Newswise — The criminal justice system in New Orleans was in complete disarray following Hurricane Katrina, precipitating a constitutional crisis. As many as 8,000 people, mostly poor and charged with minor offenses, remained locked in state prisons for lengthy periods of time. The courts, district attorney's office and police department were very slow to react to the emergency, and the paralysis of the system lasted for many months.

Tania Tetlow, associate professor of law at Tulane University School of Law and Director of the school's Domestic Violence Clinic, argues that "constitutional criminal procedure failed to serve its protective role during this emergency, while deferential rules rooted in federalism had the unanticipated effect of hindering provision of critical federal emergency assistance, and perhaps most important, longstanding local neglect rendered the system vulnerable to collapse."

The situation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina deserves close analysis, according to Tetlow, because it provides a study in how local criminal justice systems are vulnerable to collapse as a result of severe natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

Tetlow examines these issues in: Criminal Justice Collapse: The Constitution After Hurricane Katrina, co-authored with Brandon Garrett. 56 DUKE L. J. 127 (2006).

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Race and Ethnicity
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Tania Tetlow Criminal Justice Protection
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