Prisoners in New Orleans city jail were 'abandoned' : evacuated ... only after the inmates found themselves standing in water up to their necks.

Independent Online Edition > Americas : app1: "Prisoners in New Orleans city jail were 'abandoned' | By Andrew Gumbel | Published: 23 September 2005

A leading US human rights group accused prison officials in New Orleans yesterday of abandoning hundreds of men in the city jail in the run-up to Hurricane Katrina, leaving them locked up without food, water, electricity, fresh air or functioning toilets for four days as the floodwaters rose to their chests, necks and higher.

Human Rights Watch described the prisoners' ordeal at the Templeman III facility in New Orleans as a "nightmare" and said, based on interviews with dozens of inmates and prison staff members, that they were simply left to fend for themselves with no thought to their evacuation. Two other buildings, Templeman I and Templeman II, were evacuated the day after the levees broke and the city filled with water, but only after the inmates found themselves standing in water up to their necks. ...