Fear and anger in New Orleans turn to calls for action over jail escape: 'Get it together'

About 18 hours after 10 inmates broke out of jail only a mile away, Lakisha Catchings’ neighbor ran up the wooden stairs to the house she shares with her children.

“The police just got a fugitive,” she recalled her neighbor saying, pointing down the street. 

“It’s so close,” Catchings replied, stunned. 

In the week since the May 16 jailbreak and resulting manhunt, the mother of eight has remained hunkered down in her New Orleans neighborhood, dotted in places by rutted streets, threadbare wood-frame homes on stilts, corner stores and small churches. She stays mostly inside as five of the 10 escapees, some charged with or convicted of violent offenses, remain at large.

But as the fugitive search continues into Memorial Day weekend, her fears are increasingly giving way to frustration, anger and a desire for accountability for putting her family in jeopardy.

“How did they let this happen?” said Catchings, 44, as she stood near her front door, a welcome sign hanging to one side. 

Police officials have said they believe some of the fugitives are still in the city. Amid rewards of $20,000 for tips leading to an apprehension, more than 200 law enforcement personnel led by the Louisiana State Police are seeking to capture them and anyone helping them. 

On May 22, a third woman was charged for aiding two of the 10 inmates who escaped from the jail known as the Orleans Justice Center, according to police. One jail maintenance worker has also been charged amid several investigations into the escapes at the jail operated by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office

A spokesperson for Sheriff Susan Hutson’s office has not responded to requests for comment but previously said she took “full accountability” for the breach.

In Catchings’ neighborhood, where some residents were avoiding gatherings this weekend, the escape has resurfaced underlying concerns about crime and a jail that has faced staffing shortages and overcrowding. 

And it has brought new reminders of city’s history of law enforcement misconduct. 

In 1996, a corrupt patrol officer was convicted of ordering the killing of Kim Groves, the grandmother of escapee Derrick Groves, NOLA.com reported. Derrick Groves, convicted last year for second-degree murder, remains on the loose and has led two prosecutors to flee the state for fear of reprisals.

The Department of Justice said last year that the New Orleans police have improved substantially since 2011, when it found evidence of misconduct and bias, including unconstitutional arrests.

Neighborhood resident Sidney O’Connor, Jr. said he knows people in jail and doesn’t wonder why they’d want to escape. He isn’t worried that the escapees will commit crimes because he figures they want to lay low and avoid being sent back.

Others said they hoped investigations and reviews of the jail, including one being conducted by the Louisiana attorney general, would uncover problems that needed solving. 

“It wasn’t built right,” said Lawrence Wicker, 82, as he completed a crossword puzzle on a folded newspaper at his home. His son, Ron J. Wicker,  57, smoked a cigar on a bench outside the family home they’ve owned and lived in since the 1940s.

It was right next door on May 16 that Ron Wicker saw a flood of unmarked police cars suddenly descend to capture one of the escaped prisoners.  Authorities were soon putting Robert Moody, 21, who was being held on drug and weapon charges, in custody. Wicker didn’t know how long he’d been hiding there.

“I couldn’t believe he was next door,” he said. 

Not far away, Lacy Favaroth, 34, said she, too, has changed her routine amid the escapes, keeping her child inside. She’s seen some police and unmarked law enforcement vehicles since, but was unnerved by one that seemed to follow her on an errand. 

“I've been kind of scared,” she said. “I'm not walking my dog at night at all.”

Favaroth said the jailbreak was confounding because it occurred at a facility opened in 2015 to replace aging lockups. 

But it also tapped into deeper concerns about the root causes that were filling jails, such as insufficient investment in youth programs. Jobs for teens are harder to get than when she was young, she said. 

“Youth have less to do to keep people out of trouble,” she said.

Even as some residents shrug off the dangers, Catchings said she’s worried about her children, who range in age from 9 to 28. 

And she’s waiting for accountability, including why it took so long to discover the escape – authorities were alerted to the 1 a.m. escape during an 8:30 a.m. headcount – and why she didn’t hear about it until two hours after that. She says the sheriff “has got to go.”

“They gotta get it together. Crime is everywhere,” she said. “But to be at your front door? That's scary.”

These days, Catchings is not working so she can help take care of her grandchild. One of her sons, “a Katrina Baby” born in a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was about to graduate high school. 

She said they’d probably go out to eat rather than hold a party, given the manhunt that seemed like it would continue through Memorial Day weekend.

Out front of her home here, a red charcoal barbecue sat unused. For now, she’d continue to hunker down.