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Stabbing at Orleans Parish Prison illustrates 'epidemic of violence,' critics say


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Naomi Martin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Naomi Martin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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on June 18, 2013 at 8:15 PM, updated June 18, 2013 at 8:59 PM

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As a federal court battle .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/federal_judge_urges_mayor_mitc.html .. rages between Sheriff Marlin Gusman .. http://topics.nola.com/tag/marlin-gusman/index.html .. and Mayor Mitch Landrieu .. http://topics.nola.com/tag/mitch-landrieu/index.html .. over proposed reforms at Orleans Parish Prison .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/federal_judge_rules_consent_de.html , inmates and deputies say the violence that sparked the initial lawsuit continues unabated.

The prison had a particularly bloody day on June 6, the day that U.S. District Judge Lance Africk issued a ruling .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/federal_judge_rules_consent_de.html .. in support of a federal consent decree to fix the problems at the prison. That day, four inmates were taken to the emergency room for injuries related to violence, authorities said.

In one of those cases, Edward Dean, 18, who is awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder, threw a plate of hot grits into 16-year-old Brian Ellis' face, then stabbed Ellis with a shank in his head and body more than 20 times, according to a Sheriff's Office incident report. Ellis is awaiting trial on a charge of attempted second-degree murder for allegedly beating a stranger in the Marigny with bottles .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/03/from_hospital_bed_marigny_bott.html .. in March.

Gusman said in a statement that Ellis "sustained several superficial cuts," and was taken to the hospital "in an abundance of caution."

But a source at the prison said photographs taken shortly after the stabbing tell a different story. The photographs show a cell splattered with blood.

The stabbing illustrates what the federal judge called in his 104-page ruling .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/orleans_parish_prison_consent_1.html .. an "epidemic of violence" in the prison. Much of the bloodshed, the judge wrote, results from understaffing, faulty policies within the jail that place power in inmates' hands, and the lack of investigations into crimes committed inside the jail.

In Ellis' case, he awoke about 5:50 a.m. to the hot grits being thrown on his face, the incident report says. Dean had access to the grits and Ellis' cell because of Dean's role as a tier representative, authorities said. Tier representatives are inmates who are allowed special duties, such as security supervision and serving food to other inmates. They are generally self-selecting and the biggest, most aggressive inmates, because no others will stand up to them, authorities say. The judge singled out the practice in his ruling, saying it is dangerous because "predatory or aggressive inmates may become tier reps."

After the stabbing, Ellis spent two days in the hospital, authorities said. At first, he didn't want to cooperate with detectives, telling them he was asleep and didn't see his assailant, according to the Sheriff's Office report. A few days later, the report says, Ellis told detectives he would cooperate because his mother had urged him to press charges.

Dean admitted to stabbing Ellis several times with a shank in retaliation for Ellis having tried to stab him two days earlier, the Sheriff's Office report says. Dean was rebooked into the Orleans Parish jail on a charge of aggravated battery, records show.

Inmate advocates questioned whether the incident would have resulted in charges had Ellis' mother not intervened and whether Dean's charge should have been attempted murder.

To address the urgent problems at the jail, Africk last week urged .. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/federal_judge_urges_mayor_mitc.html .. the mayor and the sheriff to set aside their differences to move the reforms along. The June 6 stabbing highlights the need for the reforms to happen as quickly as possible, said Katie Schwartzmann, Louisiana director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which represents the inmates in the consent decree.

"The reforms cannot come soon enough for the people in there," Schwartzmann said. "The volume of calls we get out of the jail and severity of injuries -- it's obvious that people's lives are really on the line."

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/06/stabbing_incident_at_orleans_p.html

"On Tuesday, in Smith v. Cain, Justice Thomas was back at it again, coming to the defense of Orleans Parish and its corroded [ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/us/supreme-court-rebukes-a-new-orleans-prosecutor.html ] brand of justice. Only this time, the justice was unable to convince any of his colleagues to indulge the notion that judges should bend over backwards to protect cheating prosecutors. In Smith v. Cain, an 8-1 ruling [ http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-8145.pdf ] authored by Chief Justice John Roberts himself, Justice Thomas spoke alone. (The difference between Connick and Smith is easy to define: The first case was about money, the second about a man's freedom)."

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