The report, LOUISIANA ON LOCKDOWN: A Report on the Use of Solitary Confinement in Louisiana State Prisons, With Testimony From the People Who Live It, is published by Solitary Watch, the ACLU of Louisiana, and the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University New Orleans.More than two years in the making, it is based primarily on a survey completed by 709 people in solitary in all nine of Louisiana’s prisons, the largest ever survey of people l

by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.

By Sue Weishar, Ph.D.

by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.

One cannot travel across Louisiana, or any of the South for that matter, and not run into some reminder of the Confederacy. Maybe it is a county name, a road, a university, or a statue in the city park; ghosts of the Confederacy are ubiquitous. My high school football team played more than its fair share of teams called “the Rebels.” I grew up in the shadows of the memorials to the Confederacy all around me.

by Sue Weishar, PhD

Dr. Sue Weishar, PhD 

by Nik Mitchell, PhD

Senate Bill 142 and House Bill 141 propose to eliminate capital punishment in Louisiana during this Legislative session. Overall, capital punishment is inherently immoral because it violates the condemned’s right to life. It is also a pointless practice, not a deterrent for crime, and a waste of money, time, and manpower. In conceptualization and practice, capital punishment is a continued exercise in futility and too often is an expression of White privilege.

by Sakeenah Shabazz, Emerson National Hunger Fellow 

by Sue Weishar, Ph.D.

In the recently ended regular session of the Louisiana legislature, immigrant advocates worked hard to convince state legislators that the bias-free policing policies adopted by the NOPD and Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office [1]  did not make New Orleans a “sanctuary city,” and that a bill introduced to prohibit New Orleans’ bias-free law enforcement policies, HB 1148, should be opposed because it scapegoats immigrants and would undermine community safety.

by: Sue Weishar, Ph.D.