NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An official hired to help with reforms at the violence-plagued New Orleans jail has resigned — the latest complication in court-ordered reform efforts.
Carmen DeSadier's resignation was announced late Friday. She's the second chief of corrections at Orleans Parish Prison to resign in the past year.
Her departure comes as Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office struggles to implement reforms ordered by a federal court as a result of lawsuits by inmate advocates and the Justice Department. Gusman has blamed many of the problems on a lack of funding from the city. Gusman says he's having difficulty hiring and retaining prison personnel because of low salaries.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration, meanwhile, has been highly critical of Gusman's management of the jail.
In 2013, Gusman entered into a court-approved agreement, or consent decree, outlining needed reforms. Among the requirements was the hiring of a corrections chief to oversee the jail.
"The sheriff has now gone through two chiefs of corrections," said Katie Schwartzmann, an attorney and co-director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, which acts on behalf of inmates. "These were individuals who came from the outside to assist … with moving forward. But both have now quit. This is yet another indication that things continue to fall apart at OPP."
The assistant chief of corrections, Michael Laughlin, will serve as the acting chief during the search for a replacement, according to a Sheriff's Office news release. Gusman said in a statement his office "remains committed to achieving substantial compliance" with the consent decree.
At a hearing earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Lance Africk was told that violence continues at the jail, even after inmates were moved into a new, $150 million complex designed to provide better security.
One of the experts monitoring the jail reforms, Margo Frasier, a former sheriff in Austin, Texas, told Africk this month that it appeared the Sheriff's Office had been underreporting the number of jailhouse attacks.
