Australian released from New Orleans prison

LOS ANGELES - Australian tourist Ashley McDonald has been freed from a US prison.

McDonald appeared before a judge in the Elayn Hunt Correctional Centre in Louisiana today and, after a short hearing, was released from custody.

"He has appeared before a judge and has been processed," Angela Whittaker, executive officer at the Elayn Hunt jail, told AAP.

"He is no longer in the jail."

McDonald, who was arrested in New Orleans on August 28 for criminal trespass after a drinking session on the city's Bourbon Street strip, appeared in court with a lawyer.

The 30-year-old was feared dead when his family and Australian and US authorities were unable to locate him following hurricane Katrina which hit the Gulf coast on August 29.

Fears for his safety were heightened when authorities found his credit cards and driver's licence in a hotel room in Baton Rouge.

But, yesterday, an Australian Federal Police officer discovered McDonald had been arrested and had been in custody since August 28.

McDonald, along with other prisoners in New Orleans, were transferred to the Elayn Hunt jail in St Gabriel, Louisiana, following the hurricane because New Orleans was unable to hold them safely.

The Elayn Hunt jail is a maximum security prison that usually holds 2089 inmates.

With the transfer of New Orleans prisoners, the centre has 2900 inmates.

McDonald, from Narre Warren in Melbourne's south east, was being held in one of the facility's dormitory style cells with 33 other inmates.

McDonald had planned to stop in New Orleans before heading to Clarksville, Tennessee to visit his sister, Jasmine Mutnansky.

Fearing McDonald was missing or dead, his parents Doug and Sharon flew to the US to look for him.

They are waiting McDonald in Clarksville.

- AAP