Justice system struggles in New Orleans

No staff
Johnson, the former chief judge, believes most evidence will be salvaged but has another worry: Luring back experienced workers who've settled outside Louisiana. "They have lives, they have jobs, their kids are in schools. The salaries we offer are not the same," he says.

Prosecutor Jordan understands: He says 23 of 90 lawyers did not return after the storm, and it's hard to recruit replacements with $30,000-a-year starting salaries. That pay will increase by $10,000 over the next two years; state lawmakers last week approved raises for assistant district attorneys throughout the state.

Though those jobs are critical, much depends on what happens to the indigent defender program.

Some say it's time to scrap the practice of using part-time lawyers assigned to courts, rather than to cases. "Public defenders see their job as keeping the assembly line moving as opposed to defending the client," says Carroll, the legal aid expert.

Defendants seemed to sense that.

When Dane Ciolono, a Loyola law school professor, ran a clinic in court a few years ago, he says defendants would plead to have his students represent them.

"Think about that," he says. "If you were being wheeled into a hospital, would you be asking for the medical student who's never operated to handle your operation or would you rather (have) an experienced surgeon?"

The recent Justice Department report said the indigent defense program in New Orleans needs 70 full-time lawyers — compared with 42 part-time defenders before Katrina — as well as investigators and other staff.

Judge Johnson would like to see some of the same changes, saying the fault is in how the system is organized, not the defenders themselves. He says they do a very good job for clients who go to trial — though that's only about 15 percent of the cases.

"The rest of the individuals," he says bluntly, "were the ones who got the shaft."

Dwight Doskey, a veteran public defender, also praises his colleagues, saying they were committed to their jobs despite juggling scores of cases, making little money and working in cramped conditions.

But he also says the way the system operated, many people jumped at the chance to plead guilty if they could get probation, rather than wait behind bars for months for a public defender to get around to them.

"Most people in jail," he says, "are concentrating on one thing: When do I get out?"

Future looks uncertain
Doskey says he wants to be optimistic, but he's dubious about long-term change.

"The infusion of money will make people think that everything's fine, everything's copacetic," he says. "But in one to two years, people will say, 'I want to rebuild the port ... I want to build the wetlands.' The justice system will get mired down in the same problems we have now."

But Teissier, a former defender who has worked in the system nearly a generation, is betting this will be a turnaround that will serve a model for the rest of New Orleans.

"I think the justice system is way ahead of the game in trying to make a comeback," he says. "And if a few people can change it, that's just the beginning ... Why can't the whole city change? ... I think this is a defining moment."

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