NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill will be launching an investigation into the ankle monitoring contracts offered through the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court.
The announcement comes after a French Quarter tour guide was shot to death on June 30 by a 15-year-old who was supposedly being monitored.
“What happened to Kristie Thibodeaux was a tragedy and it never should have opened. I have opened an investigation by my Criminal Division into the contracting with the monitoring company to get to the bottom about why this individual was out on the street with a deactivated ankle monitor,” said Murrill in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams released his own statement Monday, saying, “The matter underscores how the closed and opaque nature of the juvenile system does a disservice to our community.”
Williams continued, “We have repeatedly sounded the alarm on the deplorable state of the electronic monitoring program and the lack of communication with impacted agencies when breakdowns occur in the juvenile system.”
He added that his office and the New Orleans Police Department should be alerted of any violations of the system and that the court should order violators to return to jail.
Williams said the system should be shut down until “we can be confident in the competence of the administrators to conduct real monitoring.”
The teen accused of the murder, according to Williams, “demonstrated himself to be a danger to both his family and the public” and that “the court released him a second time after he violated the judge’s original, very lenient sentence.”
The Assured Supervision Accountability Program, located in Mid-City, is a private company offering electronic monitoring.
The program’s director, Jill Dennis, says a company like theirs is the solution.
“We’ve offered our services to [Orleans Parish Juvenile Court]. I’m not sure what the holdup is except for they are not ready for that amount of accountability,” said Dennis. “If they’re never going to be ready, I agree with Jason Williams. Juveniles need to be kept in the juvenile justice system.”
The New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation says it’s now time for the city to step in.
“Should the city be responsible for part if not all of ankle monitoring and the cost associated there with? Should we have a sliding scale fee? There are certainly people who enter the criminal justice system who have the means and the resources to cover $6 a day,” said Talia. “Perhaps it is a sliding scale fee that the city needs to look at.”
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