
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson (photo courtesy of Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office)
Five down, five to go – Five inmates who escaped from the Orleans Justice Center last Friday have been recaptured, and five remain on the loose. As the search for the remaining at-large escapees continues, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson continues to come under fire – so much so that she has temporarily suspended her re-election bid. Hutson told the New Orleans City Council that the jailbreak is very troubling.
“As your sheriff, I take full accountability for this failure. And it is my responsibility to make sure it is addressed with urgency and transparency,” Hutson said.
But Sheriff Hutson deflected some of the blame, saying that the city has not provided her office the necessary resources to properly operate the jail and prevent incidents like this.
“This facility was never designed to be a maximum-security jail. It was built for short-term detention, not long-term high-risk housing.
Yet over the years, we have been forced to operate without the resources to match our needs,” Hutson explained.
A pair of House Democrats who represent New Orleans are calling for Hutson not only to drop her re-election bid, but also to step down immediately. Among them is Jason Hughes.
“How 10 people can escape a jail is perplexing to me. But at the end of the day, this is a public safety issue, and it boils down to leadership,” Hughes said.
Another House member feeling the same way is Aimee Adatto Freeman.
“It disheartens me to think that she has one job, which is to keep the rest of us safe from these criminals,” Freeman said.
The total reward money for each remaining fugitive is $20,000 – $10,000 from the FBI and the rest from ATF and Crime Stoppers.
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