The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With sweeping new laws, Louisiana embraces tough-on-crime approach
State’s less-punitive actions to low-level offenders reversed.
BATON ROUGE, LA. — In 2017, Louisiana overhauled its criminal justice system with broad bipartisan sup- port, all in an effort to lose the distinction of having the nation’s highest incarcera- tion rate. Sentences were reduced. Opportunities for parole were expanded. Alter- natives to prison were introduced.
But seven years later, the state is sending a very dif- ferent message: Those days are over.
Lawmakers, urged on by a new Republican governor, rushed through a special ses- sion last month to roll back the 2017 changes. Bills were passed to lengthen sentences for some offenses, to strictly limit access to parole, to pros- ecute 17-year-olds charged with any crime as adults and to allow methods of execu- tion beyond lethal injection. The latter change is meant to allow the state to bring back capital punishment after more than a decade.
“I promised the people of this state, if elected gover- nor, I would do everything within my power to improve the safety of our communi- ties,” Gov. Jeff Landry said as he declared victory when the session concluded last week. “I can proudly say we have kept that promise.”
Landry, who took office in January, and his supporters argue that the new stringent measures are necessary to crack down on violence and crime, which soared in parts of the state during the pan- demic. But critics contend that the new laws are varia- tions of flawed past policies and would have the same consequences: punishing people of color dispropor- tionately, obliterating hope and pathways to rehabilita- tion for prisoners, and foist- ing a staggering cost onto taxpayers.
“None of these bills are going to do anything to increase public safety or reduce crime in our com- munities,” said Sarah Omo- jola, director of Vera Lou- isiana, a nonprofit group focused on reducing incar- ceration and preventing violence. “All these bills do is expand incarceration at a really high cost for Louisi- anans.”
While Louisiana has been particularly aggressive, other states have also dialed back efforts to experiment with new approaches to crimi- nal justice. Lawmakers in Oregon, which had tried to decriminalize hard drugs, passed legislation last week to reimpose criminal penalties for possession of some drugs after public drug use and overdose deaths increased.
In Louisiana, Landry, a onetime police officer and sheriff’s deputy who had served two terms as the state attorney general, centered his campaign for governor on tackling crime.
He was responding to anxiety over public safety amid a surge in violent crime and other offenses during the coronavirus pandemic, mirroring a national trend. The murder rate soared in New Orleans, reaching lev- els that had not been seen in decades and was the highest in the nation in 2022. Car- jackings were also rampant. The city’s Police Department was depleted of officers and morale.
Over the past year, crime rates have steadied. In New Orleans, murders plum- meted in 2023 by some 25% compared with the year before, outpacing a nation- wide decline.
Even so, almost imme- diately after taking office, Landry called for a special session in February dedi- cated to crime, arguing that more could be done. “We will defend and uplift our law enforcement officials and deliver true justice to crime victims who have been over- looked for far too long,” he said as the session began.
The Legislature, which has a Republican supermajority in both houses, rap- idly advanced a flood of bills.
The measures raise the sentence for carjackings to no less than five years in prison; impose harsher penalties for distributing or marketing fentanyl in child-friendly packaging; and allow the concealed carry of a handgun without a license. “This is a testament to our commitment to the Second Amendment and the right of law-abiding citizens to pro- tect themselves and their families without undue gov- ernment interference,” state Sen. Blake Miguez, the bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.
The Legislature also passed bills that would eliminate the possibility of parole for most prisoners convicted of a crime after Aug. 1 and would force prisoners to serve 85% of their sentences before they could be released for good behavior.
Lawmakers also approved using electrocution and nitro- gen gas for executions, and shielding information about the companies that manufac- ture and supply the drugs for lethal injection. The state has not carried out an exe- cution in 14 years, primar- ily because of the difficulty obtaining those drugs.
Opponents say the policies will saddle the state with the astronomical costs that come from housing more prison- ers for longer while providing little benefit. “The ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ approach does not work,” said Matthew Wil- lard, the Democratic leader in the state House of Repre- sentatives. “These new laws do nothing to prevent crime before it happens.”
But elected officials back- ing the measures argue that the laws will create a safer environment that will spur economic growth. “Crime certainly has a cost,” said Laurie Schlegel, the Repub- lican representative who sponsored the bills for stiffer sentences for carjacking and distributing fentanyl.
The assertive approach to the session illustrated just how much Republicans in Louisiana have been itch- ing to dismantle the legis- lative legacy of Gov. John Bel Edwards, the two-term Democrat who preceded Landry, and to adopt pol- icies that Edwards would have thwarted.
“I’m not surprised we’re seeing the results we’re seeing,” said Edward E. Cher- venak, director of the Uni- versity of New Orleans Sur- vey Research Center. “The Republicans can just roll over the Democrats in both houses, and they have a kin- dred spirit in the governor’s mansion.”
Before Landry took office, Edwards was a frequent impediment to Republicans who otherwise controlled state government. He issued 319 vetoes as governor, and just two were overturned by lawmakers.
Edwards, the last Demo- cratic governor in the Deep South, exasperated many in his own party with his con- servative stances on abortion and gun rights. Still, he notched some victories that had been championed by progressives; the over- haul of the justice system — known as the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Act — was one of them.
Many states were enact- ing similar changes. There was widespread agreement at the time that taking a less punitive approach to low- level offenders and treat- ing the causes of crime, like drug addiction, could make the criminal justice system more effective and free up resources that could be directed at pursuing vio- lent offenders.
In Louisiana — long regarded as the “world’s prison capital” — the legis- lation felt like a monumen- tal achievement.
“The political stars were aligned in a way we had never seen before in Louisiana and will never see for some time,” said Alanah Odoms, execu- tive director of the Amer- ican Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. “It was like a solar eclipse.”
Supporters of the reinvestment act recognized that the changes would be vulnerable to attack, but they were startled by the swiftness with which lawmakers moved to reverse the act over the last month.
“I think the thing we didn’t anticipate is that these rollbacks would happen in such a concerted and quick way,” Omojola said, “regardless of the facts and the data and the research that said they were a bad idea.”
But Landry had made clear that his sights were set on a severe approach.
In a recent opinion essay published in Gannett’s Louisiana newspapers, Landry and one of the state’s Republican U.S. senators, John Kennedy, argued that the package of laws in 2017 had fueled a rise in crime and “prioritized the comfort of violent criminals over the safety of Louisiana families.”
“This special session,” they wrote, “was the first step to taking back our streets and empowering our citizens.”