Exploring Angola Prison: Tour Duration And Insights

The Angola Museum at the Louisiana State Penitentiary offers self-guided tours. The museum is located just outside the prison's front gate and is open from 8 am to 4:30 pm on weekdays, except for holidays. Visitors are advised to allow one hour for the self-guided tour. The museum chronicles the history and progress of corrections and justice in Louisiana and features exhibits on the prison's horse-drawn hearse, electric chair, and botched escape attempts. The museum also includes a detailed history of executions and prison uprisings and a visit to the Red Hat unit, a dreary unit built for incorrigible prisoners.

The Angola Museum is open every weekday from 8 am to 4:30 pm

The museum is housed in a former bank building and admission is $5 per adult and $3 per adult for groups of 10 or more. Visitors are expected to adhere to a dress code and a strict set of rules during their visit to ensure the safety of guests, employees, and offenders. The museum is handicapped accessible.

The Angola Museum chronicles the history and progress of corrections and justice in Louisiana. It includes a detailed history of executions, prison uprisings, and displays of medieval weapons made by modern prisoners. One of the museum's most infamous artifacts is "Gruesome Gertie," the official Louisiana state electric chair.

The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola, is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. It is named after the country of Angola, from which many enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana. The prison is located on the Angola Plantation, a former slave plantation.

The prison offers tours for visitors, which include a visit to the death row facility and the "`Red Hat` unit, a dreary unit built for "incorrigible" prisoners. The Angola Rodeo is another popular attraction, held every April and October, where thousands of visitors enter the prison complex.

The museum is located at the end of Tunica Trace (Highway 66)

The Angola Museum is located at 17544 Tunica Trace, Angola, Louisiana 70712, at the end of Tunica Trace (also known as Highway 66). The museum is adjacent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which was once known as "America's Bloodiest Prison". The Tunica Trace road is a single-lane, 20-mile-long, mostly empty road that wasn't paved until the 1980s. The museum is located outside the penitentiary's front gates, with free parking available in the main building's parking lot.

The museum is open every weekday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, excluding holidays. Self-guided tours of the main museum building are available during these hours, with one hour recommended for the tour. The museum is closed on weekends and all holidays observed by the State of Louisiana. However, it remains open during the Angola Prison Rodeo with extended hours.

The Angola Museum chronicles the history of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which was once a slave plantation. It covers the progress made within corrections and justice in Louisiana. The museum features exhibits on the prison's violent past, including weapons used and confiscated, the electric chair, and stories of escape attempts. It also showcases the reforms and rehabilitation efforts, with displays of prisoner art and modern-day training programs.

The museum is located within the campus of the old Tunica Elementary School, allowing for a larger and more interactive experience for visitors. It is handicapped accessible, with a dress code and other rules in place for the safety of guests, employees, and offenders.

The museum is adjacent to the largest maximum-security prison in the US

The Angola Museum is located just outside the front gates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is the largest maximum-security prison in the US. The penitentiary, also known as Angola, covers 26 square miles and houses over 6,000 inmates, all serving sentences of 50 years to life, or on death row.

The museum is open from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm on weekdays, excluding holidays. It is recommended that visitors allow one hour for a self-guided tour of the museum. The museum is located at the end of Tunica Trace (Highway 66) and visitors can park in the main building's parking lot.

The museum chronicles the history of the prison, which was once known as the bloodiest prison in America. Exhibits include the prison's horse-drawn hearse, medieval weapons made by prisoners, and the official state electric chair, "Gruesome Gertie", which was used to execute 87 men and women. The museum also features a display on the annual Angola Prison Rodeo, known as the "Wildest Show in the South", which is held every Sunday in October.

The Angola Museum provides a fascinating insight into the history of corrections and justice in Louisiana and is well worth a visit for those interested in the state's penal history.

Angola Prison is the largest maximum-security prison in the US

Angola Prison, officially known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. Located in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, the prison is situated between oxbow lakes on the east side of a bend in the Mississippi River and is flanked on three sides by water. 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 plantation was named after the country of Angola, from which many enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana.

Today, Angola Prison houses approximately 6,300 prisoners and has a staff of 1,800, including corrections officers, janitors, maintenance workers, and wardens. It is considered a multi-security institution, with 29% of its beds designated for maximum-security inmates. The prison offers various programs and facilities to promote rehabilitation, including educational programs, vocational training, and religious services. However, it has also been criticised for its conditions and history of violence.

The Louisiana Museum & Cultural Center, located adjacent to Angola Prison, offers self-guided tours that provide visitors with insight into the history and progress of corrections and justice in Louisiana. Visitors can expect to spend about an hour exploring the museum, which is open from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. The museum charges an admission fee of $5.00 per person, with discounted rates for groups of 10 or more.

Angola Prison has a long and complex history, dating back to the early 19th century. The land was purchased in the 1830s by Isaac Franklin, a planter and slave trader. After his death in 1846, his widow, Adelicia Cheatham, sold the land to Samuel Lawrence James, a former Confederate major. Under the convict lease system, Major James used convict labour to work the land, often subjecting them to harsh conditions and unregulated violence.

In 1901, the state began transferring prison facilities to Angola, and it officially became a state prison. Over the years, Angola Prison has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and reform efforts aimed at improving conditions and protecting inmates' rights. Today, it remains a prominent fixture in the US correctional system, known for its size and history.

Angola Prison Rodeo takes place every Sunday in October

The Angola Prison Rodeo, also known as the "Wildest Show in the South", takes place every Sunday in October. The rodeo is the longest-running prison rodeo in the United States, having first begun in 1965. The rodeo is held at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is located at the end of Highway 66, approximately 22 miles northwest of the town of St. Francisville, Louisiana.

The Angola Prison Rodeo is a joint endeavour between offenders, prison employees, and civilians who live in Angola's residential area. The rodeo serves as a behavioural incentive to reward offenders with good behaviour, allowing them to compete in various rodeo events, earn money, and sell inmate-made furniture, art, and jewelry. Inmate participation is entirely voluntary, and many offenders see the rodeo as a rare opportunity to feel a part of society outside of the prison gates and take pride in showcasing their talents.

The rodeo features traditional and unique events. Traditional events include bull riding, bronco riding, barrel racing, and steer wrestling. Unique events include Convict Poker, where four offenders play poker while seated at a table with a loose bull, and the last offender remaining wins. Another unique event is Prisoner Pinball, where offenders stand in randomly placed hula hoops and try to avoid a loose bull, with the last offender remaining in their hula hoop winning.

The grand finale of the rodeo is the Guts and Glory event, where a poker chip is fastened to the head of a large longhorn bull, and inmates try to snatch the chip to win a monetary prize. This event is considered the most infamous and dangerous part of the rodeo, with inmates risking injury to win cash prizes.

The Angola Prison Rodeo is produced by rodeo professionals and includes trained professional rodeo clowns to ensure the safety of the participants. Emergency vehicles and personnel are also on standby outside the arena. The rodeo raises funds for religious and educational programs for prisoners, such as Baptist seminary classes and funeral expenses.

Frequently asked questions