Hurricane Aftermath and the ACLU
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita seized - and shocked - our national psyche in an unprecedented way. We saw image after image of poor, black, disenfranchised Americans cast aside. But these victims were, in effect, cast aside when the issues of racism and poverty merged into one, long before a hurricane made landfall on August 29.
As ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in a speech shortly after the hurricanes hit, a solution to Katrina requires moral leadership to begin an earnest conversation about why some were left behind in the storm, while others were able to "board the ark."
In the wake of Katrina, the ACLU formed a working group
composed of staff from the ACLU offices in the affected areas, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama, and from the National and Washington Legislative Offices. The group is exploring crucial issues confronting survivors as well as the failures in preparedness and response that must be addressed:
- In a comprehensive, book-length report released in August 2006, the ACLU documented the experience of prisoners and guards at the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in Louisiana, many of whom were trapped in deadly conditions. Learn more >>
- In June, an ACLU delegation traveled to Geneva to ask the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) to hold the U.S. government accountable for its human rights abuses under internationally recognized norms and treaties. The ACLU conveneed a panel of human rights victims, which included victims of Hurricane Katrina, and submitted a report to the committee. Read more >>
- The ACLU and its affiliates have conducted fact-finding tours in the affected Gulf Coast states and they are working with other advocates to ensure that civil liberties and human rights concerns are addressed, including those related to housing, education, voting and racial profiling.
- In Mississippi, the ACLU is representing displaced students from New Orleans who were singled out for harsh discipline by officials at a local high school. The ACLU of Mississippi also helped to stop the eviction of Katrina refugees and is battling dragnet drug sweeps of FEMA camps.
- In Louisiana, the ACLU has filed numerous official requests regarding the evacuation of prisoners during the storm and has called for an end to racial profiling and disparate treatment of Katrina refugees. An extensive voting rights initiative helped thousands of displaced persons from Orleans Parish gain access to the ballot box during recent elections.
At a news conference in Mississippi August 29 commemorating the Katrina anniversary, ACLU human rights attorney Chandra Bhatnagar said, "We are here to deliver one simple message loud and clear, human rights begin at home."
Prisoners' Rights | Indigent Defense | Education | Housing | Police Confrontations | Human Rights | Voting Rights | Legislative Lobbying
Prisoners' Rights
In the days following
Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans, the pre-trial detainees
and
prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison were abandoned by correctional
staff, and
were left in unsafe and unhealthy conditions without food,
water, power, or
sanitation. The haphazard
evacuation
that followed was the result of the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's
failure to devise and implement an evacuation plan. The ACLU has
collected over 1,000
first-hand accounts of what happened to these
individuals, and is working with
local and national organizations to
give these people a voice. The ACLU is evaluating litigation and
policy options for redressing the injuries suffered by these
individuals, and
addressing the ongoing problems faced by those who are
once again residing in
Orleans Parish Prison.
>More on Prison Conditions and Prisoner Abuse After Katrina
Indigent Defense
The ACLU's
commitment to ensuring adequate defense to the indigent dates back to
the
1930's, with our involvement in "The Scottsboro Boys" case.
Since then,
we've fought vigorously to balance the
scales of justice for those who don't
have the financial means to
afford zealous advocates. The ACLU is
monitoring the current
indigent defense crisis in Louisiana: approximately 3,500
people
charged with crimes in New Orleans have remained in pre-trial detention
without meaningful access to lawyers or a fair trial since Hurricane
Katrina hit
in August 2005.
Education
The ACLU believes that
every
child has a right to a quality public education. Displaced
students should
be able to access a free and appropriate education
wherever they are. The
ACLU is monitoring incidents of limited
acess to schools and educational
resources, student placement issues
and unfair disciplinary procedures including
the funneling of displaced
students into the school to prison
pipeline.
>ACLU Fights to Keep
Three Students from New Orleans in Mississippi Public School
Housing
In response to the
housing crises in hurricane-devastated areas and the government
inaction in
remedying many of these problems, the ACLU has been
partnering with local and
national organizations to collect information
on housing issues and to
disseminate information including Know Your
Rights materials to affected
communities, particularly communities of
color.
> Louisiana Housing Know Your Rights Brochure (pdf)
> New Orleans Property Owners' Rights Q&A
Human
Rights
Intensifying our
efforts
to hold the United States government accountable under
universally recognized
human rights principles, the ACLU has created a
new Human Rights Working Group
to incorporate human rights strategies
and frameworks into ACLU advocacy. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina,
African American communities and other communities of color were not
provided
with basic human rights such as adequate shelter, medical
care, food and clean
water. Working closely with the
ACLU of Mississippi and the ACLU of Louisiana, the ACLU has conducted
fact-finding trips to affected areas and has developed a strategy of
international human rights advocacy to ensure that the right to
permanent
housing, education, health, work and a decent standard of
living will be
provided equally, regardless of race or ethnicity, to
all those displaced by
Katrina, as required by the United Nations
Guidelines on Internally Displaced
Persons and other universal human
rights obligations. One example of this strategy is a human
rights documentation project and advocacy effort on behalf of
internally
displaced children in the state of Mississippi who are being
tracked into the
school to prison pipeline.
More Information on the ACLU's Human Rights Work >>
Police Confrontations
Historically, racial profiling and police misconduct have plagued the Gulf
coast region. These problems were made worse by Katrina, especially in New
Orleans, where historical corruption and a rash of shootings of suspects spilled
over into the treatment of residents during the hurricane and its aftermath. The
Campaign Against Racial Profiling is tracking police activity and educating
citizens on how to protect themselves when confronted by law enforcement in
their everyday lives and during demonstrations.
>Know You Rights "Bust Card"
Voting
Rights
The ACLU of
Louisiana has
carried on with our long tradition in the area of voting
rights by supporting
maximum voter turnout for elections in hurricane
affected regions. To that end,
a "know your rights" pamphlet
advises voters how to register for the first
time, request an absentee
ballot, and actually vote in and around the New
Orleans area. At the
state legislative level, we lobbied for the passage of a
number of
bills to increase voter participation. That effort
carried forward to the Secretary of State, where we have pushed for
provisions
to make absentee, early and day of election voting easy and
accessbile,
especially for displaced residents.
>ACLU of Louisiana Voters' Guide for Orleans Parish Elections
Legislative
Lobbying
Congress
and the Bush administration are considering some measures
to provide relief to
Gulf Coast hurricane survivors that threaten their
civil rights and civil
liberties. These measures include actions
that
significantly impact public education, religious liberty, housing,
voting
rights, and workers' rights. Many of their actions fail to
address the
pressing needs of these communities, but also in several
instances, they
exacerbate existing problems by increasing racial and
economic disparities and
undermine basic constitutional principles of
equal protection and due
process. The ACLU is monitoring
proposed federal legislative, administrative, and regulatory measures
and
providing recommended actions as appropriate.
> Memo to Interested Persons on Katrina Relief Policies and Legislative Action
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