The Department of Justice plans to announce Monday that it will conduct an assessment of the city of New Orleans’ troubled police department.

Thomas Perez (file photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Ryan Berni, a spokesman for the mayor of New Orleans, confirmed to Main Justice late Friday that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will conduct an investigation of the police force. Details of the plan are set to be announced at a news conference in New Orleans Monday.

Last week, the city’s newly installed mayor, Mitch Landrieu, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Department of Justice for help in rooting out abuse and corruption in the police department.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the announcement or the assessment.

Civil Rights Division chief Thomas Perez, along with a deputy assistant attorney general and Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, will be on hand for the announcement.

Berni said that Landrieu met with Holder to discuss the city’s police department.

The DOJ’s assessment will likely lead to a consent decree with the city, a legally binding agreement that would allow the department to step in and institute changes, including the appointment of a federal monitor who would oversee any reforms. In 2000, the DOJ reached a similar deal with the city of Los Angeles.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has been considering a lawsuit against the city under a 1991 law that allows the DOJ to intervene if it can prove a “pattern or practice” of disregarding the law or constitutional rights.

“Criminal prosecutions alone, I have learned, are not enough to change the culture of a police department,” Perez told the website Talking Points Memo in an interview last month. He added that the division was considering “every conceivable jurisdictional option and every conceivable intervention.”

The DOJ currently has at least eight open civil rights investigations into the New Orleans Police Department. Since 2008, the Justice Department has been investigating a post-Hurricane Katrina shooting in which New Orleans police officers allegedly shot at unarmed civilians in the wake of the 2005 hurricane that devastated the city. Four officers so far have pleaded guilty to involvement in the shooting at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans or in the subsequent cover-up.

Leah Nylen contributed to this story.

The Justice Department has reached an agreement with an Illinois Sheriff’s Department to correct violations of inmates’ constitutional rights at the nation’s largest county jail.

An investigation in 2007 and 2008 found that the officials at Cook County Jail in Chicago systematically violated the rights of inmates through the use of excessive force, failed to protect inmates from harm by fellow inmates and did not provide adequate medical or mental health care.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald speaks at a press conference. (DOJ)

On Thursday, the DOJ filed a 60-page agreement in U.S. District Court along with a new lawsuit against the county. The agreement requires the Cook County Sheriff to hire 600 additional corrections officers for the jail, which has an average daily population of more than 8,500 inmates spread across several buildings on 96 acres on Chicago’s West Side.

The agreement also includes provisions intended to address the jail’s reputation for the use of excessive force, according to the Justice Department. Under the terms of the agreement, which will require approval from a federal judge, four independent monitors will oversee the implementation of several measures such as increased supervision and the installation of more electronic surveillance.

“It is a jurisdiction’s basic responsibility to protect those persons in its custody from harm and to uphold their constitutional rights,” Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “We have worked cooperatively with Cook County officials to craft an agreement to ensure that the constitutional rights of Cook County Jail inmates are protected, and we commend Sheriff [Thomas] Dart, Cook County and the Cook County Department of Corrections for their willingness to work aggressively to remedy these problems.”

“We are pleased that with the cooperation of Sheriff Dart and the County, we have achieved a rigorous, comprehensive agreement that will remedy the unconstitutional conditions that were found at the Cook County Jail,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “Inmates are entitled to conditions of confinement that pass constitutional muster.”

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Laser, previously represented the U.S. in the agreement with Cook County. Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Johnson and three trial attorneys in the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division — Kerry Krentler Dean, David Deutsch and Corey Sanders — represented the United States.

Investigations into the conditions at state and local jails fall under the oversight of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). Investigators were given new subpoena powers under the health care law which could help future investigations.

The Civil Rights Division has several ongoing or recent CRIPA investigations, including ones in Indiana, Georgia, New York and Maricopa County, Ariz.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder was asked about the CRIPA investigation into the Maricopa County jail and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“The sheriff has unfortunately decided not to cooperate with the investigation and so I think that makes our job a little more difficult but …the review is underway,” Holder said.

Two detainees were recently transferred out of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, with one Yemeni captive sent to Spain and another man placed in the custody of the Bulgarian government.

The Justice Department first began sending out news releases in January 2009 after the formation of the Guantanamo Review Task Force. Before 2009, the Defense Department issued all news releases on transfers from Guantanamo Bay.

The transfer of the news release duty back to DOD was noted by Miami Herald Guantanamo reporter Carol Rosenberg on Twitter.

“The Guantanamo Review Task Force, which was led by the Justice Department, completed its work reviewing Guantanamo Bay detainees in January 2010. As a result, the Justice Department has no current or ongoing role in Guantanamo detainee transfers to foreign nations, which are negotiated by the State Department and carried out by the Defense Department,” DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement to Main Justice.

According to the Department of Defense, the current population of the Guantanamo detention facility stands at 181. The Obama administration missed a self-imposed January deadline to close the facility.

The Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will play a big part in the Obama administration’s plan to reduce the impact of illegal drugs on the America, according to a draft copy of the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy produced by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

According to a draft version of the plan obtained by Newsweek, the Justice Department will head up several initiatives aimed at addressing drug trafficking on the Mexican border, combating doctor shopping and working with international partners to stop drugs from entering the U.S. (The link to the PDF of the draft version of the plan was pulled from Newsweek’s website, but a copy is embedded below.)

Under the plan, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration will assist states with addressing doctor shopping — where patients seek prescriptions from several different doctors — and shutting down pill mills, which dispense prescriptions with little medical oversight. The agencies also are charged with cracking down on several rogue pain clinics in Houston, Los Angeles and Southern Florida.

According to the plan, DOJ, FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have produced a large volume of information about Mexican-based drug-trafficking organizations, but the information resides in different databases. Under the plan, the Justice Department will work with other agencies to make sure information from federal databases is accessible to state and local law enforcement officers who work on drug trafficking issues along the border.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy’s plan calls for the full implementation of the Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, issued in June 2009, which was produced by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security. The plan calls for increased coordination with local and state agencies, intensified efforts to stop the flow of weapons and money from the U.S. to Mexico and close collaboration with the Mexican government.

Additionally, DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which administers juvenile mentoring grants, will conduct a new mentoring training initiative for the children of incarcerated parents, specifically aimed at those with drug and alcohol problems. The plan also calls on the Office of Justice Programs to promote diversion strategies, which send drug offenders to alternative programs for substance abuse treatment.

The draft version of the plan, obtained by Newsweek, is embedded below.

National Drug Strategy v2

From left to right: Australia Attorney General Robert McClelland; United Kingdom Attorney General Baroness Patricia Scotland; U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; Canada Minister of Justice and Attorney General Rob Nicholson; and New Zealand Attorney General Christopher Finlayson (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Attorney General Eric Holder met Friday morning with the Attorneys General from the Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, a group known as “The Quintet.”

The Justice Department said the officials planned to discuss counterterrorism cooperation, international organized crime, youth violence and internet-based crime.

Australia Attorney General Robert McClelland, Canada Minister of Justice and Attorney General Rob Nicholson, New Zealand Attorney General Christopher Finlayson and United Kingdom Attorney General Baroness Patricia Scotland all met in the 7th floor conference room at the Justice Department’s headquarters.

McClelland, Scotland and Holder (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

Holder and Nicholson (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) speaks at a press conference outside the Justice Department on Wednesday (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) delivered a petition to the Justice Department building on Wednesday afternoon calling for a criminal investigation into investment firm Goldman Sachs.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur delivers the petition to public affairs specialist Alisa Finelli (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

The petition from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, signed by 140,000 people, urges the DOJ to investigate the firm’s actions leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Kaptur also wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking him to open a probe.

“While the SEC lacks the authority to act beyond civil actions, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has the power to file criminal actions against those who commit financial fraud,” Kaptur wrote. “We ask assurance from you that the U.S. Department of Justice is closely looking at this case and similar cases to further investigate and prosecute the criminals involved in this, and other financially fraudulent acts.”

Alisa Finelli from the Office of Public Affairs accepted the petition on behalf of DOJ after Kaptur held a news conference outside the department’s headquarters.

President Barack Obama has asked the Justice Department to review Arizona’s controversial new immigration enforcement law, enacted today with Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s signature.

Obama said Friday that immigration reform is a federal issue, and that enacting piecemeal measures at the state level would be leaving the door open to “irresponsibility by others,” reported the Washington Post.

“That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe,” Obama said, according to the Post.

The investigation would fall to the Civil Rights Division, where Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez has made combating discrimination against Latinos a top priority.

A Justice Department spokeswoman on Friday said the department would look at whether the new Arizona measure violates federal civil rights laws.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights did not receive a response from Attorney General Eric Holder on whether Justice Department employees will testify at their upcoming hearing on an alleged case of voter intimidation in Philadelphia on election day 2008, a spokeswoman told Main Justice.

Gerald A. Reynolds (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

On April 1, Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a response by April 12 on whether DOJ employees would appear before the commission on April 23. That hearing is part of the commission’s inquiry into an incident in November 2008 involving members of the New Black Panther Party. As of Wednesday afternoon, the commission had yet to receive a response, said spokeswoman Lenore Ostrowsky.

The commission also announced details about next week’s hearing. Those testifying include Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.); Philadelphia Republican poll watchers Bartle Bull, Mike Mauro and Chris Hill; and former Assistant Attorney General and Acting Associate Attorney General Gregory Katsas, now of Jones Day.

On Election Day in November 2008, two members of the New Black Panther Party dressed in military garb and stood outside a Philadelphia polling place. One of the men carried a nightstick, which some alleged was intended to intimidate voters. A career DOJ lawyer, who was allegedly hired during the Bush administration for his conservative background, pursued a voter intimidation case against the men and the New Black Panther party — the second time the Bush DOJ filed suit under Section 11 (b) of the Civil Rights Act, both times targeting black defendants.

After the Obama administration took office, another career lawyer appointed to acting head of the Civil Rights Division determined the case had no merit. The department dropped the case and obtained an injunction against the man with the nightstick. House Republicans cried foul, and the conservative-controlled U.S. Commission on Civil Rights took up the case.

The Justice Department’s fiscal 2011 budget request asks for funding to buy the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois, but the proposal sent to Congress leaves out one key piece: it does not mention that the facility would be used to house accused terrorists currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

Instead, the Bureau of Prisons’ request seeks $170 million to buy and renovate the Thomson, Ill., prison because of inmate crowding conditions at high security facilities.

The vacant Illinois prison is under consideration to house terrorism suspects from the Guantanamo Bay facility. (Getty Images)

“Inmate crowding, especially at high security levels, is at maximum manageable proportions and additional bed space is crucial to provide some relief for staff and inmates,” the request states. “Inmate crowding that is not addressed will continue to endanger staff, inmates, and the community.”

According to a DOJ spokeswoman, the department’s fiscal 2011 budget also requests an additional $67 million to upgrade the facility to a high security federal penitentiary. In all, the DOJ is seeking $237 million for use on the facility.

The Bureau of Prison’s budget proposal says that high security facilities are operating at 51 percent over capacity and that the trend is “projected to worsen in future years, as the population continues to outpace capacity.”

As of May 2009, according to the request, 18,630 high security inmates — or 93 percent of all high security population in federal facilities — were double bunked. Under the BOP standards, no more than 25 percent of high security inmates should be double bunked. The Thomson facility would provide an additional 1,600 high security cells.

The request does mention that prisons have taken on significantly greater risks because of several high-profile terrorists already housed in the federal prison system including former al Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, among others.

The final sale of the prison still has several hurdles to overcome. In Illinois, the state legislature voted last month to require the governor to obtain approval from the legislature before selling state properties worth more than $1 million — a new requirement that would apply to the state-owned Thomson facility.

For their part, federal officials have tried to focus on the benefits the purchase would bring to the local community. Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons told The Christian Monitor that of the 850 to 900 staff positions at the prison, 60 percent would be local. Lappin estimated that 1,200 to 1,700 private-sector jobs will be created as a result of prison activity – all indirect ways the prison will create jobs and reduce unemployment.

Following closely in the footsteps of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Justice Department spokesman Matthew A. Miller has joined the micro-blogging site Twitter.

With a mix of personal and political posts, Miller recently used his new account to push back at former Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino for leaving out a key fact in a recent opinion piece critical of DOJ’s terror policies.

“@DanaPerino You know the 20% recidivism rate were all detainees rlsd by admin for which u were the spox, right? Notice u left that out,” wrote Miller about Perino’s National Review Online post criticizing the Justice Department and National Security Adviser John A. Brennan for saying a 20 percent recidivism rate “isn’t that bad.”

In an interview with Main Justice, Miller said he joined Twitter months ago after the Justice Department created an account. He began mostly as an observer but only recently began writing on the personal account a few weeks back. Miller said his Twittering habit was not a result of Gibbs’ presence.

Perino’s opinion piece was “wrong enough to deserve a correction,” Miller told Main Justice.

Many posts on Miller’s account have to do with his beloved Texas Long Horns, but he has occasionally dived into the political arena, highlighting stories about the Justice Department by The Associated Press and The New York Times.

Among others, Miller is following former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, The New York Times’ Charlie Savage, rapper Eminem, The Onion satirical newspaper, political strategist Karl Rove, NBC’s Chuck Todd, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, Mike Allen of Politico, and of course, @TheJusticeDept.

He even corresponded with Salon’s Greenwald, writing about the controversy over civilian trials for terrorism suspects that it would be “Longer answer than [140] characters will allow, @ggreenwald, but we use every tool available to keep the American people safe.”

Miller has developed what he called somewhat of an obsession with Twitter, calling it a useful tool for “paying attention to what is going on in the world.” Often, he said, he finds out about breaking news via Twitter before he receives a breaking news e-mail.

“I doubt I’ll be a frequent – what do they call it – Twitterer? Tweeter? – but I’ll Tweet from time to time,” said Miller.