Among the broken rum punch glasses, wind-torn shingles and bodies left to dry in the sun that rose on the receding waters of Katrina, fragments of another once-proud American institution were unearthed: justice in the form of the right to a fair and speedy trial. According to a new report based on over 100 interviews issued by Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a New Orleans-based criminal justice reform group, the city has imprisoned people for an average of 385 days without giving them any hearing. In one man’s case, the wait was 1,289 days. The findings are particularly disturbing considering a pre-Katrina Metropolitan Crime Commission report showing that 65 per cent of the arrested are eventually released without charges.

Rather than helping, the report found that state-appointed attorneys “acted as functionaries for the court rather than advocates for the poor people they represented.” The report details attorneys’ failure to interview witnesses, check out alibis, review evidence, do legal research or even meet their clients.

“We have a system that was broken before Katrina,” says Safe Street’s Ursula Price. “Four thousand people are still in prison waiting for this to be repaired.”

» Scott Saxon