Locked In and Out

Prisoners living on a highway overpass after Katrina

While in New Orleans, our little group had the opportunity to hear a talk given by Bill Quigley, the Director of the Gills Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans. Quigley provided a grim but fascinating look at the social justice issues associated with Katrina. New Orleans is a condensed area, so the effects of injustice might be even clearer there, but I’d imagine a similar result would happen in most communities across the country. When a community’s walls are literally torn down, social inequalities are naked for the world to see. Many people who were lucky enough to be saved from the floods were then shuttled around like cattle left to care for their children on a highway full of their and their neighbor’s excrement, while our government took their time coming up with an alternate plan.

The electricity at the jail went out, so prisoners were locked in their cells, in water up to their waists. Prisoners were finally released from their cells but since the records were ruined it was unclear who was in for one night and who was in for life. A section of a highway overpass was set up for them, with guards surrounding them. Food was thrown in at them like they were animals.

Once people started moving back to the city, rent was in high demand and many landlords got particularly picky about whom they’d rent to. One sign on an apartment read, “We’re not racist, but white only please.”

It seems that every institution is waiting for the next to get up and running again. The hospitals are not all reopened. Suicide rates are higher than ever and there is less psych beds open at the hospital than ever. Many of the schools are not open. Daycare is in high demand. Many places of business are struggling to stay open with half the of their pre-Katrina staff.

Then there are the host of problems from FEMA. People waited for months to get a trailer so they could begin to rehab their homes. A trailer finally arrives but it took another month to get a key. Then when the key does arrive, it’s the same key that opens every other trailer in town. God bless America.

For Bill Quigley's powerpoint presentation, go HERE.