HAD the images from the jail in New Orleans been part of a film, people would have accused Hollywood of sensationalism. As cameras rolled in the cell block, inmates openly shot up heroin, smoked crack, snorted cocaine, swallowed pills, gambled with dice, guzzled beer and even brandished a loaded handgun. In another video, an inmate who had worked out a way to come and go at will offered a guided tour of Bourbon Street, reminding viewers that he was supposed to be locked up.

The videos, apparently shot by inmates in 2009, were shown on April 2nd in a federal courtroom amid a bitter fight over conditions in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP). Within hours, it seemed, everyone in New Orleans had seen them, and they were getting heavy play on CNN and elsewhere as well.

If the videos were the talk of the town, some of the other testimony was more disturbing, if less entertaining. Thirty-two stabbings were reported in the prison last year, and nearly 700 assaults. Forty prisoners have died since 2006. Suicides are frequent; homosexual rape is said to be common.

The court battle revolves around mandatory reforms at OPP that have already been agreed to by the city’s jailer, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, the Justice Department and the Southern Poverty Law Centre. The objecting party is Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who will have to pay for the required changes, at a cost that he says could run to $22m annually for the next five years. The city has already agreed to clean up its beleaguered police department under a similar consent decree; the bill for that is expected to reach $55m over five years. Taken together, Mr Landrieu says, the two pricey decrees will force him to make severe cuts to city services.

Mr Landrieu is not arguing that all is well at the jail, but he says the city should not have to give Mr Gusman a blank cheque to fix it. He believes the real problem is mismanagement, not lack of money; as evidence, he cites the videos and a federal corruption investigation that has already snared two jail officials.

It will be up to Lance Africk, a federal judge, to decide whether to approve the consent decree, how much the reforms will cost and who should oversee them. A decision may be a couple of months away. In the meantime, New Orleans has burnished its reputation as America’s most lawless city.