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GUESTS: Derrick Bell, civil litigator, administrator, teacher, writer, lecturer and author of ten books including “Race, Racism, and American Law,” currently a visiting professor at New York University Law School; Adrien Katherine Wing, Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law, associate dean for faculty development and research, teaching critical race theory, US Constitutional Law and international law subjects; David Dante Troutt, author, and professor of law, and Justice John J. Francis Scholar at Rutgers Law School, teaches and writes on the law and theory of American ghettos, race, and critical theory, and intellectual property law.

The ACLU released a report this morning on conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and described it as “some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina.” The report cites prisoners abandoned in a building with no light, ventilation, food or water. Some carved holes in the jail’s wall to try to escape. Those who came close to fleeing were immediately beaten and subdued.

The report, “Abandoned and Abused,” can be found here: http://www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26198res20060809.html

In our on-going coverage leading up to the one-year anniversary of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, we speak today with three Black intellectuals and professors of law. Their essays are featured in a new anthology called “After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Katrina.” The book presents scholarly critique, analysis, and prescriptions by a dozen prominent black intellectuals facing the difficult questions about poverty, housing, governmental decision-making, crime, community development, and political participation that Katrina raised. The book, “After the Storm,” is intended to help Americans understand what happened in the Gulf region, what is likely to happen in the recovery and redevelopment effort to come, and what these events tell us about poverty and inequality in contemporary America. Derrick Bell wrote the foreword to the book, and David Dante Troutt edited it.

For more information on “After the Storm,” click here.