New Orleans City Councilman JP Morrell recently posted about meetings he's been holding with Orleans Parish jail whistleblowers. In his video, he showcases evidence of 3,000+ incomplete work orders and talks about the longstanding broken locks. Then comes the kicker: He pulls out a ring of keys and relays a whistleblower's claim that OPSO doesn't properly track or collect jail keys after firing/letting go of employees.
“We’ve seen call logs. Logs sheriffs have of when the keys are lent to people. What’s terrifying is that on that list of logs... there’s no listed reason for why they are giving the keys out. So if it’s this easy to get the keys to the jail,” Morrell says while jangling a ring of OPSO keys that were given to him by the whistleblower, “why spend millions changing the locks?”
Folks, believe me when I say there'll be more information coming out soon. I’ll have JP on tomorrow, and I encourage you to tune in as he’ll have more in-depth information on what he’s discovering from meeting these whistleblowers.
And all the details need to come out. However, with what we know now, I think it’s time to call on Sheriff Hutson to resign.
City council has zero confidence in her. Anne Kirkpatrick has been silent on the issue, but from what I’m hearing, the NOPD has very little confidence in her. I don’t know where the hell LaToya Cantrell is; we may need to pay for an international call to central Europe to get her opinion, but I’d imagine she also has very little confidence in her, for what it's worth.
But most importantly, the people of New Orleans don’t have confidence in her. I spoke with Rafael Goyeneche, whose published recent findings from the Metropolitan Crime Commission's annual civil servant approval rating reports. Sheriff Hutson has an 18% approval rating.
In a very competitive field, she manages to win the spot of the most disapproved Orleans Parish official. (Although to her credit, she did manage to score four points higher than the Sewerage and Water Board.)
Now, I’ve been in Sheriff Hutson’s position. And I can sympathize, it isn't easy to manage a law enforcement agency of this size. Sometimes employees try to sneak off with property that belongs to the sheriff’s department. But that’s why you have systems in place to prevent things like rings of keys going missing.
And the information that continues coming out exposes the fact that inside the walls of the Orleans Parish Justice Center is perhaps the most lawless section in the city. It's the Wild West.
It makes you wonder how much other property of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office is out there on the streets.
Of course, Hutson denies these claims. In response to Morrell’s video, Hutson posted a response to Morrell's video on social media, saying the following:
“To be clear, we are in possession of all the keys to the jail. The ones you’re showing off don’t open the jail or any cell. I would be careful with putting out misinformation to the public, especially regarding public safety and security.
Has my office done everything perfectly? No, but let’s be clear – my deputies work hard every single day and night so I won’t let you make a mockery of their work.”
Now, infighting between city officials is not uncommon. But I would like to hear Hutson comment on whether or not the federal monitors are also making a mockery of the work of OPSO when they call the safety and security measures at the jail deficient.
If you ask me, the one who's making a mockery of detention, the one who's making a mockery of trying to fight recidivism, the one who is making a mockery of the criminal justice system, is Sheriff Susan Hudson.
She needs to resign, because her odds of being re-elected are much lower than 18%. They're closer to zero.
She’s repeatedly been shown to be incompetent, the finances of her office are in a mess, and her mistakes are costing the taxpayers outrageous sums of cash. I would venture to say that we're probably north of a million dollars in expenditures because of the incompetence of this administration.
The best thing that can happen moving forward is for the federal court to appoint someone to go in and run that jail, and for Susan Hutson to resign. This is getting worse by the day. And it's going to take some extraordinary action to turn this whole thing around.