NEW ORLEANS – Inmate advocates have asked for video and documents from the New Orleans jail as they look into a weekend disturbance there that they say was more serious than authorities have reported.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office has said about a dozen inmates barricaded themselves in a housing unit Friday night in an incident that lasted about an hour.
On Monday, attorney Emily Washington with the MacArthur Justice Center released a letter to the court-approved director of the jail. It says the center has received accounts of a series of incidents beginning Friday afternoon, including fights and at least one fire.
It says the area where the disturbances occurred was so badly supervised that prisoners gained access to controls and let fellow inmates out of cells.
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