Katrina: Prisoners shipped out
2005-09-08 20:02
Baton Rouge - US officials were poised on Thursday to begin shipping nearly 1 000 prisoners out of the stricken state of Louisiana where Hurricane Katrina wrought havoc and flooded jails.
US marshals will begin transporting a first batch of 460 inmates by plane to a federal prison in the southern state of Florida later on Thursday, the department of corrections said.
Another load of 460 prisoners from state jails will make the same trip to Florida on Friday.
At least one jail in New Orleans was flooded, leaving prisoners to break out to save their lives, officials said earlier, while hundreds of others were transported to other state jails, overloading the system.
- AFP