New Orleans' Makeshift Jail

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," September 7, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: What happens when someone gets arrested here in New Orleans (search) with the city virtually shut down under water? We're joined by Burl Cain who is the warden of the new jail.

BURL CAIN, WARDEN OF MAKESHIFT JAIL: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: Where is your new jail?

CAIN: My new jail is we call it Camp Greyhound, down at the bus station and the Amtrak station and we built it there. We had to have a jail really quick, the sheriff's jail was flooded, so that we could get the criminals off the streets so we could have reconstruction.

So, therefore, the jail was essential to security in the city, so they did a really good job of doing that and we developed it and I'm the warden up at Angola, so I said we'd run this prison here.

VAN SUSTEREN: Why the Greyhound bus station?

CAIN: Well, we were looking for a good site and we found that long row where they park the busses. We could put chain link fence along there and make our cages and then we would have us a good prison. We can put 700 inmates in there.

VAN SUSTEREN: What did you have to do to convince Greyhound that this was a good idea or were they agreeable?

CAIN: Well, they were looting the Greyhound bus station and so we ran the looters out, stopped the looting and saved the bus station and Amtrak and so they were very thankful for that. They had safes in there that had money and all that was saved, so that was really a good deal for them too.

VAN SUSTEREN: Where is the district attorney? Is the district attorney's office still up and running or is it...

CAIN: Well, right, well we have it all there. Everybody comes through there. We process the inmates in. We have security from the Bureau of Prisons, from the attorney general, everybody is helping us. State police is there, National Guard.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, do you have any makeshift courtrooms? I mean how do you do bail hearings?

CAIN: Well, what we do is they arrest them and they bring them in. They'll catch them mostly at night. Tomorrow we'll kind of fill up. Then we'll bus them out to a prison, Hunt Correctional Center, and they'll go there to St. Gabriel and then they'll have video court and then the judges will do whatever they do and then we'll move on.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, how long is the longest you could end up staying in the Greyhound jail?

CAIN: Well, you could stay in there maybe at the longest two days and then you'd get moved on out to one of the other prisons to Hunt Correctional Center.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what about in terms of like, you know, meal service things like that? I mean the Greyhound Bus Station I assume wasn't equipped to do meals.

CAIN: We have MREs, so all the inmates get MREs and then we give them water and we take real good care of them and we're good as they let us and mean as they make us.

VAN SUSTEREN: And what about those who are detained there what are they saying about it?

CAIN: Well, we have a lot of looters and so forth and they don't like it too much being there but anyway, you know, that's it. The first inmate that came in drove in to buy a bus ticket and he was trying to get out of town and he had stolen a car, so he drove right into our arms so that was our very first prisoner.

VAN SUSTEREN: How many up there tonight do you think?

CAIN: Well, I've had a total of 220 pass through there and that's 220 people that aren't on the streets and one of them shot at a helicopter. It's all kind of different people that committed crimes and there's 220 people that's not on the streets causing havoc so we can't rebuild New Orleans. You know the Red Cross can't come in or anybody else if there's gunfire and people shooting at them, so it really worked.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, the jail was flooded here in New Orleans?

CAIN: Yes, the jail here the whole entire jail was flooded. See, I'm a warden with the Department of Corrections up at Angola and so all the prisons got together and we all built this jail. This is our contribution to law and order here in the city.

VAN SUSTEREN: And I should just add if the viewers heard that noise behind us that was another law enforcement vehicle. They're going up and down the street tonight.

CAIN: Well, maybe they'll find somebody and bring them to us.

VAN SUSTEREN: Bring you more business just what you need.

CAIN: That's right.

VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you very much sir, I appreciate it.

CAIN: Well, thank you.

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