department of justice

Community members and advocates share input on the plan at a public meeting.

NOPD monitor faces more calls to keep federal consent decree in place

Matt Bloom

A proposal to wind down the New Orleans Police Department’s longstanding federal consent decree is drawing pushback from critics who say the department needs ongoing oversight.

Vehicles enter at the main security gate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — the Angola Prison, the largest high-security prison in the country in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. A federal judge ruled on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 that incarcerated youths be removed from a temporary lockup, at a former death row building in Louisiana’s adult maximum-security prison.

Law

Louisiana's prison population sees troubling growth in latest DOJ report

Kat Stromquist

For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. prison populations are trending up. Louisiana's numbers are a part of troubling gains across the Gulf South.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announces new proposed rules to cut emissions of carcinogenic chemicals, such as chloroprene and ethylene oxide, that plague Louisiana's chemical corridor at a news conference in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana on April 6, 2023.

Coastal Desk

Shuttered EPA investigation could’ve brought 'meaningful reform' in Cancer Alley, documents reveal

Halle Parker

Documents show staff spent months negotiating an agreement that would have fundamentally changed Louisiana's air pollution permitting program.

Denka Performance Elastomers manufactures neoprene at its chemical plant in Reserve, La. On Feb. 28, 2023, the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit against the company, asking a judge to compel Denka to cut its carcinogenic emissions to what the EPA deems safe.

Coastal Desk

St. John's Denka plant sued by DOJ over cancer-causing emissions

Halle Parker

Two federal agencies sued the country’s sole neoprene plant in St. John the Baptist Parish over violations of the Clean Air Act on Tuesday in hopes of forcing the company to cut emissions of a chemical that likely causes cancer.

This contributed photo from Disability Rights Mississippi shows inadequate conditions inside Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman. The photos were obtained by DRMS and published in a 2021 report citing inadequate medical and correctional staff and poor healthcare practices at the state prison. DRMS’ report is similar to one released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.

News

Q&A: After DOJ’s Parchman report, what changes are needed at Mississippi Corrections?

Brittany Brown

The Gulf States Newsroom’s Brittany Brown details the Department of Justice’s scathing report on the Mississippi State Penitentiary, and what comes next.

Coastal Desk

Coastal News Roundup: Lawsuits End, Settlements Reached

Travis Lux

This week on the Coastal News Roundup: legal stuff!A local levee board's lawsuit against more than 90 oil and gas companies ends after bouncing around in…