11:I[8479,["349","static/chunks/349-c9bb88602114b6df.js","173","static/chunks/173-8ffc04d433c3339f.js","865","static/chunks/865-f26eeb7d8a4ff1d6.js","444","static/chunks/app/episode/%5Buuid%5D/page-e9df19c6dc9fc3dd.js"],"EpisodeClient"] 12:T416,In 2006, Ari Shapiro reported on how Hurricane Katrina made an already broken public defender system in New Orleans worse. The court system collapsed in the aftermath of the storm.

Katrina caused horrific destruction in New Orleans. It threw incarcerated people into a sort of purgatory - some were lost in prisons for more than a year.

But the storm also cleared the way for changes that the city's public defender system had needed for decades.

Two decades later, Shapiro returns to New Orleans and finds a system vastly improved.

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NPR Privacy Policy13:T416,In 2006, Ari Shapiro reported on how Hurricane Katrina made an already broken public defender system in New Orleans worse. The court system collapsed in the aftermath of the storm.

Katrina caused horrific destruction in New Orleans. It threw incarcerated people into a sort of purgatory - some were lost in prisons for more than a year.

But the storm also cleared the way for changes that the city's public defender system had needed for decades.

Two decades later, Shapiro returns to New Orleans and finds a system vastly improved.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Hurricane Katrina helped change New Orleans' public defender system