An inmate at Orleans Justice Center has died after being removed from life support following a cardiac arrest, marking the second death at the New Orleans jail in two months and the second since Sheriff Michelle Woodfork took office. The man collapsed inside a fourth-floor housing unit at 2:29 p.m. on September 16, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, and was found unresponsive. He died at 6:34 p.m. Wednesday, September 23.
According to NOLA.com, an OPSO sergeant and medical staff attempted to resuscitate and stabilize the man after he collapsed, and emergency medical services then transported him to University Medical Center, where he was placed on life support. He remained there until he was taken off life support on September 22, dying the following evening. The sheriff's office has not disclosed the man's name or age.
The death comes just under two months after 40-year-old Saliou Thiam, a Senegalese native and father of two, was found unresponsive and cold in his cell in Unit E on the second floor on July 27. Thiam had been held at the jail since November 2025 following an arrest near Bourbon Street and was just days from trial on attempted armed robbery charges when he died, according to WWL-TV. As of publication, the coroner has not released Thiam's cause of death.
A Jail Already Over Its Population Cap
Orleans Justice Center housed 1,439 inmates as of September 24, 2026, well above the 1,250-inmate population cap set by the New Orleans City Council in 2019, per NOLA.com. The facility, located across the street from the old jail, remains under a longstanding federal consent decree that has governed its operations since 2013. The $150 million facility opened in September 2015 to replace the outdated Orleans Parish Prison, but has never fully satisfied the court-ordered safety and medical standards, according to Courthouse News.
Woodfork took office in May 2026 after defeating incumbent Susan Hutson, who was indicted in April 2026 on malfeasance allegations connected to the jailbreak, according to WWL-TV. Woodfork previously served as interim superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department and took the job committed to working toward consent-decree compliance. In August, she publicly set a goal of reaching full constitutional compliance and ending the 13-year-old federal consent decree within her first year in office, according to Axios.
Staffing Gaps Behind the Bars
External monitors have repeatedly flagged thin pod supervision as one of the facility's primary safety risks.
The jail has faced a string of security and violence incidents in recent months. On June 9, two inmates allegedly set a mattress and clothing fire inside Pod 3E, forcing a full unit evacuation and hospitalizing one person; both were accused of aggravated arson, according to NOLA.com. In July, OPSO employee Ronald Baptiste was arrested over allegations involving a 911 call, false imprisonment, battery, cocaine possession, and purchasing alcohol for a person under 21; deputy recruit Shion Scott was booked on contraband-smuggling charges on August 11, a case Hoodline first reported. The jail has also faced high levels of inmate-on-inmate violence.
Mental Health Wing Still Months Away
Phase III is an 89-bed medical and mental health annex planned to provide dedicated space for psychiatric and medical emergencies. The annex is meant to give the facility a dedicated space to handle psychiatric and medical emergencies.
