Where do they move prisoners that are in the path of a hurricane?
Asked by
chyna (
51597
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September 13th, 2008
I have heard most prisons are so over populated, I have wondered where they are moving the prisoners in the direct paths of hurricanes.
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15 Answers
Sometimes they do NOT move them, because prisons are, by tradition, the most structurally-sound edifices on the planet.
They HAVE to be, considering what they are intended to contain.
According to my local paper, the Galveston prisoners (maybe 40 of them) weren’t moved because they couldn’t keep them secure.
I might add that all prisons have gasoline or diesel-powered back-up generators for electricity, so in the event of a power failure, the electric door locks will still function.
All electric locks automatically become unlocked, until power is restored.
Wow, wouldn’t that be freaky if the generators failed….
It would be, but the really large locks and the ones on the biggest doors, are not electric; they are conventional.
I just stumbled on this question. I think the answer is dependent on who “they” is at the time of the hurricane:
If they are republicans, they probably leave them alone.
A man I know in the Florida State Prison system is in a minimum security facility near Orlando. With Matthew approaching, they were evacuated to a Prison Transition Facility near Tallahassee. They were there for about 2½ days, then bused back to Orlando.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on 29 August, 2005, the 6,800 prisoners in the inner city Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) were initially ordered evacuated to a facility in northern Louisiana two days before by N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin, but Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman refused that order.
“The prisoners will stay where they belong,” Gusman announced. He had generators, he said, and a loyal staff, so the city’s inmates would hang tight. Instead of transferring the OPP prisoners out, Gusman accepted 300 more prisoners from the St. Bernard Parish jail into the OPP the night before Katrina hit.
Within hours of Katrina’s Cat 4–5 winds hitting the coast on 29 August, the OPP’s generators failed. All the lights went out, and the under-ventilated jail became stifling. The electric cell doors remained stubbornly shut as the facility filled with water.
Vicedotcom Report
BBC Report
Huffington Post Report
ACLU Report
Human Rights Watch Report
Eleven years later, Marlin N. Gusman continues to be Orleans Parish Sheriff (as of 18 October, 2016). It is an elected position.
Just reading that made me anxious. I can’t believe that can and does happen in America.
I can’t believe the people of Orleans Parish keep electing this monster sheriff.
That was one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.
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