NEW PROJECT EXPOSES JARRING LACK OF DIVERSITY AMONG LOUISIANA LAW ENFORCEMENT

NEW ORLEANS – The SPLC Action Fund has released Out of Balance: Racial Disparity Among Louisiana’s Sheriffs and Prosecutors, a new project that exposes the jarring lack of diversity among Louisiana law enforcement. The project illustrates that while the vast majority of Louisiana’s district attorneys (DAs) and sheriffs are white, there is a stark overrepresentation of Black residents in the state’s criminal legal system.

Currently, only four sheriffs and five district attorneys (DAs) in Louisiana are Black out of 64 sheriffs and 42 DAs across the state. This means that although over 33% of Louisiana’s population is Black, just 6% of sheriffs and 12% of state DAs are Black. These positions have significant influence in a state that has, until its recent drop to second place, led the nation – and by extension, the world – with its incarceration rates.

“The lack of diversity in these important roles has a direct impact on outcomes for Black residents as the individuals in these roles make life-altering decisions regarding arrests, charging, sentencing and even jail conditions,” said Delvin Davis, senior policy analyst with the SPLC Action Fund. “There is no doubt that the lack of representation in these roles has a direct link to the overcriminalization of the Black community in Louisiana, and that must change.”

While people of color are grossly overrepresented at every point of the criminal legal system in Louisiana, white individuals hold the power to influence Black citizens’ interactions with racial profiling, criminalization and incarceration. Statewide, Black people constituted 65% of people in Louisiana prisons as of 2022. Since 1983, the total jail population in Louisiana has also increased by 283%, with Black people making up 57% of the state’s jails in 2019.

This morning the SPLC Action Fund will hold a virtual event to discuss the project. Reporting on the Lack of Law Enforcement Diversity in Louisiana will feature a panel discussion moderated by Andrea McChristian, SPLC Action Fund’s research director, with Delvin Davis, Chandra (Shae) Foster, Louisiana policy associate with SPLC’s Action Fund and Dr. Brenda Choresi Carter, director of the Reflective Democracy Campaign.

The event will be livestreamed here and the project can be accessed here.