Louisiana State Penitentiary
Encyclopedia
The Louisiana State Penitentiary (LSP, also known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South
" and "The Farm") is a prison farm
in Louisiana
operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
. It is the largest maximum security prison
in the United States
with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff. It is located on an 18,000 acre (73 km²) property that was previously the Angola and other plantations owned by Isaac Franklin
in unincorporated
West Feliciana Parish, close to the Mississippi
border. The prison is located at the end of Louisiana Highway 66
, and is about 22 miles (35.4 km) northwest of St. Francisville
. Angola is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River
. As of 2010 Burl Cain
is the warden. The State of Louisiana's death row for men and the state execution chamber are there. In the State of Louisiana the names "Louisiana State Penitentiary" and "Angola," the name of the post office that serves the prison, are used interchangeably.
, was modeled off of a prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut
. In 1844 the state leased the prison and its prisoners to McHatton Pratt and Company, a private company. Union soldiers occupied the prison during the American Civil War
. In 1869 Samuel Lawrence James, a former confederate major, received the lease to the prison.
The land that has become Angola Penitentiary was purchased by Isaac Franklin
from Francis Routh during the 1830s with the profits from his slave trading firm, Franklin and Armfield
, of Alexandria, Virginia
and Natchez, Mississippi
as four contiguous plantations. These plantations, Panola, Belle View, Killarney and Angola, were joined during their sale by Franklin's widow, Adelicia Cheatham
, to James in 1880. The plantation, named after the area in Africa where the former slaves came from, contained a building called the Old Slave Quarters. Major Samuel James ran the plantation using convicts leased from the state
, which led to a great deal of abuse. James died in 1894. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
states that the facility opened as a prison in 1901.
Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that Angola was "probably as close to slavery as any person could come in 1930." Hardened criminals broke down upon being notified that they were being sent to Angola. Around that year, white-black racial tensions existed and one of every ten inmates received stab wounds per year. Wolfe and Lornell said that the staff, consisting of 90 people, "ran the prison like it was a private fiefdom." The two authors said that prisoners were viewed as ""nigger
s" of the lowest order." The state did not appropriate very much funds into the operation of Angola, as the state decreased costs to try to save money. Much of the remaining money ended up in the operations of other state projects; Wolfe and Lornell said that the re-appropriation of funds occurred "mysteriously."
In 1935 remains of a Native American individual were taken from Angola. They were donated to the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. In 1948 Governor of Louisiana Earl Long
converted the position of warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary into a political patronage position. Long appointed distant relatives as wardens of the prison. In the institution's history, the electric chair, Gruesome Gertie
, was stored at Angola; the state transported the chair to the parish of conviction of a condemned prisoner before executing him or her.
A former Angola prisoner, William Sadler (also called "Wooden Ear" because of hearing loss he suffered after a prison attack), wrote a series of articles about Angola entitled "Hell on Angola" in the 1940s which helped cause prison reform.
In 1952, 31 inmates cut their Achilles' tendons (referred to as the Heel String Gang.) This caused national news agencies to write stories about Angola. In its November 22, 1952 issue, Collier's Magazine referred to Angola as "the worst prison in America."
In 1961 female inmates were moved to the newly-opened Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
.
In 1971 the American Bar Association
criticized the state of Angola. Linda Ashton of the Associated Press
said that the bar association described Angola's conditions as "medieval, squalid and horrifying." In 1972, Elayne Hunt, a reforming director of corrections, was appointed by Governor Edwin Edwards
, and the U.S. courts in Gates v. Collier
ordered Louisiana to clean up Angola once and for all, ending the Trustee-guard and Trusty
systems. In 1975 U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola of Baton Rouge, Louisiana declared conditions at Angola to be in a state of emergency. The state installed Ross Maggio as the warden; prisoners nicknamed Maggio "the gangster" because he strictly adhered to rules. Ashton said that by most accounts Maggio successfully improved conditions. Maggio retired in 1984.
In the 1980s Kirksey McCord Nix Jr. perpetrated the "Angola Lonely Hearts" scam from within the prison.
On June 21, 1989, Polozola declared a new state of emergency at LSP.
In 1993 LSP guards fatally shot 29-year old escapee Tyrone Brown.
In 1999 six inmates who were serving life sentences for murder took three prison guards hostage in Camp D. The hostage takers bludgeoned and stabbed one guard, 29-year old Captain David Knapps, to death. Armed guards ended the rebellion by shooting the inmates, killing one, 26-year old Joel Durham, and seriously wounding another.
In Stephen King
's book The Green Mile and the adapted movie The Green Mile
, the fictional setting of the Louisiana Cold Mountain Penitentiary was loosely based on life on death row
at Angola in the 1930s.
In 2004 Paul Harris of The Guardian
said "Unsurprisingly, Angola has always been famed for brutality, riots, escape and murder."
On August 31, 2008, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin
stated in a press conference that any New Orleans residents found looting during the evacuation of the city due to Hurricane Gustav
would be arrested and immediately transported to Angola prison.
In 2009, the prison reduced its budget by $12 million by "double bunking" (placing bunk beds to increase capacities of dormitories), reducing overtime, and replacing prison guards with security cameras.
As of 2009 there are three levels of solitary confinement. "Extended lockdown" is colloquially known as "Closed Cell Restricted" or "CCR." Until a period before 2009, death row
inmates had more privileges than "extended lockdown" inmates, including the privilege to watch television. "Extended lockdown" was originally intended as a temporary punishment. The next most restrictive level is "Camp J," referring to an inmate housing unit that houses the style of solitary confinement. The most restrictive level is "administrative segregation," colloquially referred to by inmates as the "dungeon" or the "hole."
West Feliciana Parish, in east central Louisiana. It is located at the base of the Tunica Hills, in a region described by Jenny Lee Rice of Paste
as "breathtakingly beautiful."
The prison is about 22 miles (35.4 km) northwest of St. Francisville
, about 50 miles (80.5 km) northwest of Baton Rouge
, and 135 miles (217.3 km) northwest of New Orleans
. LSP is about a one hour driving distance from Baton Rouge, and it is about a two hour driving distance from New Orleans. The Mississippi River
borders the facility on three sides. The prison is in close proximity to the Louisiana-Mississippi border. LSP is located about 34 miles (54.7 km) from the Dixon Correctional Institute
.
Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that in the 1990s the prison remained "far away from public awareness." The prison officials sometimes provide meals for official guests because of what the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections refers to as the "extreme remote location" of LSP; the nearest non-prison dining facility is, as of 1999, 30 miles (48.3 km) away. The prison property is adjacent to the Angola Tract of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area; due to security reasons regarding LSP, the Tunica Hills WMA's Angola Tract is closed to the general public from March 1 through August 31 every year.
The main entrance is at the terminus of Louisiana Highway 66
, a road described by Wolfe and Lornell as "a winding, often muddy state road." From St. Francisville
one would travel about 2 miles (3.2 km) north along U.S. Highway 61, turn left at Louisiana 66, and travel on that road for 20 miles (32.2 km) until it dead ends at LSP's front gate. The Angola Ferry
provides a ferry service between Angola and a point in unincorporated
Pointe Coupee Parish
. The ferry is only open to employees except during special events, when members of the general public may use the ferry.
. Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that LSP of the 1990s looks "more like a large working plantation than one of the most notorious prisons in the United States." Guards patrol the complex on horseback, as many of the prison acres are devoted to cultivation of crops. By 1999 the prison's primary roads had been paved. The prison property is hemmed in by the Tunica Hills and by the Mississippi River
. The perimeter of the property is not fenced, while the individual prisoner dormitory and recreational camps are fenced. Most of the prison buildings are yellow with a red trim.
Camp F has four minimum custody dormitories and the "Dog Pen," which houses 11 minimum custody inmates. All of the prisoners housed in Camp F are trustees who mop floors, deliver food to fellow prisoners, and perform other support tasks. Camp F also houses LSP's execution chamber. Camp F has a lake where trustees fish.
The Reception Center, the closest prison housing building to the main entrance, acts as reception center for arriving prisoners. It is located to the right of the main highway, inside the main gate. In addition it contains the death row
, with 101 extended lockdown cells housing condemned inmates. Death row includes eight tiers, lettered A to G. Seven tiers have 15 cells each, while one tier has 11 cells. Each hallway has a cell that is used for showering. The death row houses exercise areas with basketball posts. In addition the Reception Center has one minimum custody dormitory with inmates who provide housekeeping for the facility.
The Close Cell Restricted (CCR) unit, an isolation unit located near the Angola main entrance, has 101 isolation cells and 40 trustee beds. Jimmy LeBlanc, the corrections secretary, said in October 2010 that the State of Louisiana could save about $1.8 million during the remaining nine months of the 2010–2011 fiscal year if it closed CCR and moved prisoners to unused death row cells and possibly some Camp D double bunks. LeBlanc said that the prisoners in isolation would remain isolated.
Residents on the prison grounds are zoned to West Feliciana Parish Public Schools
. Elementary school children attend Tunica Elementary School in Tunica
, located in proximity to Angola; The school is several miles from LSP's main entrance, and many of its students live on the LSP grounds. Secondary schools serving the LSP grounds are West Feliciana Middle School and West Feliciana High School in Bains
. The West Feliciana Parish Library is located in St. Francisville
. The library, previously a part of the Audubon Regional Library System, became independent in January 2004.
, Mississippi
.
. The New Life Interfaith Chapel was dedicated in 1982. In the 2000s the main prison church, the churches for Camps C and D, and a grounds chapel were constructed as part of an effort to build chapels for every state run prison facility. A staff and family of staff chapel was also under construction. Outside donations and prison rodeo ticket sales funded the churches. The Camp C Chapel was dedicated on Friday July 17, 2009 at 2:00 PM, and the B-Line Chapel was dedicated at 4:00 PM on that day. The main entrance to LSP has an etched monument that gives tribute to Epistle to the Philippians
3:15.
of the Mississippi River
located on the prison grounds, has large crappie
fish. The LSP administration controls access to Lake Killarney, and only a few people fish there. Therefore the crappie fish grow very large. Butler Park is a recreational facility on the edge of the LSP property that houses gazebos, picnic tables, and barbecue pits. A prisoner who has no major disciplinary issues for at least a year may use the property.
The golf course, constructed on the site of a former bull pasture, opened in June 2004. Prisoners performed most of the labor that was used to construct the golf course. Prisoners that the LSP administration considers to be the most trustworthy are permitted to work at the golf course. Warden Burl Cain
stated that he wants employees to stay at Angola during weekends, because employees at Angola would help support the prison in case of an emergency; he built the course so employees would be enticed to stay at Angola over weekends.
became the warden of Angola. Cain renovated the building so guests could stay overnight at Angola. The renovations, which included the conversion of one room into a bedroom and the additions of a fireplace and a shower, had an approximate cost of $7,346.
, located on the north side of the Angola property, at the base of the Tunica Hills; dead prisoners who cannot be transported out of the prison grounds by family members are buried at Point Lookout. A white rail fence surrounds the cemetery. The current Point Lookout was formed after a 1927 flood destroyed the previous cemetery, which was located between the current Camps C and D. In September 2001 a memorial was dedicated to the unknown prisoners. The original Point Lookout plot, with 331 grave markers and an unknown number of bodies, is full.
Point Lookout II, a cemetery annex 100 yards (91.4 m) to the east of the original Point Lookout, opened in the mid-1990s; it has a capacity of 700 grave sites. As of 2010, 90 prisoners are buried at Point Lookout II. Before January 2002, all state prisoners unclaimed by families were buried at Point Lookout; during that month a cemetery opened at the Hunt Correctional Center, providing another place for burial.
. No admission charges are levied against visitors; visitors may donate to the museum if they wish. The museum is located outside of the prison's main gate.
times.
The Front Gate Visiting Processing Center, with a rated capacity of 272 persons, is the processing and security screening point for visitors to the prison. The United States Postal Service
operates the Angola Post Office on the prison grounds. It was established on October 2, 1887. David C. Knapps Correctional Officer Training Academy, the state training center for prison guards is located on the northwest corner of LSP. Near the training center, Angola prisoners maintain the only nature preserve located on the grounds of a penal institution. R. E. Barrow, Jr., Treatment Center is located on the Angola premises. The K-9 Training Center is the area where dogs are trained. The C.C. Dixon K-9 Training Center received its name in 2002, after Connie Conrad Dixon, a dog trainer who died at age 89 in 1997. The Louisiana State Penitentiary Wastewater Treatment Plant serves as the wastewater plant of the complex. The prison also houses an all-purpose arena.
Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that in the 1930s Angola was "even further removed from decent civilization" than it was in the 1990s. The two added "that's the way the state of Louisiana wanted it, for Angola held some of the meanest inmates."
In 1930 about 130 women, most of them African-American, were imprisoned in Camp D. In 1930 Camp A, which held around 700 African American inmates, was close to the center of the Angola institution. Inmates worked on levee control, as the springtime high water posed a threat to Angola. The river was almost 1 miles (1.6 km) wide, and many inmates who tried to swim across drowned; many of their bodies were never recovered.
The prison hospital opened in 1940s; at the time the campus did not have a permanent doctor, and had only one permanent nurse.
As of the 1980s the main road through Angola was still a dirt road, but is now black topped.
As of 1993 the outcamp buildings were constructed in 1939 and received renovations in the 1970s. During May of that year, fire safety violations were reported in the buildings. In June of that year, Richard Stalder, the Secretary of Corrections, said that LSP would close the buildings if LDPS&C could not find millions of dollars to use to improve the buildings.
," after the red paint-coated straw hats that its occupants wore when they worked in the fields. "Red Hat," a one-story, 30 cell building at Camp E, was built in 1933. Brooke Shelby Biggs of Mother Jones
said that men who had lived in "Red Hat" "told of a dungeon crawling with rats, where dinner was served in stinking buckets splashed onto the floors." Warden C. Murray Henderson phased out "Red Hat," and in 1972 Elayn Hunt had "Red Hat" officially closed. In 1977 Camp J took "Red Hat"'s role as the most restrictive housing unit in Angola. On February 20, 2003, the National Park Service
listed the Red Hat Cell Block on the National Register of Historic Places
as #03000041.
. There's simply no one else to hire."
; Warden Burl Cain
once said that the key to running a peaceful maximum security prison was that "you've got to keep the inmates working all day so they're tired at night." In 2009 James Ridgeway of Mother Jones
said Angola was "An 18,000-acre complex that still resembles the slave plantation it once was."
Of all American prisons, Angola has the largest number of inmates on life sentences in the United States. As of 2009 Angola had 3,712 inmates on life sentences, making up 74% of the population. Per year, 32 inmates die, while 4 are paroled during the same span of time. Louisiana's tough sentencing laws result in long sentences for the inmate population, which mostly consists of armed robbers, murderers, and rapists. In 1998 Peter Applebome of The New York Times
said "It's impossible to visit the place and not feel that a prisoner could disappear off the face of the earth and no one would ever know or care."
Most new prisoners begin working in cotton fields; a prisoner may spend years working his way to a better job.
In Angola parlance a "freeman" is a prison guard. Around 2000, the prison guards were among the lowest-paid in the United States, and few of them had graduated from high school. As of 2009 about half of the prison guards are female.
LSP prisoners do cleaning and general maintenance services for the West Feliciana Parish School Board and other government agencies and nonprofit groups within the West Feliciana Parish.
Warden Burl Cain
maintains an open-door policy with the media, which led to the production of the award winning documentary The Farm. Films such as Dead Man Walking
and Monster's Ball
were partly filmed in Angola.
The prison hosts a rodeo
every April and October, and its inmates produce the award-winning magazine The Angolite
, available to the general public and relatively uncensored. There is a museum
which features among its exhibits Louisiana's old electric chair
, "Gruesome Gertie
", last used for the execution of Andrew Lee Jones
on 22 July 1991. Angola Prison is also home to the country's only inmate-operated radio station.
and no General Equivalency Diploma (GED) from Monday through Friday in the main prison and in camps C-D and F. LSP also offers GED classes in the main prison and in camps C-D and F. The prison also offers ABE (Adult Basic Education) classes for prisoners who have high school diplomas or GEDs but who do not have high enough Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) test scores to get into vocational school. SSD (Special School District #1) provides services for special education students.
Prisoners with sufficient TABE scores may get into vocational classes. Classes include automotive technology, carpentry, culinary arts, graphic communications, horticulture, and welding. In the 1990s, Angola partnered with the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
to offer prisoners the chance to earn accredited bachelor's degrees in ministry. Dr. Bruce M. Sabin wrote his doctoral dissertation evaluating moral development among those college students. As of Spring 2008 95 prisoners are students in the program. LSP also offers the PREP Pre-Release Exit Program and Re-Entry Progams for prisoners who are about to be released into the free world.
The inmate library services are provided by the Main Prison Library and four outcamp libraries. The prison is a part of an inter-library loan program with the State Library of Louisiana
.
A station was originally established in 1986 as a means of communication. Jenny Lee Rice of Paste
said "the need to disseminate information rapidly is critical" because Angola is the largest prison in the United States. The non-emergency uses of the station began in 1987 when Jimmy Swaggart
, an evangelist, gave the prison old equipment from his radio network. In 2001 Chuck Colson invited radio veteran Ken Mayfield and executives from a South Carolina
radio network to visit Angola and conduct an on-radio fundraiser to buy new radio equipment. The fundraiser exceeded its $80,000 goal, with over $120,000 within several hours. Warden Burl Cain
used the funds to update the radio equipment and train prisoner DJs in using the new electronic systems. The new radio equipment allowed KLSP to broadcast in stereo, expand its daily airtime to 20 hours and to upgrade its programming. As of 2006 LSP has 100 watts of power. If one travels 7 miles (11.3 km) away from LSP on Louisiana Highway 61, the signal begins to fade. When one is 10 miles (16.1 km) away, one can hear white noise. Paul von Zielbauer of The New York Times
said that "Still, 100 watts does not push the station's signal far beyond the prison gate." All 24 hours are devoted to religious programming.
and Billy Sinclair
, who became co-editors in 1978.
changed a policy, allowing for the manufacture of coffins for the deceased.
in Camp F on the day of the execution. The only person informed of the exact time when a prisoner will be transferred is the warden; this is done due to security reasons and so the order of the prison is not disrupted. On a scheduled execution date, an execution can occur between 6 PM and Midnight. Michael L. Varnado and Daniel P. Smith of Victims of Dead Man Walking said that, on many occasions, the rest of LSP is not aware of the execution being carried out. In 2003 a man with the family name
Lee, the assistant warden of the Reception Center, said that once death row inmates learn of the execution, they "get a little quieter" and "[i]t suddenly becomes more real to them."
When the State of Louisiana used electrocution as its method of capital punishment, it formally referred to the anonymous executioner as the "electrician." When the State of Louisiana referred to the executioner by name, he or she was called "Sam Jones," after Sam H. Jones
, the Governor of Louisiana in power when electrocution was introduced as the capital punishment.
In the 1930s John Lomax, a folklorist, and Alan Lomax, his son, traveled throughout the U.S. South to document African-American musical culture. Since prison farms, including Angola, were isolated from general society, the Lomaxes believed that prisons had the purest African-American song culture, as it was not influenced by popular trends. The Lomaxes recorded several songs, which were plantation-era songs that originated during the slavery era. The Lomaxes met Leadbelly
, a famous musician, in Angola.
, an inmate at Angola from 1961 through 2001, states that "slavery was commonplace in Angola with perhaps a quarter of the population in bondage" throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. The New York Times
states that weak inmates served as slaves who were raped, gang-raped, and traded and sold like cattle. Rideau stated that "The slave's only way out was to commit suicide, escape or kill his master." Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, members of the Angola 3
, arrived at Angola in the late 1960s and became active members of the prison's chapter of the Black Panther Party
, where they organized petitions and hunger strikes to protest conditions at the prison and helped new inmates protect themselves from rape and enslavement. C. Murray Henderson, one of the wardens brought in to clean up the prison, states in one of his memoirs that the systemic sexual slavery was sanctioned and facilitated by the prison guards.
s into a field and "and would go out there and play around on horses." In 1967 LSP opened the rodeo to outside spectators. As time passed, LSP erected bleachers and adopted the rules of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
. In addition the administration added an arts and crafts festival, and added stock animals and rodeo clowns. The current 10,000-person stadium opened in 2000. Various prisoner organizations sell food at concession stands. Many of the prisoners use family recipe
s to craft the concession stand food. The prison guards conduct the financial transactions at the rodeo.
-like celebration. Returning began in 2005; by 2010 a total of 2,500 prisoners had participated in the program. Malachi Dads is a year-long program that uses the Christian Bible
as the basis of teaching how to improve a prisoner's parenting skills. Malachi began in 2007; as of 2010 it had 119 men participating. It is based on Malachi
4:6, "He will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers..."
Death row
Non-death row
served over four years of his attempted murder sentence and was released early from Angola for good behavior. Tex-Mex
artist Freddy Fender
was pardoned from there.
The song "Grown So Ugly" by American blues musician and ex-convict Robert Pete Williams
references Angola. The song's lyrics have some basis in fact, as Williams was imprisoned there and was officially pardoned (from a murder charge) in 1964, the year the song says that he left the prison.
The classic New Orleans song "Junco Partner" includes the lines:
Aaron
and Charles Neville wrote "Angola Bound":
Angola also features in the Neville Brothers song "Sons and Daughters" on the album Brother's Keeper.
Folklorist
Harry Oster
recorded "Angola Prison Worksongs" for his Folklyric Records in 1959, now re-released on Arhoolie Records
. According to Oster, between 1929 and 1940, 10,000 floggings were carried out in Angola.
Singer Gil Scott-Heron
wrote and recorded the song "Angola, Louisiana" on his 1978 album with Brian Jackson, Secrets. The song deals with the imprisonment of inmate Gary Tyler
.
Canadian blues and roots musician Rita Chiarelli
filmed the documentary "Music From the Big House" at Angola in 2010. The film, directed by Bruce McDonald, focuses on a concert at the prison, organized by Chiarelli, that featured four bands comprising musicians incarcerated in Angola.
Comprising the entire B-Side of his album Remedies
, New Orleans musician Dr. John
features an extended 17:35 song titled "Angola Anthem".
Singer-songwriter
Myshkin
recorded "Angola" in 1998 for her album Blue Gold. The song refers to the case of former Angola warden C. Murray Henderson, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the attempted murder of his wife, writer Anne Butler:
New Orleans rap artist Juvenile
has part of a verse in the Hot Boys
song "Dirty World" that says:
New Orleans pianist James Booker
mentions Angola prison in his cover of "Goodnight, Irene
" ; where he was sent for heroin possession:
(As Booker was less than 10 years old when Leadbelly died, they would not have been there at the same time.)
Ray Davies
has recorded a song entitled "Angola (Wrong Side of the Law)", which was released as a bonus track on the expanded release of Working Man's Café
in February 2008.
The American folk singer David Dondero
in the song "20 years" describes the experiences of a prisoner released from Angola prison:
Jazz trumpeter Christian Scott
has a track on his 2010 album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow called "Angola, LA & the 13th Amendment"
Butler, Anne and C. Murray Henderson. 1992. Angola.Eduardo Vasconcelos. 2011 Dying to Tell. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies
Butler, Anne and C. Murray Henderson 1990 Angola. Louisiana State Penitentiary A Half-Century of Rage and Reform. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies.
Carleton, Mark T.
1971 Politics and Punishment: The History of Louisiana State Penal system. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Foster, Burk, Wilbert Rideau and Douglas Dennis (Editors). 1995. The Wall is Strong: Corrections in Louisiana. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies
Howard, Robert. 2006 The other side of the coin. The spiritual life of a black man held captive in Angola prison 40 years. Austin TX: 78764.
King, Robert Hillarry King. 2009 From the bottom of the heap: The autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King. Oakland, Ca: PM Press.
Mouledous, Joseph Clarence. 1962. Sociological Perspectives on a Prison Social System. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
prepared for his role in the 2008 remake of The Yellow Handkerchief by spending four days at the Penitentiary, including an overnight, rare for a volunteer, in a maximum-security cell. In a 2010 interview, he spoke of having a three-hour sight-unseen (around the corner of the dividing wall) talk with his next-door neighbor that night. He also said "the bed has about an inch-and-a-half-thick mattress on sheer steel. The toilet has no soft seat. The floor is marbleized concrete. It's horrible. It's unthinkable," and that he felt mostly sorrow for the inmates he got to know, "85 percent of the people in there are going to die there." In the film, he played an ex-con out after serving a six-year sentence in a Louisiana prison for "an accidental bit of trouble." In the interview, Hurt also said he had done, earlier in his life, what "[y]ou'd call ... charitable work ... periodically visit[ing] the prisons in Rockland County in New York State to take a program of hope and self-rehabilitation to" the prisoners. As well, he discussed his Oscar-winning role in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), which was set in a Brazil
ian prison. In season 6, episode 15 of the TV series Bones
, an inmate is threatened with a transfer to Angola should he not cooperate with an investigation.
Prejean's book inspired numerous works
, including adaptations as a film, an opera and a play .
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
" and "The Farm") is a prison farm
Prison farm
A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are put to economical use in a 'farm' , usually for manual labour, largely in open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, etc...
in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections is a state agency of Louisiana, headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The Secretary, who is appointed by the Governor, serves as the Department's chief executive officer...
. It is the largest maximum security prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff. It is located on an 18,000 acre (73 km²) property that was previously the Angola and other plantations owned by Isaac Franklin
Isaac Franklin
Isaac Franklin was an American slave trader and planter. He was born on May 26, 1789 at "Pilot Knob" Plantation on Station Camp Creek in Sumner County, Tennessee....
in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
West Feliciana Parish, close to the Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
border. The prison is located at the end of Louisiana Highway 66
Louisiana Highway 66
Louisiana Highway 66 is a state highway in Louisiana.Highway 66 is parallel to the old Tunica Trace. In 1988 the Louisiana Legislature passed Act 350, which designated Highway 66 as "Tunica Trace." Highway 66 is the road to the Louisiana State Penitentiary ....
, and is about 22 miles (35.4 km) northwest of St. Francisville
St. Francisville, Louisiana
St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:St...
. Angola is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. As of 2010 Burl Cain
Burl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
is the warden. The State of Louisiana's death row for men and the state execution chamber are there. In the State of Louisiana the names "Louisiana State Penitentiary" and "Angola," the name of the post office that serves the prison, are used interchangeably.
History
Before 1835, state inmates lived in a jail in New Orleans. The first Louisiana State Penitentiary, located at the intersection of 6th Street and Laurel Street in Baton RougeBaton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, was modeled off of a prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Wethersfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. Many records from colonial times spell the name Weathersfield, while Native Americans called it Pyquag...
. In 1844 the state leased the prison and its prisoners to McHatton Pratt and Company, a private company. Union soldiers occupied the prison during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. In 1869 Samuel Lawrence James, a former confederate major, received the lease to the prison.
The land that has become Angola Penitentiary was purchased by Isaac Franklin
Isaac Franklin
Isaac Franklin was an American slave trader and planter. He was born on May 26, 1789 at "Pilot Knob" Plantation on Station Camp Creek in Sumner County, Tennessee....
from Francis Routh during the 1830s with the profits from his slave trading firm, Franklin and Armfield
Franklin and Armfield Office
Now known as Freedom House, the Franklin and Armfield Office was started in 1828 by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. The office was known to have been the largest slave trading firm in the antebellum south. At its height in the 1830s, the firm transported between 1,000 and 1,200 slaves from...
, of Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
and Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
as four contiguous plantations. These plantations, Panola, Belle View, Killarney and Angola, were joined during their sale by Franklin's widow, Adelicia Cheatham
Adelicia Acklen
Adelicia Acklen was the widow of a plantation owner from Nashville, Tennessee and then an owner in her own right.-Biography:Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham was born on March 15, 1817, in Nashville, Tennessee....
, to James in 1880. The plantation, named after the area in Africa where the former slaves came from, contained a building called the Old Slave Quarters. Major Samuel James ran the plantation using convicts leased from the state
Convict lease
Convict leasing was a system of penal labor practiced in the Southern United States, beginning with the emancipation of slaves at the end of the American Civil War in 1865, peaking around 1880, and ending in the last state, Alabama, in 1928....
, which led to a great deal of abuse. James died in 1894. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections
The Department of Public Safety and Corrections is a state agency of Louisiana, headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The Secretary, who is appointed by the Governor, serves as the Department's chief executive officer...
states that the facility opened as a prison in 1901.
Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that Angola was "probably as close to slavery as any person could come in 1930." Hardened criminals broke down upon being notified that they were being sent to Angola. Around that year, white-black racial tensions existed and one of every ten inmates received stab wounds per year. Wolfe and Lornell said that the staff, consisting of 90 people, "ran the prison like it was a private fiefdom." The two authors said that prisoners were viewed as ""nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
s" of the lowest order." The state did not appropriate very much funds into the operation of Angola, as the state decreased costs to try to save money. Much of the remaining money ended up in the operations of other state projects; Wolfe and Lornell said that the re-appropriation of funds occurred "mysteriously."
In 1935 remains of a Native American individual were taken from Angola. They were donated to the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. In 1948 Governor of Louisiana Earl Long
Earl Long
Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. Long termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills...
converted the position of warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary into a political patronage position. Long appointed distant relatives as wardens of the prison. In the institution's history, the electric chair, Gruesome Gertie
Gruesome Gertie
Gruesome Gertie was the nickname given by death row inmates to the Louisiana electric chair.-History:The 1940 Louisiana legislature had changed the method of execution, making execution by electrocution effective from June 1, 1941. Louisiana's electric chair did not have a permanent home at first,...
, was stored at Angola; the state transported the chair to the parish of conviction of a condemned prisoner before executing him or her.
A former Angola prisoner, William Sadler (also called "Wooden Ear" because of hearing loss he suffered after a prison attack), wrote a series of articles about Angola entitled "Hell on Angola" in the 1940s which helped cause prison reform.
In 1952, 31 inmates cut their Achilles' tendons (referred to as the Heel String Gang.) This caused national news agencies to write stories about Angola. In its November 22, 1952 issue, Collier's Magazine referred to Angola as "the worst prison in America."
In 1961 female inmates were moved to the newly-opened Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women
Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women is a prison for women located in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. It is the only female correctional facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Elayn Hunt Correctional Center is immediately west of LCIW...
.
In 1971 the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
criticized the state of Angola. Linda Ashton of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
said that the bar association described Angola's conditions as "medieval, squalid and horrifying." In 1972, Elayne Hunt, a reforming director of corrections, was appointed by Governor Edwin Edwards
Edwin Edwards
Edwin Washington Edwards served as the Governor of Louisiana for four terms , twice as many terms as any other Louisiana chief executive has served. Edwards was also Louisiana's first Roman Catholic governor in the 20th century...
, and the U.S. courts in Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier
Gates v. Collier, 501 F.2d 1291 , was a landmark case decided in U.S. federal court that brought an end to the Trusty system and the flagrant inmate abuse that accompanied it at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi...
ordered Louisiana to clean up Angola once and for all, ending the Trustee-guard and Trusty
Trusty system
The "trusty system" was a strict system of discipline and security in the US made compulsory under Mississippi state law as the method of controlling and working inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi's...
systems. In 1975 U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola of Baton Rouge, Louisiana declared conditions at Angola to be in a state of emergency. The state installed Ross Maggio as the warden; prisoners nicknamed Maggio "the gangster" because he strictly adhered to rules. Ashton said that by most accounts Maggio successfully improved conditions. Maggio retired in 1984.
In the 1980s Kirksey McCord Nix Jr. perpetrated the "Angola Lonely Hearts" scam from within the prison.
On June 21, 1989, Polozola declared a new state of emergency at LSP.
In 1993 LSP guards fatally shot 29-year old escapee Tyrone Brown.
In 1999 six inmates who were serving life sentences for murder took three prison guards hostage in Camp D. The hostage takers bludgeoned and stabbed one guard, 29-year old Captain David Knapps, to death. Armed guards ended the rebellion by shooting the inmates, killing one, 26-year old Joel Durham, and seriously wounding another.
In Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's book The Green Mile and the adapted movie The Green Mile
The Green Mile (film)
The Green Mile is a 1999 American drama film directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name...
, the fictional setting of the Louisiana Cold Mountain Penitentiary was loosely based on life on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
at Angola in the 1930s.
In 2004 Paul Harris of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said "Unsurprisingly, Angola has always been famed for brutality, riots, escape and murder."
On August 31, 2008, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin
Ray Nagin
Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr. is a former mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Nagin gained international note in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the New Orleans area....
stated in a press conference that any New Orleans residents found looting during the evacuation of the city due to Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav
The name Gustav has been used for five tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean:* 1984's Tropical Storm Gustav - Spent most of its existence as a tropical depression hovering over Bermuda, no major damage was reported....
would be arrested and immediately transported to Angola prison.
In 2009, the prison reduced its budget by $12 million by "double bunking" (placing bunk beds to increase capacities of dormitories), reducing overtime, and replacing prison guards with security cameras.
Management
LSP was designed to be as self-sufficient as possible; it functioned as a miniature community with a canning factory, a dairy, a mail system, a small ranch, repair shops, and a sugar mill. Prisoners raised food staples and cash crops. The self sufficiency was enacted so taxpayers would spend less money and so politicians such as Governor of Louisiana Huey P. Long would have an improved public image. In the 1930s prisoners worked from dawn until dusk.As of 2009 there are three levels of solitary confinement. "Extended lockdown" is colloquially known as "Closed Cell Restricted" or "CCR." Until a period before 2009, death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
inmates had more privileges than "extended lockdown" inmates, including the privilege to watch television. "Extended lockdown" was originally intended as a temporary punishment. The next most restrictive level is "Camp J," referring to an inmate housing unit that houses the style of solitary confinement. The most restrictive level is "administrative segregation," colloquially referred to by inmates as the "dungeon" or the "hole."
Location
Louisiana State Penitentiary is in unincorporatedUnincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
West Feliciana Parish, in east central Louisiana. It is located at the base of the Tunica Hills, in a region described by Jenny Lee Rice of Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
as "breathtakingly beautiful."
The prison is about 22 miles (35.4 km) northwest of St. Francisville
St. Francisville, Louisiana
St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:St...
, about 50 miles (80.5 km) northwest of Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, and 135 miles (217.3 km) northwest of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. LSP is about a one hour driving distance from Baton Rouge, and it is about a two hour driving distance from New Orleans. The Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
borders the facility on three sides. The prison is in close proximity to the Louisiana-Mississippi border. LSP is located about 34 miles (54.7 km) from the Dixon Correctional Institute
Dixon Correctional Institute
Dixon Correctional Institute is a prison facility in Jackson, Louisiana. DCI, a facility of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, is approximately from Baton Rouge...
.
Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that in the 1990s the prison remained "far away from public awareness." The prison officials sometimes provide meals for official guests because of what the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections refers to as the "extreme remote location" of LSP; the nearest non-prison dining facility is, as of 1999, 30 miles (48.3 km) away. The prison property is adjacent to the Angola Tract of the Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area; due to security reasons regarding LSP, the Tunica Hills WMA's Angola Tract is closed to the general public from March 1 through August 31 every year.
The main entrance is at the terminus of Louisiana Highway 66
Louisiana Highway 66
Louisiana Highway 66 is a state highway in Louisiana.Highway 66 is parallel to the old Tunica Trace. In 1988 the Louisiana Legislature passed Act 350, which designated Highway 66 as "Tunica Trace." Highway 66 is the road to the Louisiana State Penitentiary ....
, a road described by Wolfe and Lornell as "a winding, often muddy state road." From St. Francisville
St. Francisville, Louisiana
St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:St...
one would travel about 2 miles (3.2 km) north along U.S. Highway 61, turn left at Louisiana 66, and travel on that road for 20 miles (32.2 km) until it dead ends at LSP's front gate. The Angola Ferry
Angola Ferry
The Angola Ferry is a small and little-known ferry service that crosses the Mississippi River connecting Lettsworth, Louisiana with the Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as the Angola Prison. It is considered difficult to access, requiring drivers to branch off the Louisiana Highway...
provides a ferry service between Angola and a point in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Pointe Coupee Parish
Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana
Pointe Coupee Parish, pronounced "Pwent Koo-Pay" and , is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is New Roads. As of 2000, the population was 22,763....
. The ferry is only open to employees except during special events, when members of the general public may use the ferry.
Weather
Composition
The 18000 acres (7,284.3 ha) prison property occupies a 28 square mile area. The size of the prison property is larger than the size of ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that LSP of the 1990s looks "more like a large working plantation than one of the most notorious prisons in the United States." Guards patrol the complex on horseback, as many of the prison acres are devoted to cultivation of crops. By 1999 the prison's primary roads had been paved. The prison property is hemmed in by the Tunica Hills and by the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The perimeter of the property is not fenced, while the individual prisoner dormitory and recreational camps are fenced. Most of the prison buildings are yellow with a red trim.
Inmate quarters
The state of Louisiana considers LSP to be a multi-security institution; 29% of the prison's beds are designated for maximum security inmates. The inmates live in several housing units scattered across the LSP grounds. By the 1990s air conditioning and heating units have been installed in the inmate housing units. Most inmates live in dormitories instead of cell blocks. The prison administration states that this is because having "inmates of all ages and with long sentences to live this way encourages cooperation and healthy peer relationships."Main Prison Complex
The Main Prison Complex consists of the East Yard and the West Yard. The East Yard has 16 minimum and medium custody prisoner dormitories and one maximum custody extended lockdown cellblock; the cellblock has long term extended lockdown prisoners, in-transit administrative segregation prisoners, inmates who need mental health attention, and protective custody inmates. The West Yard has 16 minimum and medium custody prisoner dormitories, two administrative segregation cellblocks, and the prison treatment center. The treatment center has geriatric, hospice, and in-transit ill prisoners. As of 1999 the main prison complex houses half of LSP's prisoners.Outcamps
LSP also has several outcamps. Camp C includes eight minimum and medium custody dormitories, one cellblock with administrative segregation and working cellblock prisoners, and one extended lockdown cellblock. Camp D has the same features as Camp C, except that it has one working cellblock instead of an extended lockdown cellblock, and its other cellblock does not have working prisoners. Camp J has four extended lockdown cellblocks, which contain prisoners with disciplinary problems, and one dormitory with minimum and medium custody inmates who provide housekeeping functions for Camp J.Camp F has four minimum custody dormitories and the "Dog Pen," which houses 11 minimum custody inmates. All of the prisoners housed in Camp F are trustees who mop floors, deliver food to fellow prisoners, and perform other support tasks. Camp F also houses LSP's execution chamber. Camp F has a lake where trustees fish.
The Reception Center, the closest prison housing building to the main entrance, acts as reception center for arriving prisoners. It is located to the right of the main highway, inside the main gate. In addition it contains the death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
, with 101 extended lockdown cells housing condemned inmates. Death row includes eight tiers, lettered A to G. Seven tiers have 15 cells each, while one tier has 11 cells. Each hallway has a cell that is used for showering. The death row houses exercise areas with basketball posts. In addition the Reception Center has one minimum custody dormitory with inmates who provide housekeeping for the facility.
The Close Cell Restricted (CCR) unit, an isolation unit located near the Angola main entrance, has 101 isolation cells and 40 trustee beds. Jimmy LeBlanc, the corrections secretary, said in October 2010 that the State of Louisiana could save about $1.8 million during the remaining nine months of the 2010–2011 fiscal year if it closed CCR and moved prisoners to unused death row cells and possibly some Camp D double bunks. LeBlanc said that the prisoners in isolation would remain isolated.
B-Line
The facility includes a group of houses, called the "B-Line," which function as the residences of the prison staff members and their families; inmates perform services for the staff members and their households. The employee housing includes recreational centers, pools, and parks. The LSP B-Line Chapel was dedicated at on Friday, July 17, 2009 at 4:00 PM.Residents on the prison grounds are zoned to West Feliciana Parish Public Schools
West Feliciana Parish Public Schools
West Feliciana Parish Public Schools is a school district headquartered in St. Francisville, Louisiana, United States.The district serves residents of West Feliciana Parish, including St. Francisville, Bains, Tunica, Wakefield, and the residences of the Louisiana State Penitentiary...
. Elementary school children attend Tunica Elementary School in Tunica
Tunica, Louisiana
Tunica is an unincorporated community in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. Its elevation is 66 feet .The United States Postal Service operates the Tunica Post Office along Louisiana Highway 66....
, located in proximity to Angola; The school is several miles from LSP's main entrance, and many of its students live on the LSP grounds. Secondary schools serving the LSP grounds are West Feliciana Middle School and West Feliciana High School in Bains
Bains, Louisiana
Bains is an unincorporated community in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. Its elevation is 187 feet .-Education:Residents are zoned to West Feliciana Parish Public Schools. Elementary school children attend Bains Lower Elementary School and Bains Elementary School in Bains...
. The West Feliciana Parish Library is located in St. Francisville
St. Francisville, Louisiana
St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:St...
. The library, previously a part of the Audubon Regional Library System, became independent in January 2004.
Fire station
The fire station houses the LSP Emergency Medical Services Department staff, who provide fire and emergency services to LSP. The LSP Fire Department is registered as department number 63001 with the Louisiana Fire Marshal's Office. The department's equipment includes one engine, one tanker, and one rescue truck. Within LSP the department protects 500 buildings, including employee and prisoner housing quarters. The department has mutual aid agreements with West Feliciana Parish and with Wilkinson CountyWilkinson County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 10,312 people, 3,578 households, and 2,511 families residing in the county. The population density was 15 people per square mile . There were 5,106 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
.
Religious sites
St. Augustine Church, built in the early 1950s, is staffed by the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. The New Life Interfaith Chapel was dedicated in 1982. In the 2000s the main prison church, the churches for Camps C and D, and a grounds chapel were constructed as part of an effort to build chapels for every state run prison facility. A staff and family of staff chapel was also under construction. Outside donations and prison rodeo ticket sales funded the churches. The Camp C Chapel was dedicated on Friday July 17, 2009 at 2:00 PM, and the B-Line Chapel was dedicated at 4:00 PM on that day. The main entrance to LSP has an etched monument that gives tribute to Epistle to the Philippians
Epistle to the Philippians
The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, usually referred to simply as Philippians, is the eleventh book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was written by St. Paul to the church of Philippi, an early center of Christianity in Greece around 62 A.D. Other scholars argue for an...
3:15.
Recreational facilities
Prison staff members have access to recreational facilities on the LSP property. LSP has ball fields, the Prison View Golf Course, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a walking track. Lake Killarney, an oxbow lakeOxbow lake
An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off to create a lake. This landform is called an oxbow lake for the distinctive curved shape, named after part of a yoke for oxen. In Australia, an oxbow lake is called a billabong, derived...
of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
located on the prison grounds, has large crappie
Crappie
Crappie is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. The type species is P. annularis, the white crappie...
fish. The LSP administration controls access to Lake Killarney, and only a few people fish there. Therefore the crappie fish grow very large. Butler Park is a recreational facility on the edge of the LSP property that houses gazebos, picnic tables, and barbecue pits. A prisoner who has no major disciplinary issues for at least a year may use the property.
Prison View Golf Course
Prison View Golf Course, a 6000 yard, 9 hole, 72 par golf course, is located on the grounds of Angola. Prison View, the only golf course on the property of an American prison, is between the Tunica Hills and Camp J, at the intersection of B-Line Road and Camp J Road. All individuals playing are required to provide personal information 48 hours before their arrival so the prison authorities can conduct background checks. Convicted felons and individuals on LSP visitation lists are not permitted to play in the golf course. Current prisoners at LSP are not permitted to play in the golf course.The golf course, constructed on the site of a former bull pasture, opened in June 2004. Prisoners performed most of the labor that was used to construct the golf course. Prisoners that the LSP administration considers to be the most trustworthy are permitted to work at the golf course. Warden Burl Cain
Burl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
stated that he wants employees to stay at Angola during weekends, because employees at Angola would help support the prison in case of an emergency; he built the course so employees would be enticed to stay at Angola over weekends.
Guest house
Angola also has the "Ranch House," a facility for guests to the prison. Originally constructed to serve as a conference center that supplemented the meeting room in the Angola administration building, the "Ranch House" received its name after Burl CainBurl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
became the warden of Angola. Cain renovated the building so guests could stay overnight at Angola. The renovations, which included the conversion of one room into a bedroom and the additions of a fireplace and a shower, had an approximate cost of $7,346.
Cemeteries
Point Lookout Cemetery is the prison cemeteryPrison cemetery
A prison cemetery is a cemetery reserved for prisoners. Generally, the remains of inmates who are not claimed by family or friends are interred in prison cemeteries and include convicts executed for capital crimes.-List of prison cemeteries:...
, located on the north side of the Angola property, at the base of the Tunica Hills; dead prisoners who cannot be transported out of the prison grounds by family members are buried at Point Lookout. A white rail fence surrounds the cemetery. The current Point Lookout was formed after a 1927 flood destroyed the previous cemetery, which was located between the current Camps C and D. In September 2001 a memorial was dedicated to the unknown prisoners. The original Point Lookout plot, with 331 grave markers and an unknown number of bodies, is full.
Point Lookout II, a cemetery annex 100 yards (91.4 m) to the east of the original Point Lookout, opened in the mid-1990s; it has a capacity of 700 grave sites. As of 2010, 90 prisoners are buried at Point Lookout II. Before January 2002, all state prisoners unclaimed by families were buried at Point Lookout; during that month a cemetery opened at the Hunt Correctional Center, providing another place for burial.
Angola Museum
The Angola Museum, operated by the nonprofit Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum Foundation, is the on-site prison museumMuseum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
. No admission charges are levied against visitors; visitors may donate to the museum if they wish. The museum is located outside of the prison's main gate.
Angola Airstrip
The prison includes the Angola Airstrip . The airstrip is used by state-owned aircraft to transport prisoners to and from LSP and for transporting officials on state business to and from LSP. The airport is used during daylight and visual flight rulesVisual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...
times.
Other prison facilities and features
The facility's main entrance has a metal roof guard house where traffic to and from the prison passes through. Michael L. Varnado and Daniel P. Smith of Victims of Dead Man Walking said that the guard house "looks like a large carport over the road." The guard house has long poles, with stop signs on the ends, to keep automobiles from entering and leaving the compound without the permission of the prison guards. To allow a vehicle access or egress, the guards manually raise the poles.The Front Gate Visiting Processing Center, with a rated capacity of 272 persons, is the processing and security screening point for visitors to the prison. The United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
operates the Angola Post Office on the prison grounds. It was established on October 2, 1887. David C. Knapps Correctional Officer Training Academy, the state training center for prison guards is located on the northwest corner of LSP. Near the training center, Angola prisoners maintain the only nature preserve located on the grounds of a penal institution. R. E. Barrow, Jr., Treatment Center is located on the Angola premises. The K-9 Training Center is the area where dogs are trained. The C.C. Dixon K-9 Training Center received its name in 2002, after Connie Conrad Dixon, a dog trainer who died at age 89 in 1997. The Louisiana State Penitentiary Wastewater Treatment Plant serves as the wastewater plant of the complex. The prison also houses an all-purpose arena.
History of composition
The first building where inmates were housed, the former slave quarters, became Camp A; currently Camp A does not house any prisoners.Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, authors of The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, said that in the 1930s Angola was "even further removed from decent civilization" than it was in the 1990s. The two added "that's the way the state of Louisiana wanted it, for Angola held some of the meanest inmates."
In 1930 about 130 women, most of them African-American, were imprisoned in Camp D. In 1930 Camp A, which held around 700 African American inmates, was close to the center of the Angola institution. Inmates worked on levee control, as the springtime high water posed a threat to Angola. The river was almost 1 miles (1.6 km) wide, and many inmates who tried to swim across drowned; many of their bodies were never recovered.
The prison hospital opened in 1940s; at the time the campus did not have a permanent doctor, and had only one permanent nurse.
As of the 1980s the main road through Angola was still a dirt road, but is now black topped.
As of 1993 the outcamp buildings were constructed in 1939 and received renovations in the 1970s. During May of that year, fire safety violations were reported in the buildings. In June of that year, Richard Stalder, the Secretary of Corrections, said that LSP would close the buildings if LDPS&C could not find millions of dollars to use to improve the buildings.
Red Hat Cell Block
In previous eras, the most restrictive inmate housing unit was colloquially referred to as "Red Hat Cell BlockRed Hat Cell Block
The Red Hat Cell Block is a former prison housing unit of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.After a 1933 escape attempt, prison authorities constructed a new prisoner cell block, a one-story, 30 cell building at Camp E...
," after the red paint-coated straw hats that its occupants wore when they worked in the fields. "Red Hat," a one-story, 30 cell building at Camp E, was built in 1933. Brooke Shelby Biggs of Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
said that men who had lived in "Red Hat" "told of a dungeon crawling with rats, where dinner was served in stinking buckets splashed onto the floors." Warden C. Murray Henderson phased out "Red Hat," and in 1972 Elayn Hunt had "Red Hat" officially closed. In 1977 Camp J took "Red Hat"'s role as the most restrictive housing unit in Angola. On February 20, 2003, the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
listed the Red Hat Cell Block on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as #03000041.
Demographics
Louisiana State Penitentiary is, in population, the largest correctional facility in the United States. The prison has 5,100 inmates and 1,700 employees. In 2010, the racial composition of the inmates was 76% black, 24% white, with 71% of inmates serving a life sentence and 1.6% sentenced to death. Over 600 "free people" live on the property of LSP; the residents are LSP's emergency response personnel and their dependents. In 1986 around 200 families of employees lived within the Angola property. Hilton Butler, who was then the warden of Angola, estimated that 250 children lived on the Angola property. Many prison employees are from families that have lived and worked on Angola for generations. Laura Sullivan of National Public Radio said "In a place so remote, it's hard to know what's nepotismNepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
. There's simply no one else to hire."
Operations
Angola is still operated as a working farmPrison farm
A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are put to economical use in a 'farm' , usually for manual labour, largely in open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, etc...
; Warden Burl Cain
Burl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
once said that the key to running a peaceful maximum security prison was that "you've got to keep the inmates working all day so they're tired at night." In 2009 James Ridgeway of Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
said Angola was "An 18,000-acre complex that still resembles the slave plantation it once was."
Of all American prisons, Angola has the largest number of inmates on life sentences in the United States. As of 2009 Angola had 3,712 inmates on life sentences, making up 74% of the population. Per year, 32 inmates die, while 4 are paroled during the same span of time. Louisiana's tough sentencing laws result in long sentences for the inmate population, which mostly consists of armed robbers, murderers, and rapists. In 1998 Peter Applebome of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said "It's impossible to visit the place and not feel that a prisoner could disappear off the face of the earth and no one would ever know or care."
Most new prisoners begin working in cotton fields; a prisoner may spend years working his way to a better job.
In Angola parlance a "freeman" is a prison guard. Around 2000, the prison guards were among the lowest-paid in the United States, and few of them had graduated from high school. As of 2009 about half of the prison guards are female.
LSP prisoners do cleaning and general maintenance services for the West Feliciana Parish School Board and other government agencies and nonprofit groups within the West Feliciana Parish.
Warden Burl Cain
Burl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
maintains an open-door policy with the media, which led to the production of the award winning documentary The Farm. Films such as Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking (film)
Dead Man Walking is a 1995 American drama film directed by Tim Robbins, who adapted the screenplay from the non-fiction book of the same name...
and Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball is a 2001 romantic drama film directed by Marc Forster, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, and Heath Ledger, and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos. It was produced by Lionsgate and Lee Daniels Entertainment....
were partly filmed in Angola.
The prison hosts a rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
every April and October, and its inmates produce the award-winning magazine The Angolite
The Angolite
The Angolite is the inmate published and edited magazine of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana....
, available to the general public and relatively uncensored. There is a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
which features among its exhibits Louisiana's old electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
, "Gruesome Gertie
Gruesome Gertie
Gruesome Gertie was the nickname given by death row inmates to the Louisiana electric chair.-History:The 1940 Louisiana legislature had changed the method of execution, making execution by electrocution effective from June 1, 1941. Louisiana's electric chair did not have a permanent home at first,...
", last used for the execution of Andrew Lee Jones
Andrew Lee Jones
Andrew Lee Jones was an American executed for murder. He was tried, convicted, and executed in the electric chair in Louisiana for the murder of Tumekica Jackson...
on 22 July 1991. Angola Prison is also home to the country's only inmate-operated radio station.
Farming
Crops produced at LSP include cabbage, corn, cotton, okra, onions, peppers, soybeans, squash, tomatoes, and wheat. Hundreds of cattle are kept on the Angola premises.Inmate education
LSP offers literacy classes for prisoners with no high school diplomaHigh school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
and no General Equivalency Diploma (GED) from Monday through Friday in the main prison and in camps C-D and F. LSP also offers GED classes in the main prison and in camps C-D and F. The prison also offers ABE (Adult Basic Education) classes for prisoners who have high school diplomas or GEDs but who do not have high enough Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) test scores to get into vocational school. SSD (Special School District #1) provides services for special education students.
Prisoners with sufficient TABE scores may get into vocational classes. Classes include automotive technology, carpentry, culinary arts, graphic communications, horticulture, and welding. In the 1990s, Angola partnered with the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is a private, non-profit institution of higher learning affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, located in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the first institution created as a direct act of the Southern Baptist Convention. Missions...
to offer prisoners the chance to earn accredited bachelor's degrees in ministry. Dr. Bruce M. Sabin wrote his doctoral dissertation evaluating moral development among those college students. As of Spring 2008 95 prisoners are students in the program. LSP also offers the PREP Pre-Release Exit Program and Re-Entry Progams for prisoners who are about to be released into the free world.
The inmate library services are provided by the Main Prison Library and four outcamp libraries. The prison is a part of an inter-library loan program with the State Library of Louisiana
State Library of Louisiana
The State Library of Louisiana is Louisiana's state-operated library, located in Baton Rouge.The state created the Louisiana Library Commission in 1920. In 1925 the commission and the Carnegie Corporation established libraries throughout the state....
.
Manufacturing
LSP has several manufacturing facilities. The Farm Warehouse (914) is the point of distribution of agricultural supplies. The Mattress/Broom/Mop shop makes mattresses and cleaning tools. The printing shop prints documents, forms, and other printed materials. The range herd managed 1,600 head of cattle. The row crops group harvests crops. The silk screen produces plates, badges, road and highway signs, and textiles; it also manages sales of sign hardware. The tag plant produces license plates for Louisiana and for overseas customers. The tractor repair shop repairs agricultural equipment. The transportation division delivers the good manufactured by the prison enterprises division.Radio
Angola is the only penitentiary in the U.S. to be issued an FCC license to operate a radio station. KLSP (Louisiana State Penitentiary) is a 100-watt radio station that operates at 91.7 on the FM dial from inside the prison to approximately 6,000 potential listeners including inmates and penitentiary staff. The station is operated by inmates and carries some satellite programming. Inside the walls of Angola, KLSP is called the "Incarceration Station" and "The Station that Kicks Behind the Bricks." The station has 20 hours of daily airtime, and all of the music aired by the station is donated. Music from His Radio and the Moody Ministry Broadcasting Network (MBN) airs during several hours of the day. Prisoners make the majority of broadcasting decisions.A station was originally established in 1986 as a means of communication. Jenny Lee Rice of Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
said "the need to disseminate information rapidly is critical" because Angola is the largest prison in the United States. The non-emergency uses of the station began in 1987 when Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...
, an evangelist, gave the prison old equipment from his radio network. In 2001 Chuck Colson invited radio veteran Ken Mayfield and executives from a South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
radio network to visit Angola and conduct an on-radio fundraiser to buy new radio equipment. The fundraiser exceeded its $80,000 goal, with over $120,000 within several hours. Warden Burl Cain
Burl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
used the funds to update the radio equipment and train prisoner DJs in using the new electronic systems. The new radio equipment allowed KLSP to broadcast in stereo, expand its daily airtime to 20 hours and to upgrade its programming. As of 2006 LSP has 100 watts of power. If one travels 7 miles (11.3 km) away from LSP on Louisiana Highway 61, the signal begins to fade. When one is 10 miles (16.1 km) away, one can hear white noise. Paul von Zielbauer of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that "Still, 100 watts does not push the station's signal far beyond the prison gate." All 24 hours are devoted to religious programming.
Magazine
The Angolite is the inmate published and edited magazine of the institution, which began in 1976. Each year, six issues are published. Louisiana prison officials believed that an independently-edited publication would help the prison. The Angolite gained a national reputation as a quality magazine and won international awards under two prisoner editors, Wilbert RideauWilbert Rideau
Wilbert Rideau is a former death row inmate in Louisiana, as well as an author and award-winning prison journalist. Rideau was initially convicted of murder and served time in the Louisiana State Penitentiary...
and Billy Sinclair
Billy Sinclair
Billy Wayne Sinclair is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana who became famous as a journalist; he co-edited The Angolite with Wilbert Rideau....
, who became co-editors in 1978.
Burial of deceased
Coffins for deceased prisoners are manufactured by inmates on the LSP grounds. Previously, dead prisoners were buried in cardboard boxes. After a body fell through the bottom of a box, warden Burl CainBurl Cain
N. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
changed a policy, allowing for the manufacture of coffins for the deceased.
Death row
Prisoners on death row are confined to their cells for 23 hours per day. For one hour per day, a prisoner may take a shower and/or move up and down the halls under guard. For three times per week, a prisoner is permitted to use the exercise yard. Death row prisoners are allowed to have a certain number of books at a time, and each prisoner may have one five minute personal telephone call per month. Death row inmates receive unlimited visitor access.Execution
Male death row inmates are moved from the Reception Center to a cell near the execution chamberExecution chamber
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which a legal execution is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed...
in Camp F on the day of the execution. The only person informed of the exact time when a prisoner will be transferred is the warden; this is done due to security reasons and so the order of the prison is not disrupted. On a scheduled execution date, an execution can occur between 6 PM and Midnight. Michael L. Varnado and Daniel P. Smith of Victims of Dead Man Walking said that, on many occasions, the rest of LSP is not aware of the execution being carried out. In 2003 a man with the family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
Lee, the assistant warden of the Reception Center, said that once death row inmates learn of the execution, they "get a little quieter" and "[i]t suddenly becomes more real to them."
When the State of Louisiana used electrocution as its method of capital punishment, it formally referred to the anonymous executioner as the "electrician." When the State of Louisiana referred to the executioner by name, he or she was called "Sam Jones," after Sam H. Jones
Sam H. Jones
--4.230.222.169 Sam Houston Jones was the 46th Governor of Louisiana from 1940 to 1944. He defeated the renowned Earl Kemp Long in the 1940 Democratic primary. Long turned the tables on Jones and defeated him in the 1948 party primary.-Early life:Sam Jones was born in Merryville in Beauregard...
, the Governor of Louisiana in power when electrocution was introduced as the capital punishment.
Musical culture
As of 2011 several Angola inmates practice musical skills. The prison administration encourages prisoners to practice music and uses music as a reward for inmates who behave.In the 1930s John Lomax, a folklorist, and Alan Lomax, his son, traveled throughout the U.S. South to document African-American musical culture. Since prison farms, including Angola, were isolated from general society, the Lomaxes believed that prisons had the purest African-American song culture, as it was not influenced by popular trends. The Lomaxes recorded several songs, which were plantation-era songs that originated during the slavery era. The Lomaxes met Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
, a famous musician, in Angola.
Sexual slavery
A 2010 memoir by Wilbert RideauWilbert Rideau
Wilbert Rideau is a former death row inmate in Louisiana, as well as an author and award-winning prison journalist. Rideau was initially convicted of murder and served time in the Louisiana State Penitentiary...
, an inmate at Angola from 1961 through 2001, states that "slavery was commonplace in Angola with perhaps a quarter of the population in bondage" throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
states that weak inmates served as slaves who were raped, gang-raped, and traded and sold like cattle. Rideau stated that "The slave's only way out was to commit suicide, escape or kill his master." Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, members of the Angola 3
Angola 3
The Angola 3 are three men, Robert Hillary King , Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who were put in solitary confinement for decades in Angola Prison, Louisiana after the death of a prison guard....
, arrived at Angola in the late 1960s and became active members of the prison's chapter of the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
, where they organized petitions and hunger strikes to protest conditions at the prison and helped new inmates protect themselves from rape and enslavement. C. Murray Henderson, one of the wardens brought in to clean up the prison, states in one of his memoirs that the systemic sexual slavery was sanctioned and facilitated by the prison guards.
Inmate organizations
Angola has several inmate organizations. They include the Angola Men of Integrity, the Lifers Organization, the Angola Drama Club, the Wonders of Joy, the Camp C Concept Club, and the Latin American Cultural Brotherhood.Angola Rodeo
On one weekend in April and on every Sunday in October, Angola holds the Angola Prison Rodeo. On each occasion, thousands of visitors enter the prison complex. The idea of the rodeo began in 1964. The rodeo, a collaboration between prisoners and employees, began in 1965. Cathy Fontenot, the assistant warden, said that originally prisoners and staff backed pickup truckPickup truck
A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...
s into a field and "and would go out there and play around on horses." In 1967 LSP opened the rodeo to outside spectators. As time passed, LSP erected bleachers and adopted the rules of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is an organization whose members compete in rodeos throughout North America, primarily in the United States. The PRCA sanctions rodeo venues and events through the PRCA Circuit System. Its championship event is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...
. In addition the administration added an arts and crafts festival, and added stock animals and rodeo clowns. The current 10,000-person stadium opened in 2000. Various prisoner organizations sell food at concession stands. Many of the prisoners use family recipe
Recipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...
s to craft the concession stand food. The prison guards conduct the financial transactions at the rodeo.
Programs for fathers
Angola has two programs for fathers who are incarcerated at Angola. Returning Hearts is an event where prisoners may spend up to eight hours with their children in a CarnivalCarnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
-like celebration. Returning began in 2005; by 2010 a total of 2,500 prisoners had participated in the program. Malachi Dads is a year-long program that uses the Christian Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
as the basis of teaching how to improve a prisoner's parenting skills. Malachi began in 2007; as of 2010 it had 119 men participating. It is based on Malachi
Book of Malachi
Malachi is a book of the Hebrew Bible, the last of the twelve minor prophets and the final book of the Neviim...
4:6, "He will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers..."
Notable inmates
Death row and non-death row- Wilbert RideauWilbert RideauWilbert Rideau is a former death row inmate in Louisiana, as well as an author and award-winning prison journalist. Rideau was initially convicted of murder and served time in the Louisiana State Penitentiary...
- Billy SinclairBilly SinclairBilly Wayne Sinclair is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana who became famous as a journalist; he co-edited The Angolite with Wilbert Rideau....
(prison journalist)
Death row
- John A. Brown, Jr.John A. Brown, Jr.John Ashley Brown, Jr. was an American murderer. He was tried and executed in Louisiana for the murder of Omer Laughlin.- Crime :...
- Jimmy L. GlassJimmy L. GlassJimmy L. Glass was an American convicted murderer, executed by the state of Louisiana. He is probably best known not for his crime, but as petitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court case Glass v. Louisiana....
- Antonio JamesAntonio JamesAntonio G. James was an American murderer. He was tried and executed in Louisiana for the murder of Henry Silver. This case is notable not for any unusual or intrinsic aspect, but for being one of the few such cases that ever comes to the attention of the general public...
- Andrew Lee JonesAndrew Lee JonesAndrew Lee Jones was an American executed for murder. He was tried, convicted, and executed in the electric chair in Louisiana for the murder of Tumekica Jackson...
- Leslie Dale MartinLeslie Dale MartinLeslie Dale Martin was an American murderer. He was convicted and later executed for the rape and murder of Christina Burgin.-Crime:...
- Dalton PrejeanDalton PrejeanDalton Prejean was an American murderer. He was tried, convicted, and executed by the electric chair in Louisiana for the murder of Louisiana State Police Trooper Donald Cleveland. Prejean was 17 years old at the time of the murder.-Background:Prejean was the second of four children...
- Derrick Todd LeeDerrick Todd LeeDerrick Todd Lee is a convicted serial killer, nicknamed the Baton Rouge Serial Killer....
- Robert SawyerRobert Sawyer (murderer)Robert Wayne Sawyer was an American murderer. He was tried, convicted, and executed by lethal injection in Louisiana for the murder of Frances Arwood. He was the first inmate put to death by lethal injection in Louisiana...
- Elmo Patrick SonnierElmo Patrick SonnierElmo Patrick Sonnier was a convicted murderer and rapist who was executed by electrocution at Angola in Louisiana on April 5, 1984...
- Thomas Lee WardThomas Lee WardThomas Lee Ward was an American murderer. He was tried, convicted, and executed by lethal injection in Louisiana for the murder of his stepfather-in-law Wilbert John Spencer.- Overview :...
- Robert Lee WillieRobert Lee WillieRobert Lee Willie was a convict on Death Row at Louisiana State Penitentiary. Sister Helen Prejean, one of the sisters of St Joseph of Medailles, served as his spiritual adviser. She based her book Dead Man Walking on him and Elmo Patrick Sonnier...
Non-death row
- Corey Miller
- Angola 3Angola 3The Angola 3 are three men, Robert Hillary King , Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who were put in solitary confinement for decades in Angola Prison, Louisiana after the death of a prison guard....
(Robert Hillary King, Herman Wallace, and Albert Woodfox) - Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly) - Camp A
- Lil BoosieLil BoosieTorrence Hatch , better known by his stage name Lil Boosie, is an American rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hatch was bestowed the nickname Boosie by his family, and he was raised in southside Baton Rouge...
- Kirksey NixKirksey NixKirksey McCord Nix, Jr. is reputedly the former leader of the Dixie Mafia.He was a suspect in the assassination attempt on Sheriff Buford Pusser and in the death of Buford's wife on August 12, 1967....
- Robert Pete WilliamsRobert Pete WilliamsRobert Pete Williams was an American Louisiana blues musician. His music characteristically employed unconventional blues tunings and structures, and his songs are often about the time he served in prison...
Notable employees
- Burl CainBurl CainN. Burl Cain was named Warden of Louisiana State Penitentiary in January 1995 by Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder. He is the brother of James David Cain and Alton Cain...
(Warden) - Billy CannonBilly CannonWilliam Abb "Billy" Cannon is an All-American, 1959 Heisman Trophy winner and 2008 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and one of the American Football League's most celebrated players.He was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and moved...
(Dentist) - James Monroe SmithJames Monroe SmithJames Monroe Smith, Sr. , was the president of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the 1930s...
(Director of Vocational Rehabilitation) - John WhitleyJohn WhitleyTime magazine credited John Whitley with turning around hopelessness and violence at the largest maximum security in America—the Louisiana State Penitentiary with “little more than his sense of decency and fairness.”...
(Warden)
Musical references
The prison has held many musicians and been the subject of a number of songs. Folk singer LeadbellyLeadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
served over four years of his attempted murder sentence and was released early from Angola for good behavior. Tex-Mex
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
artist Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender , born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was a Mexican-American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados...
was pardoned from there.
The song "Grown So Ugly" by American blues musician and ex-convict Robert Pete Williams
Robert Pete Williams
Robert Pete Williams was an American Louisiana blues musician. His music characteristically employed unconventional blues tunings and structures, and his songs are often about the time he served in prison...
references Angola. The song's lyrics have some basis in fact, as Williams was imprisoned there and was officially pardoned (from a murder charge) in 1964, the year the song says that he left the prison.
The classic New Orleans song "Junco Partner" includes the lines:
- Six months ain't no sentence, and a year ain't no time
- They got boys down in Angola doin' one year to ninety-nine
Aaron
Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville is an American soul and R&B singer and musician. He has had four top-20 hits in the United States along with four platinum-certified albums...
and Charles Neville wrote "Angola Bound":
- I got lucky last summer when I got my time, Angola bound
- Well my partner got a hundred, I got ninety-nine, Angola bound
Angola also features in the Neville Brothers song "Sons and Daughters" on the album Brother's Keeper.
Folklorist
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
Harry Oster
Harry Oster
Dr. Harry Oster was an American folklorist and musicologist, working at The University of Iowa, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1964 to 1994....
recorded "Angola Prison Worksongs" for his Folklyric Records in 1959, now re-released on Arhoolie Records
Arhoolie Records
Arhoolie Records is a small record label run by Chris Strachwitz. The label was founded by Strachwitz in 1960 as a way for him to record and publish previously obscure "down home blues" artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Snooks Eaglin and Bill Gaither...
. According to Oster, between 1929 and 1940, 10,000 floggings were carried out in Angola.
Singer Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
wrote and recorded the song "Angola, Louisiana" on his 1978 album with Brian Jackson, Secrets. The song deals with the imprisonment of inmate Gary Tyler
Gary Tyler
Gary Tyler has been a prisoner in Louisiana since 1975, when he was convicted at age 17 of the 1974 shooting death of a 13-year-old white boy. Tyler was originally sentenced to death because of the charge and was the youngest prisoner on death row. The Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled the...
.
Canadian blues and roots musician Rita Chiarelli
Rita Chiarelli
Rita Chiarelli is a Canadian blues singer. She has been dubbed "the goddess of Canadian blues" by CBC Radio One's Shelagh Rogers.-Biography:Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Chiarelli began performing in Ronnie Hawkins' band in the early 1980s. She subsequently spent several years in Italy...
filmed the documentary "Music From the Big House" at Angola in 2010. The film, directed by Bruce McDonald, focuses on a concert at the prison, organized by Chiarelli, that featured four bands comprising musicians incarcerated in Angola.
Comprising the entire B-Side of his album Remedies
Remedies (Dr. John Album)
-Reception:...
, New Orleans musician Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
features an extended 17:35 song titled "Angola Anthem".
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Myshkin
Myshkin (singer)
Myshkin is an American singer-songwriter. She sings and plays acoustic guitar solo, in cooperation with other artists, and with her band Myshkin's Ruby Warblers. She is a native of Indiana where she was born to a recent immigrant family. After college she moved to New Mexico, and later to New York,...
recorded "Angola" in 1998 for her album Blue Gold. The song refers to the case of former Angola warden C. Murray Henderson, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the attempted murder of his wife, writer Anne Butler:
- Release me from this life I will seek my punishment
- On the other side but the judge said
- "Warden in cold blood you shot your poor poor wife
- You're going back to Angola, there your hell to find"
New Orleans rap artist Juvenile
Juvenile (rapper)
Terius Gray, better known by his stage name Juvenile, is an American rapper, He is also a former member of hip-hop group the Hot Boys . At the age of 19, he began recording raps, releasing his debut album Being Myself in 1995...
has part of a verse in the Hot Boys
Hot Boys
The Hot Boys is a music American hip hop group active from 1996 to 2001 and reformed in 2007. The group consists of rappers formerly on the New Orleans-based record label, Cash Money Records. The members are Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G. and Turk.-History:The members of the group were rappers, Lil...
song "Dirty World" that says:
- They'll plant dope on ya, go to court on ya
- Give ya 99 years and slam the door on ya
- Angola, the free man bout it, he don't play
- Nigga get outta line, ship 'em to Camp J
New Orleans pianist James Booker
James Booker
James Carroll Booker III was a jazz, New Orleans rhythm and blues and soul musician born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.-Biography:...
mentions Angola prison in his cover of "Goodnight, Irene
Goodnight, Irene
"Goodnight, Irene" or "Irene, Goodnight," is a 20th century American folk standard, written in 3/4 time, first recorded by American blues musician Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter in 1932....
" ; where he was sent for heroin possession:
- Lead Belly and little Booker both, had the pleasure of partying,
- on the pon de rosa, *laughs* you know what I mean, you dig?
- Yeah, on the pon de rosa, you know, down in Angola
- where they have boys doing from one year to ninety nine
(As Booker was less than 10 years old when Leadbelly died, they would not have been there at the same time.)
Ray Davies
Ray Davies
Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
has recorded a song entitled "Angola (Wrong Side of the Law)", which was released as a bonus track on the expanded release of Working Man's Café
Working Man's Café
Working Man's Café is a solo album released 22 October 2007 in the UK by Ray Davies, formerly lead singer and songwriter of The Kinks. A day earlier, on 21 October 2007, a 10 track promotional copy of the album was 'given away' with the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK...
in February 2008.
The American folk singer David Dondero
David Dondero
David Dondero is an American songwriter, guitarist, former lead singer of the band Sunbrain. In 2006, NPR's All Songs Considered named David one of the "best living songwriters" alongside Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Tom Waits...
in the song "20 years" describes the experiences of a prisoner released from Angola prison:
- All I got on me, is my Angola prison I.D.
- Ain't a place in this whole damn city willing to hire me
- It's been twenty years
Jazz trumpeter Christian Scott
Christian Scott
Christian Scott, born March 31, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the 2010 Edison Award winner for Best International Jazz Artist and a Grammy Award-nominated jazz trumpeter, composer and producer. He has been heralded by JazzTimes magazine as "the Architect of a new commercially viable fusion"...
has a track on his 2010 album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow called "Angola, LA & the 13th Amendment"
Books about Angola
- In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance by Wilbert Rideau (Knopf, 2010)
- Cain's Redemption by Dennis ShereDennis ShereDennis Shere is the author of two books. In August, 2005, he wrote ', a book about the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. In November, 2010, he wrote "The Last Meal -- Defending an Accused Mass Murderer," , the story of the murder of seven fast food workers, and the arrest and conviction of...
- Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen PrejeanHelen PrejeanSister Helen Prejean, C.S.J., is a Roman Catholic religious sister, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, who has become a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.-Death row ministry:...
- God of the Rodeo - Daniel Bergner
- The Search for Hope, Faith, and a Six-Second Ride in Louisiana's Angola Prison - Daniel Bergner - Crown Publishers
- Life Sentences, edited by Wilbert Rideau and Ron Wikberg (Random House, 1992)
- A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story by Billy Wayne Sinclair.
- The prison is referred to in A Confederacy of DuncesA Confederacy of DuncesA Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published by LSU Press in 1980, 11 years after the author's suicide. The book was published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother Thelma Toole, quickly becoming a cult classic, and later a...
by Jones when describing the racial inequality in the New Orleans judicial system. - The main character of Poppy Z. BritePoppy Z. BritePoppy Z. Brite is an American author. Brite initially achieved notoriety in the gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s after publishing a string of successful novels and short story collections...
's novel The Lazarus Heart is sent to Angola for the murder of his lover. - The House That Herman Built by Herman Wallace of the Angola 3, co-written with Artist Jackie Sumell.
Butler, Anne and C. Murray Henderson. 1992. Angola.Eduardo Vasconcelos. 2011 Dying to Tell. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies
Butler, Anne and C. Murray Henderson 1990 Angola. Louisiana State Penitentiary A Half-Century of Rage and Reform. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies.
Carleton, Mark T.
Mark T. Carleton
Mark Thomas Carleton , was an historian who specialized in political studies of his native Louisiana. From 1964 until his death at the age of sixty, he was a professor at Louisiana State University in his native Baton Rouge.Carleton received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957 from Yale University...
1971 Politics and Punishment: The History of Louisiana State Penal system. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Foster, Burk, Wilbert Rideau and Douglas Dennis (Editors). 1995. The Wall is Strong: Corrections in Louisiana. Lafayette, La.: The Center for Louisiana Studies
Howard, Robert. 2006 The other side of the coin. The spiritual life of a black man held captive in Angola prison 40 years. Austin TX: 78764.
King, Robert Hillarry King. 2009 From the bottom of the heap: The autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King. Oakland, Ca: PM Press.
Mouledous, Joseph Clarence. 1962. Sociological Perspectives on a Prison Social System. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Articles about Angola
- America's Plantation Prisons, by Maya Schenwar, Global Research, August 30, 2008
- "Witness - Death Behind Bars - Part 1." Al JazeeraAl JazeeraAl Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
- "Witness - Death Behind Bars - Part 2." Al Jazeera
Other references
Actor William HurtWilliam Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
prepared for his role in the 2008 remake of The Yellow Handkerchief by spending four days at the Penitentiary, including an overnight, rare for a volunteer, in a maximum-security cell. In a 2010 interview, he spoke of having a three-hour sight-unseen (around the corner of the dividing wall) talk with his next-door neighbor that night. He also said "the bed has about an inch-and-a-half-thick mattress on sheer steel. The toilet has no soft seat. The floor is marbleized concrete. It's horrible. It's unthinkable," and that he felt mostly sorrow for the inmates he got to know, "85 percent of the people in there are going to die there." In the film, he played an ex-con out after serving a six-year sentence in a Louisiana prison for "an accidental bit of trouble." In the interview, Hurt also said he had done, earlier in his life, what "[y]ou'd call ... charitable work ... periodically visit[ing] the prisons in Rockland County in New York State to take a program of hope and self-rehabilitation to" the prisoners. As well, he discussed his Oscar-winning role in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), which was set in a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian prison. In season 6, episode 15 of the TV series Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
, an inmate is threatened with a transfer to Angola should he not cooperate with an investigation.
Prejean's book inspired numerous works
Dead Man Walking (disambiguation)
- Literature and fiction :* Dead Man Walking , a 1993 non-fiction book by Sister Helen Prejean** Dead Man Walking , a 1995 film based on Prejean's book...
, including adaptations as a film, an opera and a play .
See also
- List of law enforcement agencies in Louisiana
- List of United States state correction agencies
- Louisiana Department of Public Safety & CorrectionsLouisiana Department of Public Safety & CorrectionsThe Department of Public Safety and Corrections is a state agency of Louisiana, headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency comprises two major areas: Public Safety Services and Corrections Services. The Secretary, who is appointed by the Governor, serves as the Department's chief executive officer...
- PrisonPrisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
- Trusty systemTrusty systemThe "trusty system" was a strict system of discipline and security in the US made compulsory under Mississippi state law as the method of controlling and working inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi's...
- Ellen Bryan MooreEllen Bryan MooreEllen Bryan Moore was a pioneer of women in Louisiana politics, having served in the formerly elected office of "Register of State Lands" from 1952–1956 and 1960-1976...
External links
- Louisiana State Penitentiary
- Prison View Golf Course
- KLSP radio station
- Angola Prison Rodeo
- Angola Museum Foundation
- Stein, Joel. "Angola, La.: The Lessons of Cain". TIMETime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. Monday July 10, 2000. Retrieved on January 1, 2010. - Music From the Big House—Film about musicians at Angola by Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald
- Angola Airstrip: