Consider This from NPR : NPR

The prosecutor of the District of the Parish of Orleans, Jason Williams (on the left), at his office in New Orleans, Meghan Garvey, the only full-time lawyer in public defense in New Orleans who was there at the time just after Hurricane Katrina and Danny Engelberg, leader of public defenders of Orleans.

Claire Harbage / NPR

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Claire Harbage / NPR

The prosecutor of the District of the Parish of Orleans, Jason Williams (on the left), at his office in New Orleans, Meghan Garvey, the only full-time lawyer in public defense in New Orleans who was there at the time just after Hurricane Katrina and Danny Engelberg, leader of public defenders of Orleans.

Claire Harbage / NPR

In 2006, Ari Shapiro reported how Hurricane Katrina aggravated an already broken public defender system in New Orleans. The justice system collapsed following the storm.

Katrina caused horrible destruction to New Orleans. He threw people incarcerated into a sort of purgatory – some were lost in prisons for more than a year.

But the storm also paved the way for changes in which the city’s public defender system has needed for decades.

Two decades later, Shapiro returns to New Orleans and finds a system considerably improved.

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This episode was produced by Alejandra Marquez Janse, with the audio engineering of David Greenburg. He was published by Sarah Handel and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.