgden as our Warden, citing the requirement to employ a ‘professional corrections administrator,’ I have never heard from monitors about their being an issue with Dr. Birgden, who is an international expert in corrections,” Hutson said in that statement.
The consent decree requires the warden to have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or a similar field and five years of experience in supervising a large correctional facility. According to Dr. Birgden’s online biography, she has meets neither qualification.
That report, released on Monday, says the continued lack of staff at the OJC has led to training for security staff to “(take) a step back.” The report notes that the sergeant who oversees the training of those employees is also tasked with running the school program, which hampers her ability to meet with new deputies and provide them guidance and mentoring.
The lack of staff is also the cause of a continuing problem of security in the jail. While some OPSO captains and lieutenants have been assigned to serve as managers at the jail, the report says some of them “have not embraced their new role” because they have resisted working on nights and/or weekends.
That lack of security, the report notes, may have also contributed to increased violence in the OJC.
“The level of violence in the facility continued to escalate during this monitoring period,” the report reads. “The inmates appear to be emboldened in their refusal to follow the rules and obey the orders of the security staff.
Very concerning is that both staff and inmates relayed to the Monitors that there are inmates who are acting as ‘tank bosses’ and are extorting other inmates and requiring payment for protection. Even more concerning is that the majority of these inmates are known to staff and many of them are being designated as ‘tier reps’ by the OJC leadership which is viewed as further empowering these inmates.”
The report also notes that inmate classifications have gone from bad to worse, leading to one inmate suffering life-threatening stab wounds after he was placed in a cell with someone who was a known enemy to him. The report also notes that deputies are not conducting regular shakedowns to find weapons that inmates might have. While contraband weapons are a problem, the report says inmates are making weapons from items left unsecured in the jail.
“Most often, the inmate-on-inmate assaults occurred when there was no deputy stationed in the housing unit,” the report says. “Especially concerning is that inmates continue to fashion weapons from items found in the jail and continue to find new sources from which to make weapons due to the lack of security staff on the units. As sources of contraband (such as the light supports in the utility closets and the cabinets at the front of the day room) were identified and appears to have been eliminated, the inmates then discover a new source of material from which to fashion weapons. For example, inmates pry off the metal sheeting around the sinks in the janitor closets and windows to fashion weapons. The brooms and mops the facility provided are used as weapons as inmates are not supervised when performing cleaning with the exception of the Sanitation Supervisor. In reality, few, if any, of the sources of contraband would be available to the inmates if the staff followed policies regarding supervision and limiting access to materials.”
In her response, Hutson said the classification system is better now than it was when the last report was compiled.
“We also have seen improvements in our classifications system, which determines resident housing decisions, thanks to the support of Monitor Dr. Patricia Hardyman, who provided on-site classification training in March 20-21, 2023,” Hutson said. “During the reporting period, we hired Francis Gorum as the new Classification Manager. He and Lt. Michael Lewis worked jointly to proactively fill vacant positions, ensure policies were correctly followed, and organize staff training. Our classification unit went from being 25% staffed to now fully staffed under their leadership.”
