Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman is facing his first major challenger in years. The sheriff, who’s been in power for 17 years and automatically won his 2017 re-election bid because no one challenged him, has found himself in a runoff with former police monitor Susan Hutson. The two could not be more different in their approach to running the office that oversees Orleans Parish Prison. This is especially obvious with Gusman’s desperate plea to keep predatory prison phone call rates in place in order to generate more revenue for his office. Gusman made a fuss about this ahead of last Saturday’s election, claiming that the 21 cents per minute rate doesn’t “cost a fortune” and that his office desperately needs the alleged $2 million in revenue those calls bring in, though records show that the sheriff’s office made $773,000 from calls last year. That accounts for around 1% of the office’s budget, according to the Times-Picayune. “It’s about $2 million that would have to go into the jail at a time when we are strapped for cash,” Gusman maintained when reached by the paper, “where we just took care of getting stable funding, doubling employee pay. So we would have to find that from somewhere.” If you think Gusman’s priorities are somewhat skewed, look no further than how his office’s proposed budget compares with New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s proposed budget. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) offered up no money for long-term care or temporary housing for incarcerated people while the mayor proposed funding of $100,000 and $1.4 million, respectively. The budget that ultimately passed offers no itemized expenses but does show a $3 million deficit in funding for OPSO compared with last year’s budget. Even if Gusman secured the $2 million he claims is coming from prison phone calls, the sheriff’s office would still fall short of having funds equal to the budget for 2020. Read more