NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Violent crime in New Orleans is the subject of a daylong symposium this week at Loyola University.
It's being presented by the Loyola president's office and the school's Department of Criminal Justice and it takes place on Friday.
New Orleans police chief Ronal Serpas will be among the speakers.
Likely topics will be the city's high murder rate and Louisiana's incarceration rate. Professor William E. Thornton said in a university news release that harsh sentencing laws fuel the high incarceration rate. The high rate of incarceration, Thornton said, destroys families and communities.