(CNN) - On shaky, grainy video recordings, a group of men show off a stash of pills, pop open Budweiser tall boys and shoot dice for stacks of cash. One injects what appears to be heroin; another displays a large-caliber pistol, ejecting four bullets from the chamber to show that it's loaded.
Here's the punchline: These guys are already in jail.
The scenes were captured in 2009 on a camera smuggled into the House of Detention in New Orleans, a decrepit lockup pressed back into service after Hurricane Katrina. The video's release during a federal court hearing this week sparked a new demand by the city's mayor for the federal government to take over the Orleans Parish prison system and a round of I-told-you-sos by advocates for the inmates held there.
On "Early Start" this morning, CNN's Sara Ganim reports on the video and the potential fallout for officials.
Wow, those people in New Orleans sure take partying seriously. Jail house rock, for real.