Twenty two miles northwest of the bucolic town of St. Francisville, Louisiana, at the base of the Tunica hills, lies 18,000 acres of fertile farmland surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River. Until around 1905 the land here was comprised of several plantations worked by slaves and the progeny of slaves who hailed from the southern African country of Angola .This place, sometimes referred to as “The Farm”, is home to more than 6000 male inmates, 85% of whom are serving life sentences for violent crimes. Ninety percent of these men will die here at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Prison. Since the turn of the century until 1995 when Burl Cain became warden at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary was known as the bloodiest prison in America. Warden Cain, during his 18 years at Angola, has turned the largest, most violent prison in America into the the gold standard of correctional institutions.
Every inmate at Angola is trained and has a full time job in fields such as welding, plumbing, farming, HVAC, vehicular mechanics, general maintenance and janitorial services. There is a closed circuit TV station and a radio station called Incarceration Station as well as an award winning newspaper, The Angolite. Besides vocational training, Warden Cain has also implemented various educational and recreational programs for the inmates.
Every Sunday in October the Louisiana State Penitentiary hosts The Angola Prison Rodeo. The rodeo arena seats more than 10,000 spectators including inmates who have earned the privilege as well as general public who come from all over the world to witness this unique event. Inmates can also earn the privilege to participate in rodeo events such as bull riding, bronco riding, rodeo poker, and the infamous “Guts and Glory” where inmates compete to grab a red wooden chip, worth hundreds of dollars, from the horns of an angry bucking bull. The waiting list to participate in the events is long but these men have nothing if not time. The payback is an opportunity to earn money and respect and to enjoy contact with outside society.
Inmates at Angola may also earn the privilege to enjoy past times such as woodworking, painting, leather working and sewing The crafts produced by the inmates throughout the year are sold on the fairgrounds of the prison. Inmates may barter and negotiate their own prices for the crafts they make and may keep 85% of the profits. Ten percent is paid in taxes and 5% of the profits goes to inmate welfare projects such as the prison hospice. Inmates use the money they make to buy hobby supplies or to send home to their families.
Inside a fenced area next to the cattle shoots was a young man no older than about 30 years who had already served 12 years of a triple life sentence for three counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He was waiting for the “Guts and Glory” event which he’d won on three previous occasions and he proudly displayed those trophies around his neck. I was curious to know what he used his prize money for and he told me he had used it to pay tuition to earn an online paralegal degree having already finished a degree in horticulture. I asked him what it felt like to tangle with an angry bull weighing more than a ton. He answered that it felt “nice, very nice, to earn respect for doing something good...something that didn’t hurt nobody”.
