The Louisiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week about whether a U.S. Supreme Court’s finding that non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional should apply retroactively to 1,500 Louisiana inmates.
Since Hurricane Ida, reports of “dirty and unsafe” conditions at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where 835 people were evacuated, and of communication issues at outer parish jails that were not evacuated despite mandatory orders have advocates once again calling for improved safety measures for people behind bars during a natural disaster.
Since Hurricane Ida, reports of “dirty and unsafe” conditions at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where 835 people were evacuated, and of communication issues at outer parish jails that were not evacuated despite mandatory orders have advocates once again calling for improved safety measures for people behind bars during a natural disaster.
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In 2006, Randy Lavespere, a Louisiana doctor, was convicted of buying $8,000 of methamphetamine in a Home Depot parking lot with intent to distribute. He served two years in prison, and his medical license was revoked. But even though he had been convicted of a felony and barred from practicing medicine in most circumstances, he was allowed to treat patients in at least one setting: Louisiana state prisons.
In November 2009, just one month after the Louisiana State Medical Board reinstated his medical license and put him on indefinite probation, Lavespere was hired as a physician at the largest maximum security prison in the country, Louisiana State Penitentiary better known as Angola, after the plantation on which it was built. Lavespere rose through the ranks at the prison, becoming the institution’s medical director in November 2014, less than three weeks after his license was fully reinstated. Earlier this year, he was promoted again, and now serves as the top doct
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Inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP) in Angola have suffered needless injuries and deaths as a result of unconstitutional, inadequate medical care, a federal judge said in an opinion in a class-action lawsuit.
Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District of Louisiana concluded that “overwhelming deficiencies” in the management of health care services at the prison were behind the constitutional violations. The litigation was filed by groups including the Promise of Justice Initiative and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.
“Generally, the court concludes that LSP lacks the infrastructure necessary to provide a constitutionally adequate health care system for patients with serious medical needs,” Dick wrote in the March 31 decision. “This includes lack of adequate organizational structure, credentialing and peer review processes, health care policies and procedures, clinic space and a quality-control program.”