The Weekly Jailer Tabloid Hits New Orleans!!
The Weekly Jailer, New Orleans Edition
This just had to happen, I thought it would first appear online, but here it is, sold at my local convenience store. The Weekly Jailer, cost $1, has its premier issue out. The cover call lines- Mugshots, Sex Offenders, Most Wanted. I cannot find their website, but they do list an email- snaps at thejailer dot net. When I entered thejailer dot net, I found this:
The Jailer –
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I would have reversed things, and gotten online first, to reach a vast worldwide audience, then published the paper.
When I googled the Weekly Jailer, I found a Face Book page for the Columbus, Mississippi version.
However, I just ran into a pdf version of issue 2! It’s for clients looking to purchase ad space.
To some degree, this effort is a huge public service. By printing mugshots of non-compliant sex offenders, wanted criminals, the DEA’s most wanted list, the FBI’s most wanted list, etc. they are keeping these faces in front of the public on both online and in print. As long as they don’t print any info or photos about crimes that someone’s been arrested for, but are in compliance with the court, they are doing a very good thing.
The Weekly Jailer also lists contact info for many law enforcement agencies, such as Sheriff’s Offices for the entire metropolitan area, the Metropolitan Crime Commission, Crime Stoppers etc. There are news sections in the Jailer from the crime beat of Orleans Parish, with stories about unsolved crimes, key arrests of wanted violent individuals, and more.
I think I’ll offer the Weekly Jailer a food column comprised of jail house recipes. They need at least one lighter column really badly, as the entire first issue is dead serious.
Watch Opp 
The television news shows frequently show individuals who get arrested as well as individuals who are wanted by law enforcement. No one seems to be complaining about that so far. In fact, some people that I’ve heard speak on it seem to be amused and entertained by it. It provides content for their conversations. So, now that a printed media outlet depicts photographs of arrested individuals as well as those who are wanted, we have complainers. Truthfully speaking, your arrests are public record. Your motion hearing, trials, and sentencings are public record. Someone has found a way to make the information more visible for the public’s consumption? I say, all power to them. The only people who are afraid of what this medium will show are those who violate. And while some may say that if one is arrested and also is compliant with the courts, this hsould remain secreted from the public, I say “wrong.” There are those who are able to get jobs in spite of their felony convictions. I am one of them. And there are those who don’t really want a job after all; they just want to complain. Smile, you’re on Candid Camera.
Did you commit what they accused you of? What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Lots of people who aren’t guilty and live productive tax paying lives get arrested by NOPD and stuck in the system. If you aren’t guilty, your arrest record should be expunged automatically if you stay out of the pokey. This can happen to anyone and does very frequently! That is what happened to me. I was arrested for something I would never do and was dragged through the system for several years when my trial freed me 6-0.
The Jailer is only printing pictures of non compliant and wanted folks, as far as I can tell. They need to maintain this line or I will get on them big time for hurting the public good instead of helping the public good.
The police chief likes to discuss arrest records with the media of the folks he’s after, but he’s made some errors here when the person he named had never been in the system previously.
on the contrary sir. true files are public, meaning if you want to know, then go seek for yourself! i was arrested on january 7 2012, but my mugshot is still being posted? now why is that? im not wanted all my debts are paid, so why would you continue to post my photo every month. just messy people to me. as for as getting a job as a felon, this little paper makes it extremely difficult. bringing awareness to the public? yet instead they are putting individuals through obloquy. causing a bad situation to become worst. they have a good little money plot going and thats it.its sad that one would think that paper is helping the public!
Hiya, this is Eric from The Jailer.
First and foremost, thank you for the post and the link!
As for the other things you mentioned —
The Facebook page is is our collective Jailer FB page, we just want to finish setting up our stores here a little more thoroughly before making an official announcement. There are other papers like ours out there, ya know? Our intent is to cover — and deliver to — as much of the GNO area as possible.
I and the big boss are both from NOLA, he’s expatriate now, and publishes the MS Jailer and The Columbus Packet from Mississippi.
Website – Our most humble apologies; please pardon our dust, as it were. The website is down mainly because we really are revamping it. We’ve had it up for a few months in placeholder form, but we’ve decided that it’s best if we do not publish any actual mugshots on the site proper — after all, once something’s on the internet, it’ll ALWAYS be on the internet, as we all know x.x — and we are concerned that issues could arise from having old mugs still floating around from years past that show images of people who have since been exonerated/freed/served their time, etc.
Yes, everything we publish is Public Record — mugshots come mainly from local Police Departments and/or their websites (they have services specifically for this); other images and the bases for the articles come from press releases, published crime reports, and more traditional news outlets (each of which is credited accordingly). I do most of the writing/rewriting/summaries.
As for the jailhouse recipes — If you’re serious, please do 🙂 Send them to my email below (I presume that, as the blog admin, you can see it). I cannot guarantee that we’ll use them every week, but I think I can get the boss to put one in each week’s edition…Besides, I could use a few new recipes, myself. I think it would be a good idea to break up the monotony, as well. Send as many as you’d be willing to share, let me know how you’d like to be credited (I can include a blog link too if you want), and I’ll submit them each week with my articles. Maybe we can call it “Jailhouse Roux” .. unless you have a better idea. Please tell me you do ^_^
If you wish to contact management directly, you may do so at editor (at) thejailer (dot) net — If you have specific stories you’d like us to research or check out, please send them to news (at) thejailer (dot) net
If you wanna reach me, the Facebook page is probably the best way ~ for anyone except our dear blog admin, that is 😉 He can just email me.
Hey Eric,
Thanks for getting back to me, I have recipes for you! I’ll send the first batch your way by the end of the week or early next. Take care and Happy Mardi Gras!!
David
Send us some recipes, dude! We’ve even had people asking about it on the FB page 😉 You can send them to my email address, or to the editor (if the latter, mention that Eric requested them.)
That, and I’m getting hungry over here…
The concept of innocent until proven guilty applies only in courts; not in newspapers or even in the public’s mind. We all know the old adage: if it walks like a duck, quacks, and has feathers, it is probably a duck.
I find nothing wrong with posting photographs of individuals who get arrested. If they are ultimately found not guilty, as in your case, all power to them. A finding of not guilty does not mean that the accused person is innocent. It simply means that a prosecutor could not prove to a judge or jury all of the necessary elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
I’ve known lots of guys who were released from prison after serving long sentences. Once they were released on a legitimate legal error in their trials, they quickly proclaimed that they were “wrongfully convicted,” or “wrongfully incarcerated.” Some of them even declared that they were innocent of the charge. No one knows. I sure don’t.
The point is that using a publication to highlight those who are arrested and charged with crimes or those who are wanted by police agencies is okay, in my opinion.
I wish someone would come up with a system of allowing citizens to view live court cases via the internet or their televisions sets. I wish that they could dial up their own choice of cases from a list of all cases on the court’s dockets and even watch replays of the hearings and trials. Like this paper and others of a similar nature, It is a perfect way to give the public more access to information that we not only desire, but also to which we are entitled.
I can certainly see some people interested in on-demand court cases, but the thing is, I would have to presume that — 95% of the time or better — it would be like watching paint dry. That, or C-SPAN when Congress in in session. Not much difference. 🙂
Someone came up with Court TV, but it seems to have gone the same route as MTV: Cheap, easy to make reality shows, just all or mostly based on The People’s Court.
Perhaps a more useful service would be to have summarized transcriptions of cases in, at least vaguely, layman’s terms that could be placed onto a site and then easily made text-searchable.
Even with such a video feed, one issue with giving people access to live court proceedings is the fact that court records are sometimes sealed, for one reason or another. Thus, the video concept would only be practical if the proceedings were recorded and only released if the records were NOT sealed. Beyond that, there’s simply the issue of privacy, plus the fact that some judges/attorneys/clients could simply say “I don’t want this to be videotaped.”
Hey Lynell, I agree with you about live court cases on the internet or TV. Clarity is the secret to fair policy.
watchopp
im not wanted ! but you post me in your paper every month.
Hey Stanley,
Sorry about your picture, but I don’t publish the Weekly Jail tabloid, contact them at editor(at)thejailer(dot)net, contact name is Eric. I just publish the Watchopp blog. Good luck!
David
Watchopp
Er, did you mean every week? We’re not a monthly paper.
Hey, this is Eric — yes, that’s the right email address, it goes straight to the boss (not to me).
Our mugshots come mostly either directly from the PD’s/Sheriff’s offices or from Most Wanted layouts published on those sites.
If you are incorrectly showing up as Wanted and/or arrested, write us, please! Send us your full name and parish/county the arrest report comes from, (please do NOT send stuff like social security # unless specifically requested) and we’ll check with the Sheriff’s Department in question. If we can validate your claim, we’ll gladly put a block on having you show up in the paper in the future for the accusation in question. (If you get accused with something else, well…).
If you can point out which issue number it is, page#, etc, it’ll be a big help in getting this fixed.
Please make the Subject of the email something descriptive like “Invalid mugshot in paper”.
I fucking hate the weekly jailer they always have false advertisement in putting plp picture in the paper ontop of also putting plp life in danger by doing so
How so? If you have the name for someone who was NOT arrested (or a sex offender) and showed up in the paper — write us, please! Send an email with the issue# (and state – LA or MS), full name, and page# to editor@thejailer.net. We will contact the police department in order to verify that they were never arrested/suspected/etc…If that turns out to be the case, we will be glad to print a retraction.
Its just a shame u gotta pay to see whos bad…they need to tattoo on these peoples forehead so we know who they are..so our children dont go around them.
Many of those folks with photos in the Weekly Jailer have been charged but not found guilty yet.
Hey Rachel,
You don’t have to pay, each parish releases these photos and info publicly. Just Busted gets all this information for free by asking for it.
It varies by parish. Check with the records office of the sheriff’s office/PD in question.
@editor@jailer.net
Yes i would just like to say that i just saw an issue of you’ll magazine and was really upset because u have me in there with a charge that i never was charged with, so to say if someone was to see that and it defames my character or does something to hurt my reputation you’ll will be hearing from my lawyer because that’s ridiculous
Hey Milton,
I’m not the Jailer. I’m a blog that talks about current the jail and crime situation in the New Orleans area. The Jailer was a story, so I covered it, but I’m not the Jailer.
Take care,
David
https://watchopp.wordpress.com
http://news.carnivalneworleans.com
Please write us at editor@thejailer.net with the relevant info (issue # and version (LA or MS) you saw it in, which parish/county, and your name as it appeared in the paper. We’ll be glad to print a retraction if we can verify that the info the Parish/County sent us was incorrect.
I have had someone call me and say a family member of mine is in this magazine. I know for sure that the person u have in this magazine is being portrayed incorrectly. If for some reason they are confronted with a job issue or anything that hinders their freedom or life u will be hearing from my lawyer. You can say you are not The Jailer..but you owe the innocent the right to have the truth put out about them.
Give me the story and I’ll print it in my blog!
Let me begin by saying I have never been in legal trouble..This tabloid is making big bucks off other people misery. I think posting mugshots and charges before these people are proven guilty could have some legal implications. This publication should be banned from the store shelves.. Posting other people suffering for profit, does make it hard on people who are innocent or trying to correct mistakes of the past. In my opinion it is “deflamation of one’s character”
As for the people who would pay to read this garbage and think it is funny…..Well, maybe they are the ones with character flaws. The people who think this publication is hillarious, as I have read in several response, maybe the legal system has the wrong people locked up. It is cruel and serves no real purpose, except to fatten the publishers bank account. All I can say is people need to wise up and think on this matter, before paying another cent on this trash.
On second thought, maybe I will see what my friend, the lawyer, has to say.
I am watchopp a blog about jail and crime in New Orleans. I am not the weekly Jailer. I report the news.
How do I go about finding out if someone was in your publication?
I am a blog about the New Orleans Jail and crime in New Orleans. I’m not the Weekly Jailer. Purchase a copy at a convenience store near you in New Orleans for a dollar, and contact the editor about a particular person’s possible appearance in the Jailer.
Great publication!