Louisiana prison system He regularly detains inmates weeks or months after they are released from custody following the completion of their sentences, the US Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed on Friday.
The lawsuit against the state comes after a years-long investigation into a practice of “excessive incarceration” that violates inmates' rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
Since at least 2012, more than a quarter of inmates scheduled for release from Louisiana prisons have been held past their release dates, according to the DOJ.
Louisiana prisons often hold inmates long after they are released after serving their sentences, the DOJ says. (AP)
The Department of Justice warned Louisiana officials last year that it could file a lawsuit against the state if it fails to fix the problems. The department's lawyers argue that the government has made “little effort” to solve the problems, noting that such remedial efforts were “insufficient” and showed “deliberate indifference” to rights of the prisoners.
“(T)he right to personal liberty includes the right to be released from prison after a court-ordered term has been served,” Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
“Indefinitely imprisoning people … not only infringes on individual liberty, but also erodes public confidence in the fair and proper application of our laws,” the statement added.
More than a quarter of inmates scheduled for release from Louisiana prisons since at least 2012 have been held past their release dates, the Justice Department said. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill, both Republicans, say the problem is “failed criminal justice reforms” pushed by “the previous administration.”
“This past year, we've taken important steps to keep Louisianans safe and ensure that those who commit crimes do time too,” Landry and Murrill said in a joint statement to The Associated Press. “The State of Louisiana is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of Louisiana citizens.”
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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry speaks at the CPAC Texas 2022 Hilton Anatole conference. (Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Two government officials also said that the case is a last-ditch effort by President Biden, who leaves office next month, arguing that President-elect Trump. the next system he should not have continued the case.
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Advocates have repeatedly challenged Louisiana's prison conditions, which include Angola, the nation's largest maximum-security prison, where inmates hand-pick vegetables on an 18,000-acre property. This area was once Angola Plantations, Isaac Franklin's slave estate and is named after Angola, the birthplace of many of the slaves who worked there.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.