Disaster Evacuation and the Rights of Incarcerated People

Hurricane Katrina left thousands of people held in Orleans Parish Prison unable to choose a route, reach higher ground, or secure water and medical care for themselves. The speech argues that custody converts a public emergency into a condition of confinement: once the state removes a person’s ability to protect themselves, it assumes the duty to protect them, and that duty does not depend on conviction—seventy percent of the people in local jails at midyear 2023 were unconvicted. It reads constitutional conditions-of-confinement law alongside the Nelson Mandela Rules and GAO findings on federal disaster preparedness, then sets out a six-part standard for a credible evacuation plan and the population-reduction measures that can be authorized before transport and bed space run short.

Question

What does a government owe the people it holds in custody when a foreseeable disaster approaches and they cannot evacuate themselves?

My role

Individual. Research and writing.

Method

Legal research · Emergency preparedness · Policy advocacy

Evidence

Seven primary and institutional sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Congressional Research Service, GAO, FEMA, the Department of Justice, the UN Nelson Mandela Rules, and the ACLU National Prison Project.

Result

Custody turns a public emergency into a condition of confinement.

70%

Held unconvicted, midyear 2023

664,200

People in local jails

Framework

• Objective decision points for evacuation and shelter in place, with named authority and thresholds
• Transport and receiving capacity secured in advance, across county and state lines
• Life-support continuity while movement is delayed: power, water, sanitation, medication, dialysis, pregnancy and mental-health care
• Redundant custody, court, medical and disability records that survive local system failure
• Disability accounted for from the start, per Justice Department ADA guidance
• Testing and review outside the chain of command that wrote the plan

Output

Twelve-minute public policy speech; full text, four pages (PDF).

BoundaryA policy argument built on published standards and oversight findings—not legal advice, and not a finding about any specific facility.