Some Prisoners Remain Behind Bars in Louisiana Despite Being Deemed Free

Glenn Thrush / The New York Times

'It’s a bad, bad feeling,’ said Johnny Traweek, who was held in a Louisiana prison past his release date. 'Every day, I’m getting up and thinking I’m going to get out.’ (photo: Verónica G. Cárdenas/NYT)

14 December 22

About 200 to 250 inmates are held beyond their legal release dates in any given month, with the average additional time lasting around 44 days in 2019.

The judge told Johnny Traweek he had served his time, seven months, for hitting someone with a saucepan in a drunken fight, then suggested he could be released from the Orleans Parish prison by midnight.

Mr. Traweek began giving away his jailhouse comforts — a blanket, two orange sweatshirts, ramen, soda. Then he waited out the final hours of May 2, 2018, his last legal day behind bars.

Midnight came, midnight went. Around 4 a.m., Mr. Traweek was lying in bed, eyes open, when the staff summoned inmates for predawn breakfast. He would repeat that routine, including the sleepless nights, 19 more days because the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections did not process his paperwork in a timely manner.

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