Cell Phones Behind Bars: Angola's Prison Problem

Angola Prison, also known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. It has been the subject of numerous documentaries, films, songs, and books, and has a long history of violence, abuse, and poor living conditions.

Prisoners at Angola are forced to work, earning as little as 4 cents an hour, and have little access to adequate healthcare. Inmates have been known to make their own coffins, and the prison was once home to an electric chair nicknamed Gruesome Gertie, which was known for particularly bloody executions.

While prisoners are not typically allowed to have cell phones, some have managed to get their hands on contraband phones, using them to self-publish books, take online classes, and even trade bitcoin.

Angola Prison is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States

Angola Prison, officially known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. It is located in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and is set between oxbow lakes on the east side of a bend in the Mississippi River. The prison is named after the former slave plantation that occupied the territory, which, in turn, was named after the country of Angola, from where many enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana.

The 28 square miles of land the prison sits on was known before the American Civil War as the Angola Plantations, a slave plantation owned by slave trader Isaac Franklin. The prison is located at the end of Louisiana Highway 66, around 22 miles northwest of St. Francisville.

Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, with 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance workers, and wardens. Due to these large numbers, it has been nicknamed "a gated community".

The prison has a storied history of instability and reform, serving as a reminder of the progress made within corrections and the possibilities of rehabilitation. Angola was once known as "America's Bloodiest Prison" and has been the subject of numerous lawsuits over the conditions of the prison and the treatment of prisoners.

In recent years, Angola has been at the centre of the COVID-19 pandemic, with inmates reporting widespread illness, dysfunctional care, and deadly neglect. Despite this, prison officials have denied the allegations, insisting that they are successfully managing the pandemic.

Angola Prison is also known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary

Angola Prison, also known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana. It is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, with 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance workers, and wardens.

The prison is located in West Feliciana Parish, in a deep bend of the Mississippi River, and is surrounded by alligator-infested swamps. It spans 18,000 acres, an area larger than the island of Manhattan, and has its own ZIP code.

The prison was established on the site of a former slave plantation, from which it gets its name, and is known as "the bloodiest prison in America". It has a violent history, with guards brutalising inmates and inmates beating, raping, and murdering one another. However, in recent decades, the prison has undergone large-scale criminal justice reforms, and it now offers various rehabilitation and educational programs for inmates, including basic and higher education, as well as vocational training.

Inmates at Angola Prison are sentenced to hard labour and forced to work, earning as little as 4 cents an hour or sometimes nothing at all. They work in various industries, including agriculture, livestock farming, and food processing, and their labour ends up in the supply chains of some of the world's biggest companies and most popular brands.

Despite the risks involved, some inmates manage to get access to contraband cell phones, which they use for various purposes, including education, activism, and staying connected with their families.

Angola Prison is nicknamed the Alcatraz of the South

The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana. It is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, with 6,300 prisoners and 1,800 staff. It is nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South" due to its brutal conditions, including riots and assaults.

The prison sits on 28 square miles of land that was once the Angola Plantations, a slave plantation owned by slave trader Isaac Franklin. The name "Angola" comes from the country of the same name, from which many of the enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana.

The land was purchased in 1880 by Confederate Major Samuel James, who housed inmates in the former slave quarters and put them to work through the convict leasing program. This was essentially a continuation of slave labor, as they were made to build levees, pick crops, and manufacture bale rope and bags. People were arrested on minor charges just to be used as workers, and this practice earned the prison a profit.

The conditions at Angola were harsh, and it gained a reputation as one of the bloodiest prisons in America. In 1952, 31 inmates cut their Achilles tendons in protest of the work and conditions. In the 1990s, major reforms were brought to the prison, particularly in the area of medical care. Today, Angola has a number of outreach programs, including church services, counselling for veterans, an inmate newspaper, and the famous Angola Prison Rodeo.

Angola Prison is known for its brutal conditions, including poor healthcare and forced labour

Angola Prison, also known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is the largest maximum-security prison in the US. It is nicknamed the "Bloodiest Prison in America" and is known for its brutal conditions, including poor healthcare and forced labour.

Prisoners at Angola are forced to work, earning as little as 4 cents an hour or sometimes nothing at all. The prison has a long history of violence, with guards brutalizing inmates and inmates beating, raping, and murdering one another. In recent years, Angola has become better known as a monument to mass incarceration, filled with aging, medically fragile inmates serving life sentences.

The prison's healthcare system has been a focus of criticism, litigation, and reform efforts for almost half a century. Prisoners often face delays in receiving medical care, and their health concerns are often ignored or dismissed by prison doctors. In one case, a prisoner named Shannon Hurd, who was serving a life sentence for stealing $14, began experiencing flu-like symptoms and weight loss. His requests for medical attention were repeatedly denied by prison doctors, and he was eventually diagnosed with kidney cancer three years later, when the tumours had already spread to his brain. Shannon died in prison in 2017 at the age of 42.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, inmates at Angola reported widespread illness, dysfunctional care, and deadly neglect. They claimed that at least four out of the 12 prisoners who died during the pandemic had been denied medical help because their symptoms were not considered serious enough. The prison authorities sharply limited COVID-19 testing, and inmates were left to recover in their bunks, which were typically set less than 4 feet apart.

Angola's history is closely tied to slavery and forced labour. It is located on the site of a former slave plantation, and prisoners work the same plantation soil where slaves once harvested cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane. Within days of arriving at the prison, inmates are typically sent to the fields, where they work for free or earn meagre wages. Those who refuse to work or fail to meet quotas face consequences such as punishment or solitary confinement.

Angola Prison is also known for its brutal conditions, including poor living conditions, violence, and a lack of rehabilitation programs. The prison has a reputation for being dangerous, with a high rate of assaults and inmate deaths. The prison's remote location, surrounded by alligator-infested swamps, adds to the sense of isolation and harsh conditions.

Angola Prison has a history of violence, with frequent inmate attacks and killings, as well as abuse by prison guards

Angola Prison, officially known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, has a long and violent history. The prison, which is the largest maximum-security facility in the United States, was once known as "The Bloodiest Prison in America" due to frequent inmate attacks, killings, and abuse by prison guards.

The prison's violent past is partly due to its harsh working conditions. Inmates are forced to work soon after their arrival, with former warden Burl Cain stating that "you've got to keep the inmates working all day so they're tired at night." In the 1930s, hardened prisoners broke down upon learning of their sentence to Angola, and at one point, 10% of Angola prisoners were stabbed.

In the 1950s, 31 inmates cut their Achilles tendons in protest of the brutal and harsh working conditions. This incident brought attention to the poor treatment of prisoners at Angola, with national news agencies writing exposés on the living conditions. As a result, Governor Robert Kennon established a campaign that promised to clean up Angola and improve working conditions.

Despite some reforms, violence remained a persistent issue at Angola. In the 1970s, an average of 12 prisoners were stabbed to death each year, with racial tensions often fuelling the attacks. Sexual slavery also became prevalent during this time, with prisoners favoured by the wardens being given guns to patrol as guards.

In 1992, the prison recorded 1,346 assaults, including both inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff attacks. However, the rate of violence has decreased significantly in recent years due to the efforts of warden Burl Cain, who served from 1995 to 2016. Cain is credited with improving conditions and reducing violence by bringing religious programmes into the prison and initiating an ordination program.

While the prison has become less violent, controversies continue to arise. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, prisoners alleged that deliberately low testing rates masked an epidemic within the prison. They also claimed that they were denied proper medical care, with some prisoners being left to recover in their bunks. These allegations highlight that while Angola Prison has a history of violence, the issues of abuse and neglect persist, albeit in different forms.

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