NEW ORLEANS — Citing the grave danger imposed on men, women and children incarcerated in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), attorneys for the prisoners and the United States Department of Justice have asked a federal court to take the extraordinary step of stripping Sheriff Marlin Gusman of the authority to operate the jail, which has been under federal oversight since 2013.

In a motion filed Monday, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the Department of Justice argued Gusman has repeatedly failed to deliver the improvements called for in the 2013 consent judgment governing jail operations, including security, medical and mental health care, sanitation and classification. As a result, the people incarcerated there are not safe and have been subjected to an “epidemic of violence.”

“The Sheriff not only has failed or refused to comply with the Consent Judgment, he has proven to be incapable of taking action necessary to comply,” stated the motion, which detailed widespread violence and underreporting of the violence by the jail.

“Urgent and extraordinary action is required of this Court to address the immediate risk of harm and death to the men, women and youth in the Jail,” according to the motion.  “Although there is no question that receivership is an extraordinary remedy, so too is the level of harm that continues to plague the Jail, with no apparent end in sight.  The history of this case, the current state of Consent Judgment compliance, and the ongoing dangerous conditions demonstrate that receivership is the only path forward.”

The attorneys argued that violence in the OPP “continues to spiral out of control” and that staff uses of force against prisoners “go unreported, uninvestigated, and are out of control.”

In addition, the motion contends that even after construction of a new building to house the jail, there remain suicide risks that have not been corrected.  Last month, Cleveland Tumblin, a 61-year-old boxing instructor, died after hanging himself in a shower stall at the jail, locked from the inside. The Sheriff was warned of the known suicide hazard months before the death.  “Orleans Parish prisoners are dying as a result of the Sheriff’s unwillingness or inability to comply with life saving measures,” according to the motion.

The motion asks U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk to hold Sheriff Gusman in contempt of the Consent Judgment provisions. It further requests that Judge Africk set a schedule for additional briefing on the logistics of appointing a receiver to administer the jail.

The Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center has litigation responsibility in Jones v. Gusman, the federal lawsuit alleging pervasive violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights in the OPP.  Katie M. Schwartzmann, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s office in New Orleans, is lead counsel on the case, which began in 2012 and detailed the inhumane conditions at the jail, where prisoners often were subjected to violence, sexual assaults, neglect and the denial of needed mental health services. The Department of Justice intervened in September 2012; and an agreement was reached to address the conditions in December 2012.