This stems from the s, when inmates worked on constructing a levee. Conditions were so abusive and the brutality was so bad that in , 31 prisoners slashed their own Achilles' tendons to protest. Of the 5,plus inmates, 86 percent are violent offenders and 52 percent are serving life sentences.
There are 84 male inmates on death row and one woman. It's the home of Gruesome Gertie, the house electric chair. It's not currently used, but it was the main form of capital punishment for 50 years. It was last used for execution in It made an appearance in the movie Monster's Ball. That's Sister Helen Prejean in Angola to the left, the nun who counseled Sonnier and made their story famous.
The mission is to promote and prepare the offender to leave in better shape than when they arrived, giving them the best chance to never come back and thus lower the state's recidivism rate. It is named "Angola" after the former plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named for the African country that was the origin of many slaves brought to Louisiana. Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States with 6, prisoners and 1, staff, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance, and wardens.
Located in West Feliciana Parish, the prison is set between oxbow lakes on the east side of a bend of the Mississippi River, so it is surrounded on three sides by water. It lies less than two miles south of Louisiana's straight east-west border with Mississippi.
The 18,acre of land the prison sits on was known before the American Civil War as the Angola Plantations. The prison is located at the end of Louisiana Highway 66, around 22 miles northwest of St. Over half of the inmates in this prison are serving life sentences also is also home to the states male death row inmates.
Due to the large population of inmates, and the length of many inmates sentences, this facility has a hospice program in addition to the medical and mental health programs offered. This is one of the largest correctional facilities, with segregation units, disciplinary units, extended lockdown cellblocks, a death row unit, reception center, 16 medium and minimum custody dormitories, maximum custody units, multiple out-camps, and even has it's own fire station and airfield.
The Penitentiary has educational and vocational programs that allow inmates to earn a GED and adult basic education and teach carpentry, welding, horticulture, culinary skills, automotive repair, HVAC, electrical, and industrial painting. The inmates live in several housing units scattered across the Angola grounds. By the s air conditioning and heating units had 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. The East Yard has 16 minimum and medium custody prisoner dormitories and one maximum custody extended lockdown cellblock; the cellblock houses 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 houses geriatric, hospice, and ill in-transit prisoners. As of , the main prison complex houses half of Angola's prisoners. The cell blocks are A, B, C, and D. Politz Educational building. Outcamps - Angola 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 Angola's execution chamber.
He even used to underfeed them and made them work extra-long hours under harsh conditions. Some convicts even lost their lives while working on the plantation. When stories of abuse and harsh living conditions escaped the walls of the plantation, the state took full control of the prison in But even that was in vain.
The state never allocated proper funds for the betterment of the prison and continued decreasing costs. In the s, a former Angola prisoner, William Sadler, wrote a series of articles depicting the inhumane life in the prison. He described a warden who would walk around with a three-foot leather strip to lash the prisoners. One … two … three … twenty; the count goes beyond thirty … the man moans, pleads for mercy, calls on God.
When even the state failed to provide better conditions, the prisoners took matters into their own hands. A heart-wrenching incident took place in Thirty-one inmates slit their Achilles tendons to protest the harsh conditions in the prison.
This is how bad the conditions were! Again, the penitentiary saw major renovations, improvement in medical care, and other upgrades. By the s, the prison was accredited by the American Correctional Association, a recognition of its adherence to national standards for jails. By , Angola State Prison had grown to 18, acres—the size of Manhattan.
It was a maximum-security prison with an inmate population that was almost completely African-American, while the officers who oversaw them were entirely white. Angola Rodeo. Angola had numerous enterprises: corn, cotton, soybean, and wheat crops; a license tag plant; printing services; a mattress factory including suicide prevention mattresses ; and a herd of 1, cattle. Since , the prison had held a professional rodeo to entertain its inmates, employees, and the general public.
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