Councilmember: Money that could make city safer left unspent

The city of New Orleans is leaving more than four million dollars on the table that is supposed to be spent improving the city's maligned juvenile justice system, the city council president says.

New Orleans City Councilmember Helena Moreno joined WWL's Newell Normand to discuss the failures in electronic monitoring of juvenile defendants, after recent instances of crimes in which the suspects turned out to be juveniles who were supposed to be electronically monitored.

"We do have money, and we did appropriate $4.45 million toward this back in 2022 that should have already been used," Moreno said, "and it's still just sitting there."

Moreno says it is especially bothersome in the wake of the recent murder of Kristie Thibodeaux: the suspect in the case is a juvenile who was supposed to be in the electronic monitoring program.

"So here's another example of dollars not getting out the door for something as critical juvenile services for juvenile court and offenders going through juvenile court," she said.