YouTubers The Proper People recently visited New Orleans and explored Community Correctional Center which has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Abandoned Jail
YouTube Via The Proper People
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Abandonded Community Correctional Center In New Orleans

In 2005 as Hurricane Katrina ripped through southeast Louisiana and Mississippi, guards at the Community Correctional Center in New Orleans allegedly fled for higher ground leaving prisoners locked in cells to fend for their selves.

According to The Proper People, not all the inmates at the time were violent and dangerous offenders.

Some people were in jail for petty crimes such as jaywalking, unpaid parking tickets, and other misdemeanors which would have probably been dismissed in court if Hurricane Katrina hadn't hit New Orleans.

According to some of the testimonies given by inmates at the jail when Hurricane Katrina hit, there were also some juvenile offenders locked up at the facility at the time.

One of those juvenile offenders was only 10-years-old.

Community Correctional Center New Orleans
YouTube Via The Proper People
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Were Prisoners Released During Hurricane Katrina?

According to aclu.org deputies of several Orleans Parish prison buildings "deserted en masse, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells".

"The prisoners spent days without power, food, or water, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests or necks" per aclu.org.

The stories out of CCC in New Orleans match other accounts in the city, with inmates eventually figuring out how to open cells and the cells of others to eventually get out of their harrowing situation.

Community Correctional Center New Orleans Katrina

In this video, you get to see what Community Correctional Center looks like today after being abandoned for the past 17 years.

Inside they found inmate letters, family photos, medical records, and even medication from the prison infirmary.

Much of CCC has been picked apart by scrappers and covered in graffiti, but a large portion of the jail sits just as was in 2005 as Hurricane Katrina was tearing through New Orleans.

Community Correctional Center New Orleans Hurricane Katrina
YouTube Via The Proper People
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As you watch the video below, it's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be inside this place as Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the city, making things as dangerous inside as they were outside.

 

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Gallery Credit: KATELYN LEBOFF

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