PBS News Weekend

For decades, Louisiana incarcerated more people per-capita than anywhere else on Earth. In the 1990s, the prisons were so full that a federal court ordered the state to reduce overcrowding. Louisiana's Department of Corrections turned to local sheriffs to handle the overflow. More than half of the state's inmates are held in these sheriff-run jails, where conditions have traditionally been bare bones. Now, as part of a major bi-partisan overhaul of Louisiana's criminal justice system, the focus is on rehabilitation. NewsHour Weekend special correspondent Joanne Elgart Jennings has our story, reported in conjunction with Bryn Stole at the New Orleans Advocate and PBS's Independent Lens.