He’s wishing for what is “essentially slavery,” the ACLU said.
A sheriff in Louisiana has been railing against the state’s
new prisoner release program, saying many of those
“good” inmates need to stay behind bars for the free
labor they provide.
Last week, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator blasted the
state’s Justice Reinvestment Package, a series of bills passed
and save more than $260 million over the next decade by slowly
releasing nonviolent offenders. The legislation is set to go into effect
on Nov. 1 and would authorize the early release of 1,400 prisoners
across 21 parishes in the state.
Just 35 prisoners would be immediately released in Caddo Parish,
but that seems to be too many for Prator, who said the state needs
them to “wash cars.”
“In addition to the bad ones ... they’re releasing some good ones
that we use every day to wash cars, to change oil in the cars, to
cook in the kitchen, to do all that where we save money,” he continued.
“Well, they’re going to let them out ― the ones that we use in work
release programs.”
Marjorie Esman, executive director for the ACLU of Louisiana, told
HuffPost that Prator’s desire to keep prisoners purely for their free
labor is “essentially slavery.”
“The purpose of the criminal justice system is to keep the community
safe and to make sure that nobody is incarcerated any longer than
necessary,” Esman said. “It’s certainly not to provide free
labor for law enforcement officials ― that is essentially slavery.
It is obviously not only ludicrous but a gross violation of
people’s rights.”
It’s almost as if he forgets that he’s talking about human beings — like he’s speaking about animals or cattle.Angel Harris, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Prator went on to say that the state is “risking our
safety for bragging
rights and to save money.”
The “bragging rights” Prator might be referring to is
Louisiana’s desire to relinquish its spot as the U.S.
state with the highest incarceration rate.
“Louisiana is somewhat of a special case just
because it has such a
substantial proportion of its state prison population
being held in local jails,” Marc Mauer, executive
director of The Sentencing Project, told HuffPost.
“This has been going on for a very long time, and
many of the local sheriffs welcome it because
it’s bringing more money into their jurisdictions.
It’s one of a number of factors that have
contributed to Louisiana being a national
leader in its use of imprisonment, and
that’s nothing to be proud of.”
Angel Harris, assistant council for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
said she was “shocked” that an elected official like Prator would make
such a “callous” and “disturbing” comment.
“[Prator] is talking directly about economic exploitation of human
beings, which is one of the biggest issues in our criminal justice
systems,” Harris told HuffPost. “It’s almost as if he forgets that
he’s talking about human beings ― like he’s speaking about
animals or cattle.”
“It brought on images of slavery, quite frankly,” she said. “You think
about the demographics of who is he actually talking about. It is
overwhelmingly black and brown bodies ... [who] are being housed
in his jail and in those prisons.”
In a statement from the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, spokeswoman
Cindy Chadwick doubled down on the sheriff’s statements while
criticizing Intercept reporter Shaun King for tweeting that Prator
“likes keeping ‘good’ Black men in jail.”
“It is a fact that state inmates serving a hard-labor sentence can be
required to work as part of their court-ordered sentence in Louisiana,”
the statement read in part. “Those jobs may include picking up trash
on parish roadways, preparing meals for inmates at the jail, or working
for non-profits and public agencies in our community. The term ‘good’
inmates was in reference to state prisoners who are eligible to work
but have lesser felony charges compared to others facing release
who have criminal histories including murder, domestic violence, and
battery.”
according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Mauer said there were
“disturbing parallels” between today’s prison labor practices and
a 19th century system in the South called “convict leasing,” in which
African-Americans were rounded up by police and charged with
minor offenses like loitering so they could be “sold” to plantation
owners as cheap labor.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said Prator has
misunderstood what the program hopes to accomplish.
“The sheriff is incorrect in his assessment of the Justice Reinvestment Package,” Edwards said in a statement to HuffPost. “The goal of this
bipartisan package is to reduce the incarceration rate, make
communities whole, and promote public safety by reducing
the rates of recidivism with investments in treatment and
jobs training programs.”
Edwards said he would meet with Prator next week to discuss
the plan further. Prator did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s
request for comment.
This story has been updated with a statement from Angel Harris
and Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office.
