Orange County Jail chief hired in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, La – The Orleans Parish sheriff has hired the chief of corrections for Orange County, Fla., Michael Tidwell, to run New Orleans' only jail.
   A federal consent agreement requires Sheriff Marlin Gusman to hire a professional corrections administrator to bring the jail up to constitutional standards.
   The agreement in December settled a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center and later joined by the Justice Department. The department reported last year that it found "alarming conditions" and persistently high rates of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and staff misconduct in the jail.
   A news release from Gusman's office says Tidwell has spent more than 30 years in corrections management, the last six as Orange County's corrections chief. He has worked in six states as a warden, superintendent, deputy director or director of corrections.