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LOUISIANA INCARCERATED
How we built the world's prison capital

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LOUISIANA INCARCERATED

Keith I. Marszalek, NOLA.com By Keith I. Marszalek, NOLA.com
  Sheriffs and politicians have financial incentives to keep people locked up
 
         
  THE 8-PART SERIES  
 
PART 1
 
BEHIND BARS: After two decades of policy shifts, Louisiana locks up unprecedented numbers.		  
A TRADE IN PRISONERS:
Some rural parishes' economies hinge on keeping their prisons full.		  
 
 
 
 
PART 2
 
AN ECONOMIC MACHINE: Private firms reap profit while sheriffs reap jobs and cash from prisons.		  
NEW PRISON IN NEW ORLEANS:
If the local facility is smaller, Orleans inmates may be scattered.		  
 
 
 
 
PART 3
 
  THROWING AWAY THE KEY: Lifers, paradoxically, get the best shot at rehabilitation in state prisons.  
 
 
 
 
PART 4
 
LOCKED IN: Powerful interests conspire to obstruct reform of the state's draconian sentencing laws.		  
UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT: Convoluted sentencing statutes keep people incarcerated longer.		  
 
 
 
 
PART 5
 
  NO WAY OUT: Hundreds of pardon applications gather dust on the governor's desk.  
 
 
 
 
PART 6
 
  HITTING HOME: The state's policies have a disproportionate impact on some neighborhoods.  
 
 
 
 
PART 7
 
  ROUGH RE-ENTRY: Inmates facing release have few programs to guide them to the right path.  
 
 
 
 
PART 8
 
ARRESTING DEVELOPMENT: Bipartisan reform makes possible a first for Texas: closing a prison.		  
PARTING WAYS: Texas stops helping Louisiana fill beds in its for-profit prisons.		  
 
 
 
PUBLISHED IN THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE TEAM
 
CINDY
CHANG
is special projects writer for The Times-Picayune. She joined the newspaper in 2007. She began her journalism career at the Pasadena Star-News and has freelanced for the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. She graduated from Yale University and the NYU School of Law.
  
SCOTT THRELKELD
is a photographer/ videographer based in The Times-Picayune's Slidell bureau. He has worked at the newspaper for 28 years. He began his career as a photographer at the Dallas Times-Herald and then at the Shreveport Journal. He is a graduate of El Centro College in Dallas.
  
RYAN
SMITH
is an information graphics artist for The Times-Picayune. A native of Greenwood, Ind., Ryan is a 2007 graduate of the journalism graphics program at Ball State University. He joined the paper the same year.
 
 

Additional reporting: Jonathan Tilove, John Simerman and Jan Moller
News editing: Shawn McClellan
Design: George Berke
Photo editing: Doug Parker
Copy editing: Katherine Hart
Video editing: G. Andrew Boyd
Online design: Emmett Mayer III and Paula Devlin