New Orleans sheriff Susan Hutson suspends reelection campaign, says jailbreak was ‘failure’
By James Finn and Missy Wilkinson
Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com
May 20, 2025
Sheriff Susan Hutson, who oversees the New Orleans jail from which 10 inmates escaped last week, suspended her reelection campaign Tuesday, hours after she apologized to the City Council amid mounting calls for her resignation and questions about her leadership.
In an about-face from a series of defiant press conferences Hutson held in the hours after the mass jailbreak, the sheriff on Tuesday told the council she takes “full accountability” for the escapes and acknowledged that the breakout was a “failure.”
Hutson issued a press release hours later saying she was grateful to other agencies who have helped in a frenzied manhunt for the escapees that has reached its fifth day, and pointed out steps her office has taken to assist the process.
“Still, there is a long road ahead of me to be fully satisfied that the (Orleans Justice Center) and my deputies have the proper resources to perform their duties to the fullest extent the people of New Orleans deserve,” she said. “As such, I am temporarily suspending my reelection campaign. I cannot spend a moment putting politics over your needs.”
That announcement followed an explosive City Council hearing in which Hutson, at turns contrite and defiant, revived a years-old argument with the City Council over whether a shortage of city funding or her own office’s mismanagement are to blame for the jail’s well-documented shortfalls.
For the better part of three hours, council members peppered Hutson and two of her top aides with questions about what officials described as chaotic, hodge-podge communication with other law enforcement agencies in the hours immediately following the escape.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office was not first to alert the New Orleans Police Department and Louisiana State Police of the escapes, officials said. Officials from the two agencies said they learned of the breakout hours after it had occurred from reports generated by a state-run crime “fusion center,” then confirmed those reports through later calls to Hutson.
“There is a substantial breach of public trust when you look at the timeline,” Council President JP Morrell told Hutson.
Hutson defended her communication with other agencies, shifting blame to what she called a “coordinated effort” that involved “intentional wrongdoings” by jail employees accused of helping the escapees. And she blasted the City Council for failing to budget more money over the years for the jail’s facilities, which she said are plagued by “patchwork fixes” to deep-seeded problems.
“This facility was never designed to be a maximum-security jail,” she said.
The rancor on display in the City Council chambers underscores growing frustration with Hutson’s leadership in the aftermath of the unprecedented escape from the nine-year-old Orleans Justice Center — a facility long troubled by reports of inmate violence, overcrowding and understaffing.
Hutson, a Democrat, rose to lead the sheriff’s office four years ago by ousting a powerful incumbent. She won a major political victory at the polls just two weeks ago when she earned another decade’s worth of jail funding by a pair of votes.
But in the past few days, analysts have said the stunning escape has imperiled her reelection chances. The fall municipal primary is Oct. 11.
Hutson did not specify the duration of her election campaign pause, which Silas Lee, pollster and sociology professor at Xavier University, said “gives her an exit ramp to either resume or terminate the campaign.”
Typically, an incumbent sheriff candidate would be building campaign “infrastructure” at this point, Lee said, by compiling staff and funds — a challenge when multiple investigations and an ongoing manhunt are underway.
The 10 escapees, who police said had help from a jail employee, in the wee hours of Friday morning tore a toilet from a wall, cut through a sheet rock panel, clambered through the opening, scaled an outer jail wall and ran to freedom across Interstate 10, officials have said.
Five of the fugitives have been recaptured. Finding the remaining five could take until July, U.S. Deputy Marshal Brian Fair said Monday.
Blistering pushback
Before the council meeting began Tuesday, backlash against Hutson reached had a crescendo. State Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman on Monday was the first elected official to call for Hutson’s resignation, a call she and State Rep. Jason Hughes repeated Tuesday on the floor of the state House in Baton Rouge.
“Sheriff Hutson must resign immediately,” said Hughes.
In the days since the escape, Gov. Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and three of Hutson’s campaign opponents have heaped criticism on Hutson’s leadership.
Council members added to those criticisms on Tuesday. The hearing got off to a rocky start when Hutson launched a presentation on the jailbreak with a timeline of events that began at 8:43 a.m. Friday — at least seven hours after investigators say the escapees broke free.
“Are we not discussing midnight through 8:43 today?” said District A Council Member Joe Giarrusso.
Huston and a top aide, Jeworski “Jay” Mallett, said details of what unfolded during those hours remain under investigation and can’t be disclosed.
Mallett and Hutson confirmed testimony by State Police and NOPD officials that those agencies first learned of the escapes from fusion center reports. Hutson said she spoke to officials at those agencies later, when they reached out to her.
Around 9 a.m., once officials discovered the fugitives’ absence during a routine headcount, Hutson said a deputy quickly alerted the U.S. Marshal’s Service of the escapes.
But Hutson “overly” relied on the Marshal’s Service Task Force to alert other law enforcement agencies of the escapes in their aftermath, she acknowledged Tuesday.
“I did….reach out to every sheriff after that, I spoke to (State Police Supt. Colonel Robert) Hodges, I spoke to Chief Kirkpatrick, and took responsibility for not talking to them directly,” she added.
Political issue
Hutson provided no further details Tuesday about claims she made last week that the timing of her reelection may have fueled the escape plans. (At a Friday press conference, she called it “very suspicious” that the escapes occurred “as we’re getting ready to start this sheriff’s race.”)
Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who chairs the council’s Criminal Justice Committee and led Tuesday’s meeting, said he had heard no evidence for those claims. Thomas, who is running for mayor, called on other officials not to politicize the response.
After a jail employee was arrested Monday and accused of collaborating in the escape, Hutson noted in Tuesday’s meeting an investigation is ongoing and hinted at more arrests to come.
The arrested employee is Sterling Williams, 33, a jail maintenance worker who said one of the escapees threatened to “shank” him if he didn’t cut off the water to the dorm area where the inmates would eventually remove a toilet to get out of the jail, records say. Multiple employees have been suspended.
“There were procedural failures and missed notifications,” Hutson said Tuesday. “But there were also intentional wrongdoings. This was a coordinated effort aided by individuals inside our own agency who made the choice to break the law.”
Budget battle
The most contentious portion of the meeting unfolded when Hutson blamed the escapes on a lack of funding, reviving a long-running debate between her office and the City Council.
The agency’s 2025 budget included $64.6 million from the city’s general fund, which is close to the amount the city provided to the Sheriff’s Office in 2024 after midyear appropriations. It is also far short of the $88 million that Hutson asked for.
Hutson doubled down on asking for more cash Tuesday. She said the mass breakout “shows that patchwork fixes are not enough.”
“It was built for short-term detention, not high-risk, long-term” incarceration, she said of the jail. Three of the 10 men who escaped the jail had languished there for two years or longer, records show.
Morrell, Giarrusso and Council Vice President Helena Moreno, who is running for mayor, hit back by questioning whether Hutson’s office has tapped into a handful of emergency accounts to fund the shortages. They noted that the sheriff’s office uses a separate accounting system from other city agencies, which doesn’t allow council or city oversight of how taxpayer dollars are being spent.
That makes any future funding increases difficult to stomach, they said.
“Over the decades, the city has blamed the jail’s deficiencies on mismanagement, while the Sheriff has cited inadequate funding,” the report’s authors said.
“Ultimately, the public bears the consequences of an under-performing jail, which has been subject to federal oversight for more than 50 years.”
Editor’s Note: This story was changed to reflect that the sheriff’s office millage passed by two votes.
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