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‘UNCONSCIONABLE’ CRIMINAL JUSTICE BILLS COULD FUEL SOARING
INCARCERATION IN LOUISIANA  
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Oliver Laughland
February 19, 2024
The Guardian
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_ Reform advocates condemn raft of measures expected to pass under
new far-right governor _

Jeff Landry became governor of Louisiana last month. , Photograph:
Evan Vucci/AP

 

Louisiana [[link removed]]’s
Republican-dominated state legislature is poised to enact a swathe of
new criminal justice measures as a special legislative session
convenes on Monday, leaving reform advocates concerned about soaring
rates of incarceration that may follow.

The session, called by the state’s new far-right governor, Jeff
Landry, will consider two dozen items including broad restrictions on
parole eligibility, measures to resume executions, the lowering of the
age limit for adult prosecutions, and changes to post-conviction
procedures often used to remedy wrongful convictions or excessive
sentences.

The results are likely to undo hard-won bipartisan reform efforts in
2017, which helped shrink the state’s prison population by about a
quarter
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led to Louisiana losing the title of America’s most incarcerated
state, with the rate of imprisonment slipping below Mississippi’s
in recent years
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Landry, the state’s former attorney general, came to office in
January after a campaign centered on hardline law and order. A former
sheriff’s deputy, he was sworn into office in a ceremony lined by
flags associated with the “blue lives matter” movement that aligns
with law enforcement and is often associated with white nationalism,
marking the end of eight years of Democratic incumbency in the deep
south state.

In announcing
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session on 8 February, Landry argued a raft of new laws would
“repeal soft-on-crime policies that enable criminals and hurt our
communities” and pledged to “make our state safe again”.

While rates of violent crime in Louisiana have long been
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the highest in the nation, the state has seen a significant decline
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the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. And as details of the proposed new
laws came into focus, advocates expressed alarm at a number of severe
measures they argued would do little to improve public safety,
continue to disproportionately affect Black communities and cost the
state billions to enforce.

“Our elected officials are pushing strategies that assume violence
will always happen and there’s nothing they can do to prevent it
other than just punish people,” said Sarah Omojola, director of the
non-profit Vera Institute of Justice’s Louisiana
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people in Louisiana really need and want is prevention.”

Among the bills state lawmakers are set to consider is one
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expand methods of execution, including legalizing the use of nitrogen
hypoxia, the controversial suffocation procedure recently used for the
first time in Alabama
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The bill would also maintain the state’s use of electrocution as an
available method and give confidentiality to providers of drugs for
lethal injections.

Although nearly 60 people still sit
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Louisiana’s death row, the state has not executed anyone since 2010.
Its former Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, announced shortly
before his final term ended that he was opposed to capital punishment,
although he failed to meaningfully intervene during a mass clemency
effort last year
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Other bills would lead to longer periods of incarceration for broad
categories of cases by removing parole eligibility for extended
periods of time to those deemed “dangerous offenders” by the
state. Such a definition could be imposed not only for those convicted
of violent crimes but also by raising previous criminal records,
conduct during previous periods of incarceration and “any previous
efforts to rehabilitate”.

Landry has also encouraged lawmakers to change the rules of parole
board hearings to require unanimous decisions before granting
applications.

The legislature will also consider
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recent legislation that raised the age for most adult prosecutions to
18 in order to protect juveniles from abuse and harsh conditions in
adult prison. It will also examine a bill that would significantly
tighten rules on post-conviction relief for those seeking to overturn
a conviction or sentence after exhausting appeals, by removing local
prosecutors’ rights to waiving mandatory time limits to file
applications.

Post-conviction relief has been a key tool in local prosecutors’
offices, notably in New Orleans
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seeking to address past harms in the criminal justice system by
re-examining historical cases involving prosecutorial misconduct, due
process violations, and sentencing that was disproportionate as well
as racially biased.

“This slate of items Landry has proposed are dangerous, expensive
and disingenuous,” said Samantha Kennedy, executive director of the
Promise of Justice Initiative, a New Orleans-based advocacy and legal
group. “I think what it does is cover up misconduct and excessive
sentencing mostly coming from the 1990s.”

Kennedy added: “These cases are fraught with all kinds of problems,
and that is why we have a parole system and all these other checks and
balances that this special session is proposing to destroy. It is
unconscionable.”

_Oliver Laughland is the Guardian's US southern bureau chief, based in
New Orleans_

* Louisiana
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* criminal justice
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* Right-wing politics
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* Mass Incarceration
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