In one of America’s most troubled jails, a mental health unit has managed to thrive

NEW ORLEANS — In June, 18-year-old Marvell Smith arrived at the Orleans Justice Center, anxious and overwhelmed, to await his day in trial in the notorious jail. Staff brought him up on an elevator to the fourth floor and placed him in a unit with more than four dozen other men. 

Almost immediately, another detainee began stalking Smith, he said, trying to physically and verbally intimidate him for being gay. 

For years, detainees say, harassment has been rampant at the jail, which has struggled since 2012 to comply with a consent decree by the Justice Department to monitor poor conditions, violence and abuse inside. But this time, the outcome was different. The man stalking Smith was quickly expelled from the unit by its leader, Lieutenant Michael Lewis. Had Lewis not taken action, nine other pre-trial detainees told NBC News, they would have demanded that the man leave. 

Smith’s experience is a reflection of the larger goals of a new mental health-focused community within the jail, designed to reverse years of violence and neglect, and build instead a sense of camaraderie. Smith said he was relieved Lewis took action to get rid of his harasser. “As my days go on, it’s getting like we’re all human, we’re all men,” he said.

Marvell Smith, right, entered the unit and became the target of harassment. But he says other residents and the unit's leaders quickly took action to stop it. NBC News

Smith is among the first to experience this approach in the jail which officials in New Orleans are calling “the model pod for mental health.” Spearheaded by Sheriff Susan Hutson, who ran for office in 2022 promising to reform the jail and fight its further expansion, the program has a simple goal: treat pre-trial inmates more like patients who have experienced severe trauma and are deserving of community and health care. 

The men who live on her experimental pod can set their own schedules and commune freely, play basketball, cut each other’s hair, watch movies and nightly news programs and share books. In exchange, they have to commit to a zero tolerance policy for harassment and violence, make their beds, manage laundry and attend frequent group discussions about conflict resolution, stress and trauma. Some of the members are also receiving individualized mental health treatment.

“You really want to be there for each other,” said pod resident Zachary Terrell, one of the first men to notice that Smith felt unsafe. “When you do that, that create an OK environment for that person to be yourself, for the next person to be themself.”

Hutson, the only female sheriff in Louisiana, said the facility has become the largest mental health care provider for the city of New Orleans. Nineteen years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region and all of the city’s services, the sheriff warned that a mental health crisis has metastasized. During the historic storm, Charity Hospital’s mental health ward was flooded. It has yet to reopen. 

New Orleans Sheriff Susan Hutson is spearheading new reforms at the Orleans Justice Center.NBC News

In the years that followed, New Orleans followed a pattern seen across the United States: large mental institutions and psychiatric facilities closed down, many on account of reported  mistreatment and abuse. Most American communities, both in rural and urban areas, failed to build enough modern clinics and hospitals to replace the old wards. As a result, the jails in cities like New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York are among the largest mental health care providers in the nation. 

More than half of the 1,400 people in Hutson’s mental facility are receiving medication to treat diagnosed disorders like schizophrenia, depression and post traumatic stress disorder. On the model pod, almost every single man told NBC News that he had witnessed a family member or friend be killed by gun violence. Many of their families were permanently separated by Hurricane Katrina, and many were forced to grow up without their parents. 

“Jails are the system,” Hutson told NBC News. “And it’s the same throughout the state and throughout this country. In areas where you don’t have those [mental health] systems in place. The jail is the de facto mental health system. And that is so wrong.” 

Hutson, whose own brother had PTSD after serving in the Navy, said her dream would be for her jail to be replaced by treatment and prevention programs. 

“I don’t want a mental health jail,” she said. “I want a mental health facility.”

Lawmakers in her state are moving in the opposite direction, however, leaving Sheriff Hutson to swim upstream. This year, Louisiana Republicans, with a supermajority in the governor’s mansion and Legislature, pushed through a slate of crime-and-punishment laws, including Senate Bill 3, which requires officials to treat 17-year-olds accused of crimes as adults that should be housed in adult-only jails like Hutson’s.

Members of the Orleans Parish jail’s new model pod watch a television show together. NBC News

Lieutenant Michael Lewis is gathering data on the residents of the Orleans Justice Center to share with the city, in a bid to expand the program.NBC News

NBC News requested interviews with State Sen. Heather Cloud and Rep. Raymond Crews, who spearheaded the new legislation the sheriff alleges impacted the jail. They did not respond. In April, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry wrote on X, ”Today marks the start to a new justice system here in Louisiana. No more will 17-year-olds who commit home invasions, carjack, and rob the great people of our State be treated as children in court. These are criminals and today, they will finally be treated as such.”

Since March, Hutson’s facility population has increased by 3% to 5% each month, according to department data reviewed by NBC News. Also, she said she’s been forced to create a new unit for minors. The new unit has created logistical and financial challenges in an already overcrowded facility, Hutson said, as minors require complete sight and sound separation from all other adult residents. 

According to the criminal justice think tank Prison Policy Initiative, Louisiana not only incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other state, but also more than any other independent democratic country. Andrea Armstrong, a legal scholar, MacArthur Fellow and professor at Loyola University, also stressed that Louisiana, by most counts, has the highest rate of incarceration per capita, and also has one of the highest rates of violent crime. 

“The math isn’t mathing, right?” Armstrong said. “If incarceration was the thing that made people safe, we would be the safest state in the country.” 

Instead, she said solving the mental health and incarceration crisis will require leaders to think differently about safety and to invest in building new mental health hospitals. 

“And those resources should not be connected to our criminal justice system. Full stop,” she said. “People who are in crisis need to be evaluated by experts. They need to develop treatment plans. And then and only then, can we start having conversations about the actions and behavior that occurred when they were untreated.” 

Leonard Patty has been in pre-trial detention for five years, and says the program has helped him address past trauma. NBC News

Model pod member Leonard Patty, a 42-year-old father who grew up without his own parents for most of his childhood in New Orleans, described Hutson and Lewis’ efforts as lifesaving. Before joining the pod community, he didn’t realize that it wasn’t normal to live every day expecting to die. 

“This program helped me,” he said. “Like if I had ran into the police and they killed me, I would have been happy. That’s where I was at.” 

He’s been in pre-trial detention for five years after pleading not guilty to second-degree murder charges. The program, he said, has helped him see beyond his own anger and trauma, and focus more on how he can help young men like Smith.  

In recent months, Lewis has surveyed all of the men in his new unit, gathering data about their upbringings in New Orleans and their mental health treatment needs. He said he hopes to present his findings to the city, in a bid to expand the program to other parts of the jail. 

“Politicians out there don’t get it,” he said. “If we, human beings, can make up our mind and treat other people like human beings, that will make a difference.”

For more from NBC BLK, sign up for our weekly newsletter.